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| The Long Black Veil | added on 9/7/2023 | In honor of the recent liberation of Long Black Veil during the tour closer concert at The Gorge, we created a new list in our "Song" series that highlights its version diversity throughout the years.
What began as a collaborative cover performed by Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, and a house band at a 1999 Johnny Cash Tribute turned into one of those recurring cover songs that the band has re-imagined in their own unique style and played in a staggering variety of formats.
It has been played Dave Solo, Dave and Tim, Dave and Friends, Dave and Roi, Dave and Emmylou, Full Band with original members, Full Band with Butch, Full Band with The Lovely Ladies, Full Band with Tim, Full Band with Jeff and Rashawn, Full Band with Buddy, and with a number of both instrumental and vocal guests such as Bela Fleck, Emmylou Harris, Warren Haynes, Carlos Malta, Steve Wilson, Mickey Raphael, and others.
With versions ranging in length from 3 and a half minutes to a whopping 12+ minutes, featuring extended outros containing both instrumental and vocal solos, slotted as Opener, Closer, Encore, and 2nd Encore, teased once, liberated twice, segued into 9 different songs, featured on 5 live releases including multiple broadcasts and televised programming, played everywhere from intimate studios to ballrooms to auditoriums to opera houses to festivals to amphitheaters to arenas, to stadiums, this song has immense version diversity for having been played barely over 100 times. |
| | Lenny Bruce Is Not Afraid | added on 7/21/2023 | One of DMB fans' most frequently-requested shows has been officially released just over 11 years after it took place: Live Trax 63: 7.6.12–7.7.12 - Alpine Valley Music Theatre - East Troy, WI is now available for purchase from DMB's web store. The title implies that it includes both shows in full; however, the release contains the full 7.7.12 concert and a disc of selections from the previous night, in similar fashion to Live Trax 31 (6.23.01), 33 (1.31.95), and 34 (6.24.99). While Live Trax 30 was named for the three partial shows it comprises (8.16, 8.17, and 8.18.93), these other Live Trax with filler discs had all been named after the full show only. The other two times a Live Trax release was named after multiple dates—Live Trax 6 and 9—both complete shows were released in the package. In return, this is the first time that a filler disc has taken a show past three discs and not been a pre-order bonus.
After Live Trax 8, 15, and 36, this is the fourth live release recorded at Alpine Valley, the most for any venue. Two other venues, The Gorge and Red Rocks, have had just as many or more full shows released, but their numbers are padded by box sets containing full multi-night runs from 2002 and 2005, respectively, and therefore have had only two distinct releases each.
The release of Live Trax 63 comes 245 days after the previous entry, from Blossom Music Center (6.25.10). While not formally explained, it’s clear that DMB didn’t want a Live Trax release interfering with the release of Walk Around the Moon in May. This ties for the second longest gap between releases, with Live Trax 45 (6.29.13) being released a few months after Come Tomorrow and after a period of uncertainty following Boyd Tinsley's departure from the band. Whether this leads to the first break in the usual four-Live-Trax-per-year cycle since 2011 – a year the band planned to take a break and only Live Trax 20 (8.19.93) was released – remains to be seen.
On May 19, 2010—two weeks before the 2010 Summer Tour kicked off—DMB announced in an email that after their upcoming 53-show summer tour and extending into the fall, the band would take 2011 off. After a finale in Charlottesville that had a "last show for a while" vibe to it, there were no DMB shows on the schedule for less than five months, when they announced the band would host a series of three-night festivals called the Caravan Tour in the summer of 2011.
After this “year off,” DMB hit the road in their traditional fashion in May 2012, kicking off the Summer Tour in Texas for the first time, starting a tradition that has carried forward to 2023 with few exceptions. It was somewhat of an album tour; however, all that fans knew at the start of the tour was that a new album was coming later in the year. Away From the World itself wasn’t announced until June 27 and not released until September 12, the last day of the tour. Sweet was the first song from the album to debut, having already been played by Dave solo the prior summer during the Caravan Tour; Dave debuted Mercy on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon before the tour; and DMB gifted the mailing list with a download of Gaucho a few hours before the tour kicked off in The Woodlands (this version is an early mix and is different from the studio version—perhaps this is Steve Lillywhite's mix he has referred to in podcasts?). Those three songs were the backbone of the early tour before live debuts of The Riff and If Only in June and Belly Belly Nice, Rooftop, and Snow Outside later in the summer (the remaining two songs from the album, Belly Full and Drunken Soldier, debuted the first show of the Fall Tour). While the 2012 Summer Tour hadn’t had any full show releases until now, the deluxe editions of Away From the World contained bonus live tracks from the first half of the tour.
