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Friends of the Band
by Cripsy Duck
4-2-00

(printed in C-VILLE Vol.12, No.15)

the next Dave Matthews - Afrikan Drum Festival

"In America, life is one long expectoration."
-Oscar Wilde
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Part of my motivation for pursuing this concert review post was the semi-altruistic urge to provide press for otherwise unheralded Charlottesville bands. As they say in the big leagues, if nobody's writing about you in your hometown, then why should anybody else care? (They really do say that, by the way.) So I sort of forced myself on the C-Ville Weekly, volunteering to crawl around town, sizing up local talent against my trusty "Duck-o-meter," and trying to be constructively deconstructive in a relatively non-disconcerting way, at which I often fail. Then again, I'm not really a critic; what I do is more like embellished critical concert reporting. A goofy way to get through a cup of coffee and a story about some bands. I don't expect you to take me seriously. After all, even real criticism is just perception and opinion, two very unreliable sources, and my brand of it is admittedly silly.

That said, there's alot of brilliant under-recognized music in this town, but we need to face facts: the answer to the annoying question of who's going to be the next Dave Matthews is NOBODY. Nobody in this town has the kind of instant cross-over superstar appeal (or battlestar management vehicle, for that matter) that the DMB had-- from the get-go. That doesn't mean that there isn't great music coming out of Charlottesville right now, or that much of it isn't worthy of popular respect-- it's just that I can't see anyone in town (or even in popular music, really) having anywhere near the kind of impact on young songwriters and guitarists that Mr. Matthews has had.

For the past several years, the music stores of North America have been abuzz with the staccato bars of "Satellite" or "What Would You Say" emmitting from the uneasy fingers of young guitarists. It's alot like the effect that Crosby, Stills and Nash, Bob Dylan or Neil Young had on previous generations of acoustic guitarists. But the true mark of impact is when your peers and ultimately, your elders, cop your style, and it's happening to Dave now. These days it seems like almost everybody's working the synchopated jump beat ala Carter Beauford, and now even the guys who built rock music, the Rolling Stones and Carlos Santana, call upon Dave Matthews to hipify their modern work. He's their idea of a modern rockstar with integrity and something original to say.

Can't say as I blame 'em. The first time I saw the guy, I knew. He was playing a solo set down in the basement of Sigma Nu fraternity-- back when that place was still known for its monster all-night band blow-outs. The DMB had just started doing their weekly gigs at Trax and the Floodzone. By the second tune he played, I was convinced of his potential. He just had it: a totally cool variation on friendly rockstar hip, with a catchy and unique voice and songwriting style. I thought: "See ya! Go to Hollywood. Get rich. Catch you on the flip flop." I figured that if he left on a bus right then, we'd probably see him on MTV in six to eight months. Tops.

That pretty much ended my affair with the majesty of Mr. Matthews. I can't say why, but shortly after my realization, I sort of spaced on the whole scene. It's like I've been at the eye of the storm or something: "Nope, no Dave here." I'd see him around on the streets every now and then ("Look... it's Famous Dave."), but I swear he's seen me play music more times than I have him. And the weird part is that I think his band's stuff is really some of the most important (and jammin') popular music of our epoch.

Dave never did run off to Hollywood. Instead he took his super hero band on the road full time-- the Grateful Dead maneuver-- building a massive touring industry around himself and some of Charlottesville's finest musicians. Which brings us to today's bonus question: how did little 'ol Charlottesville come up with such an influential rack of mind-numbing talent?

traditional drums and chums

The answer is: hell, I don't know. I've been stuck here a long time, and all I can say for certain is that Charlottesville's local community, and particularly its local black community, has produced some of the most impressive musicians I've ever heard. A bonus posse of 'em were at Miller's on the last night of March. The Afrikan Drum Festival, local traditional African drum troupe was there, devotedly laying down the deep backbeated tribal rhythms while lead djembefola (that's drum master to you) Darrel Rose played up dancers, taunting them to get down. Added to that was the bass and drumkit dynamic duo of Houston Ross and Johnny Gilmore, most recently of Tim Reynolds' project Puke Matrix, er... TR3, and the backbone and beating heart for several local acts including interplanetary funk mad scientists Plutonium and ambient future jazz visionary project Soko. Miller's was reduced to a wall of solid rhythm and a big freaky afrikan funk fusion hoedown ensued. This is the school of musicians that Famous Dave drew upon for his mighty band-- all of these guys are as "for real" as Charlottesville gets-- and sure enough, halfway through the gig, the influential Mr. Matthews showed up, Steve Lillywhite in tow, still drawn to the heavy C-Ville grooves.

-Cripsy Duck
cripsyduck@mindspring.com

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