All Walks of Life

They come from everywhere, and now they've come here.

No fan base racks up the frequent flyer miles quite like Dave Matthews Band die-hards, a roving mass of true believers who've criss-crossed the country more than the dudes at Rand McNally.

When their favorite band hits the road, so do they, making airport terminals and highways and byways a second home, sometimes for weeks on end.

They never seem to tire of flocking to see Matthews and Co. live, and when the band hits Vegas for two gigs at the MGM Grand this weekend, they will have traveled from far and wide to be a part of it all.

We corresponded with a bevy of Matthews aficionados, all of whom are coming to town for the shows, and they're a diverse, dedicated lot who view themselves as one big freaky family.

"It's a very eclectic group," says Chip Cox from Upperco, Md., who has seen Matthews live 24 times. "You will see the drunk frat boys sporting their popped collars and only knowing one song, passed out next to the 55-year-old pot smoking grandmother."

"There are people from all walks of life that enjoy the community aspect of gathering for shows," adds Cody Jones, 25, from Seattle, who has seen the band 17 times. "I've never met so many people who can share in one group's music while being from so many different places."

But what makes Dave Matthews Band gigs such must-catch events to begin with?

Ask any fan, and they'll consistently point to the communal nature of the gigs.

"A lot of us travel together and plan all year for our 'family reunions,' '' says Jennie Stanavech, 33, from the Portland, Ore., area, who has seen Matthews more than 50 times. "Several of us have met our significant others or spouses at shows or through other Dave Matthews Band-related mediums."

Adds Breanne Kent, 24, from Marquette, Mich.: "It's amazing how the community all comes together to help each other out. If one person needs tickets, everyone is looking. If someone needs a place to crash, someone always has room in their hotel or at their camp site."

As for the shows themselves, they're loose, impulsive affairs where the crowd carries on like they're at a relative's wedding. In an age where many bands play the same tunes night in, night out, often to sync up with certain production cues, the Dave Matthews Band is largely defined by its unpredictability when the band hits the stage.

Like a gaggle of chatty toddlers, you seldom know what they're going to do or say from one minute to the next.

"Every Dave Matthews Band show is different," say Andrew Martinez, 39, from Mountain House, Calif. "You never know what songs will be played or what Dave will say to the crowd. Most acts play the same songs and say the same dialogue during each night of their tour."

And then there's the crowd-friendly nature of the band's concerts to begin with, such as the group's long-standing practice of letting audience members record their shows. This has created a massive catalog of legal bootlegs that has only fueled fan fervor and spawned vast networks of tape traders, further bonding concertgoers with one another.

"The Dave Matthews Band has allowed taping since the very beginning, and it's a huge part of what made them so successful," says Zach Davis-Price, 17, from Redwood City, Calif. "Even in their first few years of touring, they would get to a city they had never played before, and the crowd would already know all the words to their songs because friends would trade the tapes from different shows."

"Friends" being the operative word here. This is a tight scene, one that goes far beyond the music that initially brought them all together.

And that, perhaps, is the real reason behind the enduring drawing power of DMB shows, because the thousands who show up to every gig feel just as much a part of the proceedings as the man onstage at the center of it all.

"At any given show, you can bet there is someone there alone who just made a few great friends, just for the night, or for the rest of their lives. The amount of caring, sharing and bonding that goes on in this community is very rare in everyday life," says Jen Jones, 28, from Oakland, Calif., who has seen Dave Matthews 80 times. "The Dave Matthews Band experience is like my church. It is something that I believe in."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.