Beyond the tour as a whole, this particular show itself also stands out. It has the highest average song rarity of the entire tour: the average song was played once every 4.026 shows on the tour, with six songs played fewer than five times on the tour. It begins with the first Little Thing opener played by DMB since 4.30.96 (also released as Live Trax 4), which segues directly into Funny the Way It Is with an extended intro (they opened two of the following three shows again with Little Thing, then haven’t played it full-band since). Guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan guests on Rhyme & Reason, The Dreaming Tree, and Thank You, all for the first time. Aided by five songs that reach or surpass the 13-minute mark, this show was the longest ever played at the time (now second to 7.25.15, another Alpine show), and it is one of only four shows ever that is known to contain over three hours of music. The band’s five longest shows all now have some sort of release (Live Trax 36, like this, contains a full show and a bonus disc of music from night 1).
The extra disc of material from night 1 contains nine additional songs, including Jordan on Proudest Monkey » Satellite, as well as fan favorites You Never Know, The Best of What’s Around, Pig, and Lie in Our Graves. Notably, the Best of What’s Around from this show was previously released on the bonus DVD from the Super Deluxe Edition of Away From the World.
Here is management’s official write-up:
On July 7th, 2012 Dave Matthews Band made their 25th appearance at Alpine Valley Music Theater. They came with songs from all possible eras of their career including music from the upcoming release, Away From the World. From the first notes of a partial Little Thing, to the explorations in Dreaming Tree with guest Stanley Jordan on guitar, to the extended funk of Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) the band brings it all out on the stage.
Included in this volume are selections from the first night of this highlight filled two night stand.
You can purchase it here. |
| | Nothing would ever be the same, not ever | added on 5/19/2023 | Introducing Our New Feature: "Lists"
We're thrilled to announce the launch of our newest feature, "Lists". This innovative module offers a fresh way to present unique content and statistics to our viewers.
Our website has always been highly structured, and we've been limited in our ability to share tables of random statistics. With "Lists," we can now create and update these tables on the fly, offering you a dynamic and flexible way to explore DMB-related data.
Why "Lists"?
The idea for "Lists" was born during the pandemic. We decided to complete the discography first, and then incorporate many of its elements into "Lists." This feature will be a regular addition to our site throughout the year, giving you a reason to visit even in the offseason.
What can you expect?
"Lists" will provide a variety of data, from general info grids for releases to "Timelines" that highlight a particular theme chronologically. You'll also find fun facts, updates on newly added shows, and much more.
Please note that while some data will be static, other data will be updated live or at the end of the tour. We'll display the last updated dates where applicable.
Your input matters
We're excited about the potential of "Lists," but we also know that we can't do this alone. We need your ideas! We're eager to hear what you'd like us to research and publish.
Coming Soon
In the coming weeks, we'll be adding new features to "Lists," including column sorting and new categories.
Get Started
Ready to dive in? Head to the new "Lists" tab above and check out our launch Lists. We hope you'll love exploring "Lists" as much as we do! |
| | It's been seven hours and thirteen days since you took your love away | added on 9/21/2022 | Almanac rarity
One of the most important characteristics the Almanac attempts to maintain is objectivity. Something that comes up often in discussion about Dave Matthews Band is ranking things: which songs are best, which shows are best, which tours are best, etc. Clearly, the concept of "best" is an inherently subjective one, but are there any objective ways of ranking tours? From an "on-paper" perspective, there are two variables that tend to come up when people discuss which tours are better than others: song selection and setlist variation. Quality of song selection is obviously not possible to quantify objectively, but it does seem possible to do so with setlist variation. A common observation about the band's setlist variation is that they don't vary their setlists as much as they used to. Is that true? Let's see if we can find out.
Different Songs Played
The easiest way to rank tours against one another is to look at how many different songs were played over the course of each.
Here are the rankings (with total different songs played in parentheses):
1 Summer/Fall 2021 (120)
2 Summer 2015 (116)
3 Summer 2022 (111)
4 Summer 2013 (110)
5 Summer 2014 (107)
6 Summer 2012 (99)
T-7 Summer 2018 (97)
T-7 Summer 2019 (97)
8 Summer 2010 (96)
10 Summer 2016 (88)
T-11 Summer 2008 (78)
T-11 International Summer 2009 (78)
T-13 Summer 2006 (72)
T-13 International Fall 2015 (72)
15 Summer 2007 (71)
16 Summer 2003 (68)
T-17 Spring/Summer 2001 (61)
T-17 Summer 2005 (61)
18 Spring 2002 (57)
T-20 Summer 2000 (56)
T-20 Summer 2002 (56)
T-20 Summer 2004 (56)
T-23 Fall 1998 (50)
T-23 Summer 1999 (50)
25 Summer 1998 (44)
26 Fall 1996 (42)
27 Summer 1995 (41)
28 Spring 1998 (39)
29 Fall 1994 (37)
T-30 Spring 1994 (34)
T-30 Winter 1995 (34)
T-30 Spring 1995 (34)
33 Summer 1997 (33)
34 Winter 1994 (31)
There are some problems with this way of comparing tours, namely that the band's song catalog has grown greatly in the 31 years they have been playing together, so it is not really fair to compare a 1994 tour to a 2015 tour. Another problem is that the band often plays some songs only one or two times on a tour but plays others far more often; this means that a higher number of songs does not necessarily indicate greater setlist variety.
