Matthews pleads for sanity. “My head won’t leave my head alone, and I don’t believe it
will, until I am six feet under ground.” This chorus part basically is him complaining about
the confusion and terror going on inside his head. “Needle to my vain, needle to my vain,
take this needle from my vain my friend.” He is now pleading for someone to take the
drugs away. By taking the “needle from his vain”, it will silence his head and make him
better. This song deals negatively with effects and negative feelings about drugs.
To switch up the pace once again, a happier tune follows. This is the thirty-sixth song
that they wrote, called #36. It starts with a long drum solo by Beauford, which greatly
shows of his percussion skills. After more than two minutes of Beauford’s solo, the rest of
the band joins in. It is a light, mellow song with a floating melody. This song is changed
every time it is performed, so it is mostly improvisational. Much of Matthews’ singing is
mumbled and incomprehensible. That takes away from the predictability of the song.
Having been born in South America, Matthews had always keep close ties with the
nation. This song’s lyrics are originally inspired by the assassination of Chris Hani, an
Anti-Apartheid leader. The band got together the afternoon after his death and came up
with this jam. As mentioned before, the lyrics change every time. “Hani, Hani” has
changed to “Honey, Honey”, as featured on Live at Red Rocks. This song is to celebrate
the life of Chris Hani.
Ants Marching is always a crowd favorite. As one of their hits, most fans know and
sing to this song. On this night, it is featured as the set closer. It provides a lot of energy
that gets the crowd going. It starts with the familiar pounding on the snare drum,
followed by bits and pieces from all the band members. Moore and Tinsley provide a
musical accompany to Beauford’s beat, and Matthews, Lessard and Reynolds fill in the
rest. This is a great example of how the band works together so nicely.
This song basically compares humans to ants. Many people get themselves into a
routine, and never break it. Humans resemble ants in the ways we work and go about
doing things in life. It starts off giving examples of a man, dealing with his wife and
mother. With his wife, they sit and look at each other, never saying a thing. This happens
on a regular basis. With his mother, he always goes there. She feeds him and he forgets
about his problems. This is a good example about how humans deal with life.
Ants Marching finished the set of songs. This is followed by a short break, in which
Matthews returns alone to play a song. Typical Situation is usually a mostly acoustic
song. In this case, it is all acoustic.
Matthews starts to play the initial part, which slowly builds up into a strong chorus.
This pattern continues throughout the song. Typical Situation is a great display of
Matthews’ skill. He can provide the sound of twenty, with just him and his guitar. This
song is a perfect example of that.
Typical Situations displays freedom. It strongly backs the ideas of freedom.
Everybody’s happy, everybody’s free
We’ll keep the big door open,
And everyone will come around.
With freedom, everyone is happy and free. By keeping our minds and arms open, we can
make a big difference. By seeing this, hopefully others will change their policy to
accommodate these ideas of freedom. This song has ties in with Matthews South
American background.
As Matthews finishes up his solo song, the rest of the band joins. Matthews begins to
strum single notes, to form the song, All Along the Watchtower. This song was originally
written by Bob Dylan, and has been covered by great musicians such as Jimmy Hendrix,
The Grateful Dead, Pat McGee and many others. This is a very exciting, powerful song
that is the perfect closer. It starts off quiet, with only Matthews playing. The band joins
and they play the remainder, significantly louder. Towards the end, they do quiet down
long enough to allow Moore and Reynolds an opportunity to show their skill one last
time. The song ends with an abrupt stop. This is a truly exciting ending to the show.
3e7
Dave Matthews Band. Live at Red Rocks. Bama Rags/RCA, 1997.
Delancey, Morgen. Step into the Light. Ontario: ECW Press, 1998.
Technical Information. Red Rocks Online. 2 Sept 2000