Remembering That Time The Roots Joined Dave Matthews Band at Alpine Valley 2007

September 22, 2017

This weekend, Dave Matthews Band will end their hiatus for a special show in their hometown of Charlottesville at the Concert for Unity. The day-long event will include fellow heavyweights like Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake, The Roots, Cage the Elephant, Brittany Howard and others performing short sets throughout the afternoon at Scott Stadium, just blocks away from the horrific protests that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer. 

The show, which will be broadcast live, includes a number of unique collaborative possibilities for DMB, the night’s headliner. While previously unexplored avenues exist–like Brittany Howard taking lead on something like “All Along the Watchtower” or Chris Stapleton (or Timberlake) duetting with Matthews on one of his more folk-driven offerings–the band has played with The Roots on a number of occasions with the last proper collab taking place a decade ago at Alpine Valley. 

With The Roots in tow during the band’s 2007 summer run, DMB rolled into Alpine Valley and delivered two nights full of sit-ins (Questlove sits in on a landmark version of “Warehouse” the previous night, if you can find it anywhere on the internet) including the below version of then-new song “Eh Hee” with Black Thought, Captain Kirk (who has played separately with DMB multiple times) and a full horn section. 

Revisit that performance below.