Dave Matthews Band brings out Sierra Ferrell at Mystic Lake
BY JAVIER SERNA; IMAGES BY BRANDON LENZMEIER
Dave Matthews Band did its best to make up for their June rainout at the newly minted Mystic Lake Amphitheater outside of Minneapolis in Shakopee, Minn., Monday, Aug. 31.
Instead of heavy rains, everyone was treated to a beautiful sunset, a setlist that went early and often into the band’s 90s material, a celebrated sit-in with singer Sierra Ferrell, and some tight jams and improvisation from the deeply talented brass in the band, as well as lead guitarist Tim Reynolds.
Matthews also used the occasion to thank Minneapolis for its resistance to the federal occupation of the state earlier this year.
But this was a sublime way to spend a late summer evening, especially for fans of the band’s early work.
Of the 23-song setlist, 10 songs were from the 90s.
The show started with their classic, multi-song segue that begins with 1996’s “So Much To Say,” into 2004’s “Anyone Seen The Bridge,” with the “Too Much” fakeout into 1994’s “Ants Marching.”
While the band has done that many times in their 35-year history, they don’t often start a show with it, according to setlist data at DMBAlmanac.com.
It fired up the new amphitheater, which was not quite at full capacity (19,000) but very well attended.
“Thank you,” Matthews said following the series of songs. “That was the beginning. …
I’m glad that even though we missed it the first time, y’all came back out.”
The band then went to the 2000s, with 2001’s “When The World Ends,” as the sunset quieted its orange hues into the darkening, dusk skies.
That was the first of four songs from the 2000s in a row, also including “Fool to Think,” “Grace is Gone” and “You Might Die Trying.”
Then it was three more songs from the 90s, with “Crash Into Me,” “Don’t Drink The Water,” and “What Would You Say.”
Between these songs, Matthews paused the show to thank Minnesota for standing up to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Operation Metro Surge, the massive influx of ICE officers that killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis early this year.
Matthews, a naturalized U.S. citizen, left South Africa in 1986 to avoid compulsory service under apartheid.
Matthews has frequently spoken out against President Trump’s ICE policy, and he touched on it again in Shakopee.
“From the outside watching this city that I already loved and watching this city and the way that y’all reacted to people attacking your neighbors and to the violence that was put on your streets and to the way you all reacted with such grace and such beauty and such peacefulness,” he said, “I swear it, you may not know it from here, but everywhere in the world people saw what you did and how you reacted.
“And you inspired everybody to stand up to things like that. And thanks so much for being such a great town, and such a welcoming town and for being such a good place for so many people. Thank you for coming out this evening.”
“If Only,” and “Sledgehammer,” came before the band played its first song from this decade, 2023’s “Walk Around The Moon.”
But they went right back to the 90s with “Lie In Our Graves,”
Then Matthews paused the show again to explain that he had managed to convince singer Sierra Ferrell to not leave town and instead make a guest appearance.
They first performed “Long Black Veil,” which was first recorded by Lefty Frizzell in 1959 but Matthews is said to cover it as a tribute to Johnny Cash, who also covered the song.
Then the band, along with Ferrell, performed The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” with Ferrell again leading with powerful vocals.
The song is a staple of Ferrell’s live performances, but DMB had never performed it before, according to DMBAlmanac, which also notes that bassist Stefan Lessard has performed the song once before at a 2010 private party with the supergroup Yukon Kornelius.
The set closed with another segue, this time “Pantala Naga Pampa” into “Rapunzel,” both songs from 1998.
The band brought Ferrell out again for the first of two encore songs, 2026’s “Paper Town,” which Matthews wrote for a friend’s documentary about an Appalachian paper mill in North Carolina that closed down in 2023 after a 123-year run.
The original recording does feature Ferrell, who is from West Virginia.
The show ended, a little past the two-hour mark, on 2002’s “Grey Street.”
