I’m still sorta reeling from the news that LeRoi Moore passed away yesterday, which is odd considering I haven’t spent much time with the band in recent years. I think the nostalgia is coming back, though. I saw three great DMB shows in my day and LeRoi’s sax was always such a huge part of the band’s sound. Perhaps the memories that jump out most right now were the first times I heard “Grey Street” and “Sweet Up and Down” at Deer Creek during the 2000 shows. Both tunes had that signature horn-violin blast that really punctuated the band’s sounds of the time, and I feel like Moore was usually the unspoken driver of all of that.
Dave Matthews Band 06/23/2000 Deer Creek Sweet Up And Down [YouTube]
I watched the setlist on the DMB site last night and I wondered how much pain the band must have been in. TMZ.com has video up from the performance where Dave addressed the crowd and Hidden Track posted a few old mp3 of the sit-ins that Moore did with Phish. Spend some time reflecting on this today, folks.