Percentage of Catalog Played
To overcome the size-of-catalog problem, let's rank the tours by the percentage of the then-current catalog that was played on the tour. Here we are excluding defunct songs once their evolved versions debuted, and we're also excluding covers and segues.
Here are the same tours ranked by total percentage of catalog played (with total played/catalog size and percentage in parentheses):
1 Fall 1994 (34/40; 85.0%)
2 Summer 1995 (37/45; 82.2%)
3 Spring 1994 (30/37; 81.1%)
4 Winter 1995 (32/40; 80.0%)
5 Fall 1996 (38/50; 76.0%)
6 Winter 1994 (28/37; 75.7%)
7 Spring 1995 (32/43; 74.4%)
8 Fall 1998 (43/60; 71.7%)
9 Summer 2003 (61/86; 70.9%)
10 Summer 2000 (47/68; 69.1%)
11 Summer 1999 (43/63; 68.3%)
12 Summer 2013 (102/151; 67.5%)
13 Spring/Summer 2001 (54/81; 66.7%)
14 Summer 1998 (38/59; 64.4%)
15 Summer 2010 (88/138; 63.8%)
16 Summer 2015 (97/155; 62.6%)
17 Summer 2014 (94/151; 62.3%)
18 Summer 1997 (31/50; 62.0%)
19 Summer 2012 (91/150; 60.7%)
20 Summer 2006 (68/113; 60.2%)
21 Summer/Fall 2021 (101/170; 59.4%)
22 Summer 2002 (50/86; 58.1%)
T-23 Spring 2002 (48/85; 56.5%)
T-23 Summer 2004 (52/92; 56.5%)
25 Spring 1998 (33/59; 55.9%)
26 Summer 2018 (92/165; 55.8%)
27 Summer 2022 (94/171; 55.0%)
28 Summer 2008 (65/121; 53.7%)
29 Summer 2016 (83/159; 52.2%)
T-30 Summer 2007 (62/119; 52.1%)
T-30 Summer 2019 (86/165; 52.1%)
32 Summer 2005 (55/106; 51.9%)
33 International Summer 2009 (64/136; 47.1%)
34 International Fall 2015 (68/155; 43.9%)
Looking at the tours this way makes it slightly more apples-to-apples when comparing an early tour to a more recent one, but it still doesn't account for the band's tendency to play certain songs far more often than others, thus causing the number-of-songs-played figure to be a bit misleading. Furthermore, it creates a new problem: the band played about 85% of its catalog on the Fall 1994 tour, which required them to play 41 different songs; by comparison, they would have had to have played 145 different songs in 2021 in order to play the same percentage of their catalog. Finally, it's a bit subjective to determine which songs should count as being "in the catalog" at the time: do songs from Some Devil count, even if they've never been played at a DMB show? Does Captain count from 1996 onward, or only from 2000, 2001, or 2002? Which, if any, cover songs count? It's certainly a judgment call.
Average Rarity
Since adjusting for one skewed variable creates another skewed variable, and vice-versa, let's take a different approach. Our website assigns each show a rarity index number, which represents how often the average song in that show's setlist was played on the tour. For example, if a show has a 2.000 rarity, that means that the average song in that show's setlist was played once every two shows on that tour. Averaging all of the rarity index numbers for a given tour provides a rarity value for the entire tour.
