Photo: Marc Millman

Last night, Dave Matthews Band brought their Summer Tour to the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford, N.H., for the first of two nights on the outdoor amphitheater stage. The group’s arrival surfaced hours after news broke that heavy metal purveyor Ozzy Osbourne had passed away at age 76. In acknowledgement of the massive loss, the bandleader used the start of the night encore to cover Black Sabbath’s 1972 released ballad, “Changes,” for the first time. During the band’s return for the concert’s final number, Stefan Lessard applied teases of Sabbath songs, “Crazy Train” and “Iron Man,” before settling into Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” 

Before arriving at the ode to the Prince of Darkness, the concert unfolds as a relatively standard presentation from the high-energy ensemble, who made their entrance on “Lie in Our Graves,” with no reprise, before turning to “So Right” and “Crash Into Me.” The ensemble provided treatments of “You Might Die Trying,” “The Ocean and the Butterfly,” “Bartender,” “Grace is Gone,” “Granny,” and  “Rooftop,” before bringing out a guest. Spark Puppy trumpeter, Mike Maher, lent his skills on “Jimi Thing” and “The Dreaming Tree” before leaving his hosts to swing through a final batch of mainframe-positioned originals. 

Before parting the night and administering the final songs, which surfaced as encores, DMB gave their audience a rousing take on the lively and extemporized “Shake Me Like a Monkey.” Next, Matthews took the stage alone, offering thanks to the concert’s guest and addressing the audience: “When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was listen to records. That’s all I did–draw pictures and listen to records. And mam would say, ‘You gotta do your homework.’ I would say ‘OK,’ and just listen to records… and draw pictures.”

He continued his monologue, telling the crowd: “Then you kind of fall in love with music. As time passes, we always end up losing some of our heroes. I’m going to do my best on this one.” A solo Matthews performed a stripped-down and acoustic rendition of Black Sabbath’s “Changes,” which emerged as a tribute to its co-writer, the late Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away hours earlier. The band returned to assist on the final number, which started with aforementioned Sabbath teases from Lessard, which folded into Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” parsed with a partial “Stairway to Heaven.” Jimmy Page’s original offered a rare glimpse into the classic memorial tune, which was last tossed around during a Matthew and company-associated appearance in 2016. 

Watch a fan-shot video of last night’s encore below.

Dave Matthews Band 

Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion 

Set: Lie in Our Graves, So Right, Crash Into Me, You Might Die Trying, The Ocean and the Butterfly, Bartender, Grace Is Gone, Granny, Rooftop, Jimi Thing, The Dreaming Tree, Too Much, Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin), One Sweet World, Peace on Earth, Dancing Nancies, Shake Me Like a Monkey

Enc.: Changes, All Along the Watchtower

Setlist via dmbalmanac.com.