DARIEN - Aided by the day off obviously awaiting many in attendance on Independence Eve, Darien Lake Performing Arts Center packed a sold-out crowd of 21,800 revelers Tuesday night to once again welcome back one of America's foremost party bands in the Dave Matthews Band.
While Darien Lake has been a regular tour stop for DMB since their initial ascension to large-scale venues in the mid-'90s, Tuesday's boisterous crowd represented their first sellout of the 21,800-seat amphitheater since 2005, having visited four times between. Of course, most of them missed opening act Brandi Carlile in lieu of living it up in the parking lot, but even Carlile admitted during her outstanding 40-minute set, "I never used to show up to see the opening act until I became one."
What they missed is one of the most dynamic and simply stunning voices they will ever hear. Flanked by longtime pillars with pitch-perfect harmony in twin brothers Tim (guitar) and Phil (bass) Hanseroth along with cellist Josh Neumann and a fiddler and drummer, Seattle's Carlile curates a refined, melodramatic sound to serve her pensive songs and ability to sing low or high, hushed or screaming, forceful or vulnerable, all the while bending and cracking with Wallenda-ful balance.
Her greatest hit to date, "The Story," reveals the above in full, and was performed after opening songs "Dreams" and "What Can I Say" sat on the sad side, as did "Raise Hell" with Biblical proportions before "Keep Your Heart Young" offered uplifting inspiration.
Close to closing, she moved from guitar to piano and asked, "What would be the most ridiculous thing I could do right now?"
The answer, obviously, was cover Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in full, with a few twists in the arrangement and an appropriate solo finale of the Willie Nelson-penned, Patsy Cline-popularized "Crazy." No small feat for sure, and Carlile was completely capable.
Matthews and his six sidemen took the stage with bassist Stefan Lessard offering a slow and soft "Star Spangled Banner" before bouncing out the ominous rhythm of "Don't Drink the Water," the roused crowd singing along in full, including the recorded version of Matthews' scatted coda as he improvised along.
Longtime staple "Lie in Our Graves" was easily an early highlight, displaying the band's seminal sound - as Matthews muted guitar strings in a strum that sounds more like picking, he offered lighthearted existential musings over drummer Carter Beauford's soft snare, Beauford eventually trading barbs and incomparable fills as showstopping fiddler Boyd Tinsley took over, working the stage in an extended jam that included at least a half-dozen audience ovations.
But what followed is what has ailed the band at times during their 20-year tenure, as these many crescendos were followed by the slowest of fade-outs, as if the band made a deal with the venue to turn boring for a few minutes to allow security to more easily clear the aisles of dancers.
Their more aggressive recent material followed, as "Seven" was served in funky time signatures befitting its name and Matthews went falsetto, while "You Might Die Trying" only magnified the magic in Tinsley's bow as solos from bandmates Tim Reynolds (guitar), Rashawn Ross (trumpet) and Jeff Coffin (saxophones) were technically great, but failed to muster anywhere near the same crowd response.
The following pairing of "Sweet" (with Matthews on ukulele) and "Stay or Leave" softly set up the harder "When the World Ends" and "Why I Am," the latter's explosive chorus complete with a nod to the late saxophonist Leroi Moore drawing the biggest crowd response since Tinsley's heroics.
Perhaps aided by their loss, today's Dave Matthews Band is more electric, dark, and driving, but for the most part, it's still the big jams that make the crowd howl.