Here's what the rankings look like this way (with average rarity in parentheses):
1 Summer 2022 (3.419)
2 Summer/Fall 2021 (3.399)
3 Summer 2013 (3.341)
4 Summer 2015 (3.198)
5 Summer 2012 (3.048)
6 Summer 2014 (2.978)
7 Summer 2019 (2.956)
8 Summer 2016 (2.783)
9 Summer 2018 (2.731)
10 Summer 2003 (2.665)
11 Summer 2010 (2.634)
12 Summer 2006 (2.581)
13 Summer 2008 (2.452)
14 International Fall 2015 (2.253)
15 Summer 2007 (2.234)
16 Summer 2002 (2.213)
17 Summer 2005 (2.204)
18 Summer 2000 (2.190)
19 Summer 1999 (2.147)
20 Spring 2002 (2.101)
21 International Summer 2009 (2.066)
22 Spring/Summer 2001 (2.047)
23 Summer 2004 (1.943)
24 Fall 1998 (1.805)
25 Spring 1994 (1.764)
26 Fall 1994 (1.759)
27 Winter 1995 (1.746)
28 Summer 1998 (1.657)
29 Spring 1995 (1.623)
30 Summer 1995 (1.540)
31 Winter 1994 (1.527)
32 Spring 1998 (1.476)
33 Fall 1996 (1.470)
34 Summer 1997 (1.321)
While the previous two ways of looking at this are flawed-yet-acceptable proxies for setlist variety, this method is a true measurement. The average song on the Summer 1997 tour was played once every 1.321 shows, while the average song on the Summer/Fall 2021 tour was played once every 3.399 shows.
Conclusion
So what's the takeaway here? Are the band's recent setlists as varied as they were in the early days? No, they are in fact much more varied! But these statistics aren't what truly matter for most people—what matters are the actual performance and quality of the songs themselves, and those are impossible to quantify. It's likely that people who complain about a lack of setlist variety are actually referring to their own subjective perspective on setlist quality.
Stray Observations
Please note that the data above feature only tours with 20 or more shows whose setlists are known. Short tours over- or under-inflate certain statistics, so we have chosen to ignore those tours. Additionally, some of the data above has been adjusted to account for unknown setlists.
We often see people misinterpreting our site's rarity index numbers and rankings as a quantitative assessment of how good a show was. Just because a show has the highest rarity index number for its tour does not necessarily mean it was the best show of the tour. That's for you to decide. It just means that the songs at that show weren't played as often as the songs at other shows.
The most recent major tour whose average rarity index value is less than 2 is Summer 2004 (1.943), when Crazy Easy, Hello Again, Joyride, and Sugar Will were all played at nearly every show. Summer 1997 has one of the lowest average rarity index values of all time (1.321), due mostly to nearly every encore being identical. Many people consider these two tours among the best the band has done, which is good evidence that rarity (and, by extension, variety) isn't everything.
The single rarest show of all time (again, from tours with 20+ known setlists) is 9.1.13, with a rarity index of 5.025. Remember, though, that a show's rarity index number is only good for comparing a show to others from the same tour. We made a big deal about the rarity index value for 9.8.02 back when that show became the rarest of all time; its score is a meager 3.825!
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| | Oh, dear Dad, can you see me now? | added on 11/12/2021 | This site has long had a way of seeing which shows and songs have been officially released via the little spinning CD icon; however, if you wanted to know what specific performances were included on a given compilation such as DMB Live 25, you were in for a scavenger hunt. While the DMB community has had several discography websites over the years, none of them have remained active, and we saw a great opportunity to adapt our established setlist format for releases' tracklists. We created the foundation for this discography several years ago, but it lay dormant until about a month ago. We are very excited that it is now live!
On the main discography page, releases are organized into various categories and are listed chronologically within each. When you click on a release, you will currently see the title, release date, tracklist, release notes, and cover art. The times listed on this page are track times, not song times, and when a single track contains multiple songs (indicated by the lack of a track number), we have split out the track time accordingly. If a release has any live performances, the performance date is listed in yellow in the Notes column, and if the song was played in the opener, closer, or encore slot, its track number will be highlighted in teal, blue, or red, just like on show pages. Clicking a song title will take you to that song's list of live releases, and clicking on a song's performance date will take you to that show's page.
We have also updated show pages to remove "selected for release on..." notes from individual songs. Instead, the spinning CD icon itself will continue to indicate that a specific performance has been officially released, and clicking on that icon will display the release's title, which you can click to go to the release's page.
The discography is very much still a work in progress, and we have several enhancements planned for the future. We will continue uploading cover art for releases, and we plan to have full liner notes available (i.e., not just the covers). Currently, there is only one entry per release, and when there are different versions of an album, we are including all of the tracks on this overall release view; however, we intend to integrate different release versions (e.g., vinyl, deluxe, European) in the future as well.
While we have included all of the band's major releases as well as many compilations that have featured their songs, we are certain that we do not have a 100% complete catalog. If you have anything in your collection that isn't currently on our site, or if you can help fill in some missing information about a release (e.g., track time, performance date), please send us as much information about it as possible using the Submit link at the top of the site. We have decided not to include the various "radio specials" that have been syndicated over the years as they are not truly "releases." Nearly everything else is fair game, though, so please let us know if we're missing anything! |
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