The Dave Matthews Band, by nature, does a big show. But for the seventh show of its North American summer tour, Mother Nature added even more drama to the mix.
With flashes of lightning that rivaled the DMB's own opulent light show -- spurring spontaneous fan reactions that had nothing to do with the group's onstage performance -- and plenty of thunder and rain, the weather added a bit more spectacle to the proceedings. But that didn't dampen the spirits of the Daveheads, among the most stalwart fans in all of rock, and Matthews and company responded in kind, with a two-hour and 45-minute evening of long jams and sing-along favorites that made good on his following's fervor.
At this point in its career, 14 years since its debut album, the DMB is iconic enough that out-of-the-blue surprises are few and far between. Like most of the band's turnouts, the near-sellout Detroit crowd knew all the words (even to songs that haven't been released) and had an instinctive feel for the group's improvisational dynamics. Much like its forebears in the Grateful Dead's Deadhead corps, they enjoyed playing “What's the next song?" guessing games. Though usually wrong, they still wound up singing along, even if they professed to be disappointed by the choice.
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