Carter Beauford chewed the same piece of gum for three hours Saturday night. He was chewing it when the Dave Matthews Band opened with Last Stop. He chewed it through Crash and Spaceman, he blew a bubble during the Bob Dylan cover All Along the Watchtower, and he kept on chewing as he threw his sticks into the crowd after Two Step.

Now, in their 19^th year of performing, the Dave Mathews Band members, including drummer Beauford, are the sort of seasoned pros who can manage to look nonchalant even as they bust out solo’s on their 34 piece drum set. Their performance ultimately lived up to what you would expect from one of rock’s best live acts.

There was one exception- the first hour. The first third of the show was low energy. It felt like they were only going through the motions of a performance. They were tired of. They hardly lived up to the grand blasts of flashing lights or swirling color behind them.

Earlier this year, the band announced it would be taking next year off from touring, and from the initial lackluster reaction from the crowd I thought I knew why. But I was wrong.

By the time they left the stage there was twenty minutes of solid cheering until the encore. What happened? The Dave Matthews Band rocked.

They pulled more than a comeback- they won over the audience in grand style. In true jam band fashion, each musician busted out solo after impressive solo, to make each song longer, but cooler by far. Matthews himself pumped up the energy, and he electrified the crowd every time he added his smooth voice to the mix.

The highlight for me came when the band brought out the horns section from the opener Raphael Saadiq. The two horns, the sax, and the slide trombone matched solos for at least ten minutes. It was a duel of skill between some of the world’s best musicians that could have been twice as long and kept the audience hooked.

Despite the lackluster start, the Dave Matthews band came back to rock the shoreline. Years of experience has honed their act.

Setlist

1. Last Stop

2. Seek Up

3. One Sweet World

4. Stay Or Leave

5. Crush

6. Seven

7. Pantala Naga Pampa

8. Rapunzel

9. Digging a Ditch

10. #41

11. Write A Song

12. Spaceman

13. Corn Bread

14. Jimi Thing

15. Shake Me Like a Monkey

16. You and Me

17. Time Bomb

18. All Along The Watchtower

Encore

Sister

Black Jack

Two Step