10 Reasons to love: Dave Matthews, Bartender

If you can’t think of 10, you don’t really love it.

• The rather eerie guitar slide intro, which resembles whale song at times.
• The vocal ins and outs of the song. Dave’s vocal cries at the start and finish at times sound like cries of pain or grunts of frustration. At 3:00 he hits a note that goes right through me & makes my soul shudder.
• The Venue. I mean WOW! Radio City Music Hall looks as classy as an opera house, but feels close and cosy at the same time.
• Dave looking around in a slightly awestruck way at the crowd.
• “Bended knees” (Do I need to explain this further?!)
• There are elements of blasting the note and softening the note, the light and shade of storytelling.
• The religious connotations of the song. Dave seems to confess his fear for his own mortality to the father (God-like) figure of the Bartender. The wine the bartender serves could be a method of salvation or the path to betrayal – he refers to both Jesus and Judas.
• Nodding dog head movements.
• The chemistry between Dave and Tim – they just seem to sense what each other is doing, with occasional glances and mid song chat. “This is my very very good friend, my dear friend Tim Reynolds.” Awww.
• I love a man who drinks from a tankard.