Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: "Two Step"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Up late tonight. I just finished watching The Story of a Cheat, the wonderful, marvellous masterpiece -- and instantly one of my favourite films, such a joy to watch -- from 1936 by French director Sacha Guitry, barely known these days but nonetheless a major influence, featured in Criterion's Eclipse #22, a must for any serious cinephile.

Flipping through the channels, I caught a recent Simpsons episode, a surprisingly very good one from Season 21 (with a wonderful Cinema Paradiso-esque kissing montage that includes one of the greatest film couples in recent movie history, Wall-E and Eve), and then landed on a Dave Matthews concert on HDNet (with Tim Reynolds at Radio City Music Hall in '07), which is just wrapping up. I'm generally mixed on Matthews. I admire him a great deal, and yet, aside from a few songs here and there, I just can't get into him, or at least not nearly as much as his incredibly ardent and devoted fans. I have several songs on my iPod, mostly from Everyday, a fine album with his band, but he really is much more impressive live (or in concert on TV) than on his albums. Actually, this is quite amazing. I don't think I've been this engaged with, or impressed by, a concert on TV since Arcade Fire on Austin City Limits.

Anyway, here are Matthews and Reynolds doing "Two Step," the brilliant (and brilliantly performed) last song of the show, originally from the DMB album Crash.