The Musical Box

dave matthews band. from left: leroi moore, carter beauford, boyd tinsley, stefan lessard, dave matthews

Initially, this looked to be an arduous summer for the Dave Matthews Band. In late June, a mere month into a tour that was plotted to extend into October, saxophonist LeRoi Moore was seriously injured in an ATV accident. That brought Jeff Coffin on board as a fill-in. But last night at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Coffin was absent, as well. Turns out, this was one of two dates he was previously committed to playing with his regular band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

So what the Cincinnati audience got was something of a first – a completely sax free DMB show. But if you think the music suffered as a result, then you have underestimated the band’s core resources. When the two-and-a-half hour performance commenced with Don’t Drink the Water, Matthews and company summoned a thick, sweaty groove that turned dark with a mighty vocal wail, a hardened rhythmic drive and a video backdrop of stampeding natives that looked like something out of Apocalypto.

Of course, when the show’s theme actually turned apocalyptic on the following One Sweet World, the musical mood brightened with feisty riffs and broad grins exchanged between Matthews and drummer Carter Beauford.

While Matthews is a Riverbend regular, he hasn’t played Lexington in nearly a decade. So watching the DMB’s slightly rewired roster click into gear was anything but another seasonal rock show. The ensemble shifted deftly from the torrential grind of Halloween (after the majority of the Riverbend pavilion chanted its title, almost in protest) to the lighter pop celebration of Everyday to the anthemic country-funk of Tripping Billies (which finally let loose violinist Boyd Tinsley, the band’s ace-in-the-hole instrumentalist).

Of course, Matthews had some help. Longtime pal and frequent touring partner Tim Reynolds, who also opened the performance, sat in for the entire concert on electric guitar. The breezy bit of psychedelic blues that fueled his solo during Crush was a performance highlight. Trumpet and flugelhorn ace Reshawn Ross, a DMB touring accomplice since 2005, also helped color in the contours vacated by Moore and Coffin. But Ross took full advantage of his allotted time in the spotlight by sharing lead vocals with Matthews on a highly faithful funk cover of the Talking Heads staple Burning Down the House.

This was the moment when all the darkness and tension in Matthews’ music briefly subsided. In its place was a joyous, textured groove that kept the audience on its feet as it, pardon the pun, brought the house down.