Just ask Lance Tilton one thing about the Dave Matthews Cover Band:Where are you going?
January 23, 2003
It’s a pretty simple – and fairly well known – question to Dave-heads, and the answers run just as simple.
In their two years on the road, the band Tilton drums with has zigzagged across the southeast in much the same path as their namesakes, and the future throws them into uncharted Dave cover land such as Illinois and Colorado.
“We just play Dave for the fun of it,” says Tilton, who is getting a short break with his bandmates in their hometown of Atlanta before hitting the road this week with stops in the Midwest. “It’s a hobby, really.”
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In essence, they’re going where Dave has already been. And the fans continue to wait at each and every stop.
So, there’s the market for the Dave Matthews Cover Band, which will trek its way into the Copper Dragon at 10 p.m. Saturday to bring local Dave fans what they have been waiting for. From old standards such as “#41” and “Crash” to songs off this summer’s album “Busted Stuff,” this cover band promises to deliver all the songs the fans are expecting and a few jammed variations on the old Dave themes.
Although cover bands have been no stranger to Dave-heads in Carbondale, with groups such as Tripping Billies making the rounds, Tilton says DMCB gets as close to being the official cover band without actually getting the title. Selling DMB merchandise at their shows and giving so much in revenue toward Bama Works, a foundation established by DMB to accomplish various charity work, the cover band has made great strides toward becoming one of the most legitimate cover bands around.
But who are they? Getting together mostly as friends in college, Tilton was joined by four:Deniz Felder on saxophone, Dave Koon on lead vocals and guitar, Mike Finnie on bass and Jimmy Demartini on violin.
All in all, Tilton said the experience of following the tracks of one of modern music’s biggest acts is rewarding.
“This is a thing to help us meet more people, and we get to have fun,” says Tilton, who, at 21, is the band’s youngest member. Incidentally, DMB’s drummer, Carter Beauford, 45, is that band’s oldest member. “The solos are the place where you can put in your own voice. We always get to add our 2 cents.”
And Tilton, who now has seen DMB perform live more than 20 times, says the band enjoys playing together and surely will for some time to come. Although the old Dave tunes keep them going for now, Tilton projects that he and his band mates might move onto something even more adventurous in the future.
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For now, though, they enjoy traveling this road.
“It’s good music. It’s well thought-out by people who think about music more than image.”
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