Dave Matthews Band performing at the Gorge (Photo by Joe Quercia)

Dave Matthews Band happens to be the most influential band for me. They are not particularly well known outside North America, so the first time I heard about them was when I was traveling in the state of Virginia, where they are from. They sounded pretty strange to me at first, and it took some time before I came to like them. It wasn’t until I talked to some fans online and saw the Gorge DVD that I got more into the band.

Also the US music scene started becoming much more familiar to me through Dave Matthews Band, other fans recommending artists they like and so on. Dave’s percussive style on guitar also inspired me to pick up the instrument. It has been such a great hobby and gotten me much more into music. Life could have gone down a much different path had I not just picked their album Everyday one winter day at a record store many years ago.

Dave looking like he's just about to do his dance thing (Photo by Paul Parker)

European DMB fans have only gotten live releases after spring 2007, when first Dave toured Europe with Tim Reynolds and then with the band for some shows. This year is looking good as well, first their new album is released on June 2, then the band is heading back across the pond at the end of the month! The first show is going to be opening for Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park in London on June 28, then four days later at Rock Werchter festival in Belgium. After that there’s over a week until the next announced date at Optimus Alive festival in Portugal that they’ll be headlining on July 11.

Two days before that, they’ll most likely play at Bilbao BBK Live festival in Spain, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet. Hopefully more dates are still coming, there’s some space in between. The band is renowned for playing a big summer tour in the States every year, those dates were just announced yesterday. So far all the Europe dates have been festivals. It’s easy to understand that they want to play festivals in Europe to promote their new record, since they are not mainstream here.

They’re also playing a spring tour in the States. The original release date for the new album was the first day of the tour, but it was postponed to June. It is interesting to see how many new songs they will play on the spring tour. Their last three albums haven’t been received too well by much of the fanbase. About this one Dave has said on Twitter: ‘Listen and listen before you judge. I love it.’ So they are probably trying out some new things. Sounds promising to me.

None of the songs on the album have been leaked to public yet, so nobody knows what to expect. There might be some of their numerous unreleased live songs, or maybe it’s just all brand new. This is one of those live songs that I really like, it’s called Good Good Time. They played it many times during summer 2004, as can be found on DMB Almanac – a great site that lists all the songs and shows the band has played and gives you the setlists.

Update: Three non-festival shows announced for Europe, read more about them here. I’m excited! Seems like the time to see this incredible band is now or never, with the new record coming out and all.