So on some level, by leaning into this as you get older, you’re reverting to type.
Yes, definitely. But I was this into Dave in high school: My sophomore year, every day, I would walk to school listening to Crash. Every single morning. I was passionate about him then, and it was cooler for me then, because he was new and everybody else was into him. And then I stayed and everyone else started listening to other shit.
When did you first hear Dave’s music, and, if these were separate experiences, when did you become a fan? Was it instantaneous?
I remember this so clearly that it feels like a lie. I went to high school in Evanston, Illinois. Evanston Township High School. The summer before my freshman year, I was in the marching band, and the week before school started we had to be at school learning how to march and do formations and all that shit. So we were taking a break from that. And this girl Adrian had Under the Table and Dreaming, and she was like, Hey Sam, have you ever listened to this? And I was like, I don’t even know who that is. And she’s like, Okay, I’m going to dub it for you and then you can listen to it. So she did that, and I wasn’t, like, bowled over, but I was like, Okay. This is nice.
Everyone loves “Satellite,” right? I’m like, This is good. And then “Crash” came out and I was like, Okay, this is even better. I’m into this. It’s gentle, but also upbeat. But I don’t think I knew how much I was into him until later. This is an old story, but I was living in a rooming house with a bunch of fucking degenerates. And some crackhead broke into my room and was stealing my shit. My CDs. And I fought him for the Dave one! I wrestled a hospital-thin basehead over a Dave Matthews CD! Because it, like, felt essential to me. And maybe that’s when I knew, like, This is my guy.
That’s when you became a fan for life.
I haven’t bled for Tori Amos. I would, but, y’know…
It hasn’t come up.
No.
One thing I find interesting about the origin story of the band is that Dave was sort of a local celebrity in Charlottesville even before people heard him sing and play, because Charlottesville is a small town and a small music scene and he was a bartender at one of the big local venues. It seems like a lot of the early excitement around the band was people being like, You know the hot bartender from Miller’s downtown who plays every open mic? He has a band!
I’ve never been a boots-on-the-ground, from-the-first-day fan of any group that became anything, so I’m extremely jealous of the people who got to see him in those days. He was already a thing by the time I encountered him. I don’t get to be a hipster about him, because other people knew him already. My one regret.
Alex Pappademas
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