Various Artists: Live At Luther College : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Usually, Dave Matthews Band overdoses on ensemble improvisations, launched from songs that ponder the emotional and political states of the world. Occasionally, on tracks like "Crash Into Me," the band is whipped into shape by a producer like Steve Lillywhite and it applies its serious instrumental capabilities to studio arrangements of alluring melodic gravity. On this live set, which is more than two hours long, Matthews and guitarist Tim Reynolds, an old friend, do neither. Instead they offer acoustic versions of songs like "What Would You Say" and "Crash," as well as twenty-one stretched-out others. Matthews, who shuns clear enunciation, sings passionately from behind his front teeth. The fancy passages sure to thrill guitar students are plentiful; for fans, Live at Luther College may provide the right amount of variously high-octane and lullingly stripped-down Matthews moods. Non-fans may find it one of the more tedious records in recent memory.