Matthews (1993)

No New Directions

As Dave Matthews once put it, "This song is our anthem". It's perhaps one of the best known DMB songs and the all time most played set closer in history by a longshot. It incorporates every aspect of the band's personalities and bridges the DMB of old with the new. During its first years, Ants Marching was an instant favorite. It was usually preceeded by the 2001 Intro and was heavy on the keyboards. After Peter Greisar left the band, the intro evolved into a prelude build up similar to "Dueling Banjos". As the song progressed through 1993, it evolved its most recognizable feature: the Carter snare intro, which has sometimes lasted as long as a minute and a half. 1995 was the golden year of Ants. Not only was it the most played set closer, but it was also the most played song. It was during this time that Dave began letting the crowd sing "People in every direction". Further through the years, the song evolved slightly more to include a 1-2-3 round robin jam towards the end and has also featured guests on special occasions. According to calculations based on the number of times played and number of shows performed, any given show has about a 50% chance of containing Ants. On our site, snare intro in the notes denotes the Carter snare intro, direct intro denotes the quick the band intro.

Starting in 2007, Rashawn began interpolating The Jacksons' "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" after the second chorus in nearly every version of the song.