DAVE MATTHEWS RETURNS HOME

This Tuesday, hundreds of folks came down to Shallyman's Square to see their hometown hero, Dave Matthews, play a three hour acoustic solo set. As you all probably know, Matthews was born in this very town in the recently quarantined Duke Charles Brandon Memorial Anglican Hospital and Research Facility on January 9, 1967. He grew up in a lovely little house on the off-skirts of town (recently made an official historic landmark  by the Pinecrest Historic Preservation Committee) and went to school at the renowned Lou Gehrig Big Sluggers High School.

After enjoying this town's hospitality for 18 years, Matthews chose to pursue a career in music, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Dave Matthews has recorded 80 studio albums with The Dave Matthews Band as well as 600 live albums, all of which have all reached platinum level success and some of which have even gone on to win Grammy awards. He and his band have played in every continent, including a brief tour of scientific research facilities in Antarctica entitled the "No Ants Marching Tour", referencing, as Matthews has had to point out several times, the fact that ants are biologically able to survive in every continent but the cold and icy continent of Antarctica.  

Through the course of the three hour set, Matthews went through all of his hits, including "Crash Into Me", "Ants Marching", and "The Space Between". He closed out the set with a 30 minute rendition of "Two Step" that slowly evolved into a spacial, tribal jam that utilized complex polyrhythms and the savage screaming of the phrase "things we can not change".

David J. Matthews giving a rousing performance in
Shallyman's Square, center of his hometown of Pinecrest, Ohio

When the set finally came to a close, Matthews signed autographs for several hours and was almost arrested for attempting to sign a woman's one dollar bill, as that would be considered defacement of legal tender, a federal crime that results in 30 years of hard time. A stander by was luckily able to inform him of his wrongdoing and he thankfully did not follow through with the act. 

All in all, the performance successfully brought rock and roll back to Pinecrest and gave us all some good music to boogie to. I'd like to say on the behalf of Pinecrest and on behalf of The Pinecrest Gazette, we thank you for taking the time to visit your home town and pay respect to your roots, Mr. Matthews.