Nekkid, Clueless and Feelin' Good: March 16, 2001

Friday,
March 16, 2001

Tripping Billies

(Oh, God, it's another Dave Matthews Band entry.)

Yes it is, sweeties and darlings! Because it's Friday, the Weather Girl is off to Acapulco, Thunder is home building a bookcase or something equally domestic, and I'm sitting here listening to CRASH and chair-bopping to "Tripping Billies." How can you not adore a song with brightly sawing violin bursts, percussive guitar bursts, a dancing bass line and lyrics* like

We are all sitting
Legs crossed around a fire
My yellow flame she dances
Tequila drinking, oh
our minds will wander
To wondrous places

So why would you care
To get out of this place
You and me and all our friends
Such a happy human race
Eat drink and be merry
For tomorrow we die
Eat drink and be merry
For tomorrow we die
We're tripping Billies.

I love the way they'll sneak realistic, thoughtful lyrics in while your hindbrain is busy bopping to the beat. I love the way they'll trade off syncopated beats, shifting back and forth between solos and jams before lassoing it all together into a coherent whole. I love listening to the guys gassing with each other in the background during quiet bits -- it sounds like I'm listening in on a really great party. I fucking well adore the fact that they do so much charitable work through the Bama Works Foundation. I love the way Dave pounds on his guitar and Boyd weaves a coruscating harmony line around him. I love Stefan's bass lines, Carter's gorgeous stickwork, and I would kill or die to play like Leroi.

Oh, screw it -- I just love this band. They're fabulous in every way, and as they're considered to be the biggest, most successful act in rock music today, it gives me hope that the human race isn't a bunch of complete sheep-like Eminem-addicted losers, after all.

*copyright BMG Entertainment.

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