Leroi Moore

It looked like your typical Friday night at Fenway Park. Lansdowne was clogged with people in Sox attire, throwing back Sam Adams wherever they served them. Scalpers wanted to know who needed tickets, and the usual chants of "Let's go Red Sox!" rippled outside the ballpark. Inside Fenway, though, the merch tables peddled jerseys with names other than Pedroia and Wakefield. They read "DMB" and "MOORE 41," proud salutes to Dave Matthews Band, the night's entertainment, and LeRoi Moore, the band's saxophonist who died in August.

It looked like your typical Friday night at Fenway Park. Lansdowne was clogged with people in Sox attire, throwing back Sam Adams wherever they served them. Scalpers wanted to know who needed tickets, and the usual chants of "Let's go Red Sox!" rippled outside the ballpark. Inside Fenway, though, the merch tables peddled jerseys with names other than Pedroia and Wakefield. They read "DMB" and "MOORE 41," proud salutes to Dave Matthews Band, the night's entertainment, and LeRoi Moore, the band's saxophonist who died in August.

MANSFIELD -- Finally, perfect weather for a show at the Tweeter -- and a perfect host in Dave Matthews. He drew a sold-out crowd of nearly 20,000 fans, but what made the event shine was a continued sense of musical discovery. The Dave Matthews Band gets away with perhaps the widest variety of music on the summer shed circuit -- from mountain hoedowns to African dance-pop, pretty love ballads, and mellifluous bebop. Call it part Woodstock, part Tanglewood Jazz Festival, with a bit of Telluride thrown in for good measure.

The stage, rather than the studio, is where the Dave Matthews Band has always shone brightest. In fact, much like the grandaddy of jam bands, the Grateful Dead (or DMB's improvisation-minded contemporaries Phish), the veteran outfit's expansive live approach tends to outdo its more conventionally structured, middle-of-the-road recorded efforts. The same can be said for "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King," the group's sixth studio album, out Tuesday and named in honor of late Dave Matthews Band cofounder and saxophonist LeRoi Moore ("GrooGrux" refers to him, apparently)

Prior to the string of hits that began with 1994's "Under the Table and Dreaming," the Dave Matthews Band built up its fan base with jam-band strategies, such as the open trading of bootleg tapes of live performances. The group faced that facet of its personality head-on at the Comcast Center Tuesday (the first of a sold-out, two-night stand), favoring expansive groove-mongering over pop economy. Woe to the casual fan who came to hear the songs recognizable from the radio. With few exceptions, in fact, most of Matthews's songs clocked in at 10 minutes or more.

The stage, rather than the studio, is where the Dave Matthews Band has always shone brightest. In fact, much like the grandaddy of jam bands, the Grateful Dead (or DMB's improvisation-minded contemporaries Phish), the veteran outfit's expansive live approach tends to outdo its more conventionally structured, middle-of-the-road recorded efforts. The same can be said for "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King," the group's sixth studio album, out Tuesday and named in honor of late Dave Matthews Band cofounder and saxophonist LeRoi Moore ("GrooGrux" refers to him, apparently)

MANSFIELD -- Being branded a jam band implies performing a show stuffed with pointless are-we-there-yet noodling, and sound-alike songs that would have been better served by a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure than yet another 25-minute bass solo. Since their 1994 breakthrough, "Under the Table and Dreaming," the rabidly popular Dave Matthews Band has been considered a jam band in the tradition of the Grateful Dead and Phish, and while that speaks to this quintet's adventurous musicality, it also misses the point.

LOS ANGELES - Saxophonist LeRoi Moore, one of the founding members of the Dave Matthews Band and a key part of its eclectic jazz-infused sound, died yesterday from sudden complications stemming from injuries he sustained in an all-terrain vehicle accident in June. He was 46. Mr. Moore died at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, the band said on its website. The statement did not specify what led to his death. Mr. Moore was hospitalized on June 30 after the accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Va. He was later discharged and had...

LOS ANGELES - Saxophonist LeRoi Moore, one of the founding members of the Dave Matthews Band and a key part of its eclectic jazz-infused sound, died yesterday from sudden complications stemming from injuries he sustained in an all-terrain vehicle accident in June. He was 46. Mr. Moore died at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, the band said on its website. The statement did not specify what led to his death. Mr. Moore was hospitalized on June 30 after the accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Va. He was later discharged and had recently...

Prior to the string of hits that began with 1994's "Under the Table and Dreaming," the Dave Matthews Band built up its fan base with jam-band strategies, such as the open trading of bootleg tapes of live performances. The group faced that facet of its personality head-on at the Comcast Center Tuesday (the first of a sold-out, two-night stand), favoring expansive groove-mongering over pop economy. Woe to the casual fan who came to hear the songs recognizable from the radio. With few exceptions, in fact, most of Matthews's songs clocked in at 10 minutes...

MANSFIELD -- Finally, perfect weather for a show at the Tweeter -- and a perfect host in Dave Matthews. He drew a sold-out crowd of nearly 20,000 fans, but what made the event shine was a continued sense of musical discovery. The Dave Matthews Band gets away with perhaps the widest variety of music on the summer shed circuit -- from mountain hoedowns to African dance-pop, pretty love ballads, and mellifluous bebop. Call it part Woodstock, part Tanglewood Jazz Festival, with a bit of Telluride thrown in for good measure.

MANSFIELD -- Being branded a jam band implies performing a show stuffed with pointless are-we-there-yet noodling, and sound-alike songs that would have been better served by a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure than yet another 25-minute bass solo. Since their 1994 breakthrough, "Under the Table and Dreaming," the rabidly popular Dave Matthews Band has been considered a jam band in the tradition of the Grateful Dead and Phish, and while that speaks to this quintet's adventurous musicality, it also misses the point.