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Hot Ticket: Dave Matthews, at home on the road

Dave Matthews, like so many performers, spends a lot of time on the tour bus.

By Associated Press and JOHN FLEMING
Published July 14, 2005

Besides the gear, the Dave Matthews Band members bring a caterer so they don't have to take a chance on strange cuisine. And their spouses and kids often tag along.

The Associated Press recently asked Matthews a few questions about life on the road:

I don't think we've got too many really unusual requests. I think there always has to be a little Scotch, a nice wine, and a couple cases of good beer.

Maybe I'll have a Scotch. Often my family is on the road, so now what I do is I get off stage and if my girls (3-year-old twins) are still awake, I get on the bus and read them a bedtime story. . . . That seems to be the thing that most quickly brings me down to earth.

I always like to have an atlas just so that I can find things out. It's always good to have an almanac. But then I also like to have a little fiction, and maybe a little bit of history, and some crappy magazines.

Probably most of the time I watch children's movies because my kids are on the bus, so it requires them. Other than that, I watch World Link TV most of the time. I like that channel. They have some great documentaries.

Strangely Brown is probably my favorite. I've got a good one right now, but I'm not gonna tell it to you.

The Dave Matthews Band performs at 7 p.m. today at the Ford Amphitheatre, Interstate 4 at U.S. 301 N, Tampa. $40-$57.50. (813) 740-2446.

Every two years, Daytona Beach becomes a summertime haven for the performing arts, with the London Symphony Orchestra in residence at the Florida International Festival. The 16-day festival begins this weekend with the Dave Brubeck Quartet as the headline attraction at Peabody Auditorium on Saturday night. The LSO, celebrating its 100th anniversary season, arrives next week, and its first two concerts will be conducted by Marin Alsop, pictured here. On July 22, Alsop will lead Verdi's overture to La Forza del Destino, Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, with soloist Sara Chang, and the Beethoven Fifth Symphony. July 23, her program is devoted to the theater music of Leonard Bernstein, including selections from West Side Story, Candide, On the Town, Wonderful Town and Trouble in Tahiti. The LSO has three more classical programs, all performed at Peabody. Emanuel Ax is the soloist in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, on an all-Brahms program that also includes the Fourth Symphony, conducted by Antonio Pappano, July 29. Single tickets to LSO concerts are $27-$67. 386 257-7790; www.fif-lso.org

- JOHN FLEMING, Times performing arts critic

[Last modified July 13, 2005, 09:52:02]