Dave Matthews Band
Live in New York City
(RCA)

Live in New York City, the latest live two-disc release from the Dave Matthews Band is a stellar testament to why this band continues to have one of the highest grossing tours as well as a successful longevity known and admired for extraordinary rhythmic jams that pull from the allure of blues, jazz and rock, by a group of musicians, who are geniuses in each of their own ways.

Live in New York City contains crowd favorites, such as “Satellite,” “Two Step,” and “Crash Into Me,” as well as the eight-minute “All Along the Watchtower” cover, which begins with fiery guitar riffs and rumbling drums. As the song slowly crescendos, with peaks of instrumentation, Dave Matthews begins the most classic of classic lyrics while the crowd is audibly simmering in the background. Shortly thereafter the crowd, band and Dave’s vocals begin to erupt into a blazing remake of this Bob Dylan gem. “Squirm,” from the Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King album, as well as “Funny the Way It Is,” which begins with a jovial guitar riff and an almost afrobeat infused lift. The sweetness of trumpet and saxophone is a nice opposition to the good-versus-bad ideology of the song on how life can be both sweet and bitter.

The Dave Matthews Band thrives on such a rarity of astonishing musicianship that delivers the sweetest of layered harmony, the most sensual of rhythmic soul, and the uproarious nature of boisterous rock-enchanting songs written with the best intentions and reflections on the things that captivate us all– love, loss and everything intriguingly in between.