Nikki Van Noy - So Much to Say: Dave Matthews Band—20 Years on the Road

Copyright 2011 by Nikki Van Noy

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First Touchstone trade paperback edition June 2011

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Designed by Ruth Lee-Mui

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Van Noy, Nikki.

So much to say : Dave Matthews Band : twenty years on the road / by Nikki Van Noy.

p. cm.

Includes discography.

1. Dave Matthews Band. 2. Rock groupsUnited States. 3. Rock music fans. I. Title.

II. Title: Dave Matthews Band.

ML421.D38V36 2011 781.660922dc22

[B]

2011000427

ISBN 978-1-4391-8273-4
ISBN 978-1-4391-8275-8 (ebook)

FOR MY LITTLE BROTHER AND FAVORITE MUSICIAN,
NICK,
WHO TAUGHT ME THAT TWO THINGS ARE ETERNAL:
LOVE AND MUSIC.

W hen you get old and grey and you think back on your better days, just imagine the good feeling of looking at your Dave Matthews Band T-shirt and just recollecting, reminiscing... going back in your mind to those fun days. When your children are freaking out on some mediocre musician whos popular for a short time on the radio, you can say, I remember when I was in college, before I became the president of IBM, I remember Boyd Tinsley right there at Zollmans Pavilion. And every time I look at that T-shirt I just remember when I was young and the world was beautiful.

LeRoi Moore

Zollmans Pavilion/

Lexington, Virginia,

May 31, 1993

F ifteen years ago, on October 2, 1996, I walked into Bostons Fleet Center, completely unaware that my life was about to change. To be honest, I wasnt all that thrilled to be there in the first place. I had a roommate in college who wouldnt stop talking about Dave Matthews Band (DMB) and their live show, which she swore was just the greatest, most fun thing ever. To say I was wary is an understatement: Id heard their handful of singles to date on the radio ceaselessly, not to mention consistently having their CDs inflicted on me in my friends cars throughout the course of my senior year of high school. I wasnt impressed. In fact, I found this Dave Matthews Band to be rather annoying. But I went to the show anyway, if for no other reason than for due diligence and to bring the monotonous hard sell of the band to an end once and for all.

Two minutes into the show and saxophonist LeRoi Moores horn work on the opening song, Seek Up, I was mesmerized. Never before had I seen anything like what this band was doing onstage. Dave Matthews was pouring his soul into the microphone, alternately expressing all of the anger, love, and humor I felt at that strange point in my life, which found me just on the cuspin limbo somewhere between teenagehood and adulthood. Boyd Tinsley was otherworldly, his braids flying all around as he did things with a violin that I didnt know were possible, all the while with the hugest grin on his face I had ever seen. Bassist Stefan Lessard epitomized cool, laid-back grooviness, and drummer Carter Beaufords arms whirled about in an inconceivable way.

Despite the fact that I was in a major metropolitan sports complex with 19,599 other people dancing, screaming, singing, and swaying alongside me, there was a bizarre intimacy to it all. I knew I had found something that was mine . Not only did I feel as though I was completely at home (a feeling I rarely felt in those days), but for the first time I found a conduit that seemingly miraculously expressed all of the varied emotions that felt completely unique to myself at that point in life. I wasnt alone after all.

So it went from there. For months I buried myself in DMB, getting all of their studio albums, collecting as many recorded shows as I could, and immersing myself in the lyrics and alternately crazy and beautiful sounds. It was a process of discovery, and every day I found something new. On some days, Drive In, Drive Out seemed to concisely but completely express everything I was feeling; on others, it was Cry Freedom, Warehouse, or Dancing Nancies. The whole process was a strange contrast of deeply personal and totally collective. Sometimes I would absorb the music on my headphones as I lost myself on the subway ride home or lying in bed listening to my stereo at night before going to sleep. At other times I shared the experience with my friends, who seemed to find the same solace, excitement, and hope in the music as I did. Together wed alternate between listening in collective silence as incense burned and a joint was passed and enthusiastically discuss riffs and chords, rewinding tapes over and over again to listen to a part that grabbed us.

I became a junkie when it came to seeing DMB live, using my bi-coastal roots to my best advantage. If DMB was anywhere near New England (where I lived at the time) or the New York tri-state area, I was there; and if they were playing in California, well, that seemed like a good time for a trip home to see the family. I became a master of what I liked to call multitasking.

As much as I fell in love with the band, I also fell in love with the crowd. It was the one place I could go that was completely contrary to everything I found in real life. Everyone was happy and excited and welcoming. It was impossible not to make new friends, even for someone who was shy like me. Witnessing the band feed off the crowd and the crowd feed off the band was nothing short of euphoricthere was an understanding there, and I truly felt like part of something, perhaps for the first time ever. I chose to be there as much as the atmosphere chose me. Though I sometimes didnt know where I belonged in other areas of my life, I knew for sure that I belonged here at the shows, mismatched as the crowd sometimes was.

And so DMB became inextricable from my life. Every summer they played, and every summer I was there. No matter how broke I was, I could always find creative ways to scrape up money for the shows and the traveling they entailed. Sometimes I went with huge groups that would pile out of a rented bus or van and storm into venue parking lots en masse; other times I would enjoy a quiet night out with a single companion; and sometimes I would go alone, every time making new friends as I wandered around. Through the course of all this I saw the worldplaces I might never otherwise have seen, and that got into my blood too. It was all a big adventure, whether it was in the middle of New York City, in the most desolate reaches of Washington State, or amid the ancient splendor of Italy.