Dave Matthews Teams With Black Eyed Peas, Robert Randolph at Outside Lands

Posted on Aug 30th 2009 7:28AM by Benjy Eisen
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A boisterous and chatty Dave Matthews took to his Saturday night headlining set at San Francisco's Outside Lands with his band, augmented by long-time compatriot Tim Reynolds on guitar and newest member Jeff Coffin (previously of Bela Fleck's Flecktones) on sax. He came armed with his arsenal of hits along with new artillery such as 'Why I Am' and 'Shake Me Like a Monkey.'

Matthews seemed to be in a jolly mood as he tore through crowd-pleasers like 'Ants Marching' and 'Two Step.' But one of the most notable moments of the night came during 'Jimi Thing' when Will.I.Am and Fergie stormed the stage at the end of a rousing jam to add an MC element to Matthews' roots rock. Matthews actually alluded to the sit-in a month ago when he told Spinner, during a press conference for the festival, that he "might" try to corral such a collaboration.

Fun as that may have been, the true highlight of the set came during the encore when Matthews pointed out a new special guest by saying, "That's Robert Randolph right there." And true to form, the sacred steel guitarist brought the heat for a double encore of covers 'All Along the Watchtower' and 'Thank You (Falletinme by Mice Elf Agin),' the latter of which included multiple-peaks in the style of 'Freebird,' eliciting a rousing response from the packed crowd.

After that, Outside Lands went dark for the night but will rev up again Sunday, including an early afternoon set on the main stage by Robert Randolph.