Dave Matthews Band Trivia
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45 free Dave Matthews Band trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Dave Matthews trivia quiz covers the band from Miller's Bar in Charlottesville to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It asks about the founding five, the demo tape and the first shows at Trax, the name the band almost took, Remember Two Things and the Bama Rags label, and the run of RCA albums from Under the Table and Dreaming through Crash and Before These Crowded Streets. There are questions on the Grammy, the leaked Lillywhite Sessions and Busted Stuff, Everyday with Glen Ballard, Stand Up, and the loss of LeRoi Moore. It also covers the touring life that made the band: Red Rocks and the Gorge, the taping culture, the Chicago River bus incident, the Warehouse fan club, Boyd Tinsley's exit, and the record seven straight No. 1 debuts capped by Come Tomorrow. About a third are easy for anyone who has been to a summer show, a third are medium, and the rest are for people who know what 'Dumwelah' means. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and the interviews it cites, and each question carries the sentence that establishes it. If you think one is wrong, use the report button and we will look again.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Dave Matthews Band song plays twice in Greta Gerwig's 2017 film Lady Bird?
Crash into Me
Crash into Me soundtracks two scenes in Lady Bird; on prom night the heroine takes a stand for it when her date says he hates the song. Gerwig called it incredibly romantic.
Q 02What job did Dave Matthews hold at Miller's, the Charlottesville jazz club where he met his first bandmates?
Bartender
Bartender was Matthews's job at Miller's, where he poured drinks for the local jazz players he later asked to play on a demo of his songs.
Q 03Which Charlottesville jazz drummer did Dave Matthews recruit in 1991 to help turn his demo songs into a band?
Carter Beauford
Carter Beauford was a seasoned local jazz player; Matthews said he went to him not because he needed a drummer but because he was the best musician he had ever seen.
Q 04Boyd Tinsley was originally brought in just to add fiddle to which one song?
Tripping Billies
"Tripping Billies" was the one song Tinsley was asked to add fiddle to; the band had no plans for a violinist, but the fit was immediate and he became a full member, staying until 2018.
Q 05Which keyboardist left Dave Matthews Band in March 1993, months before its first album?
Peter Griesar
Peter Griesar played keyboards and harmonica from 1991 but left abruptly after a show in March 1993, so the band was a five-piece by the time it made its first records.
Q 06Dave Matthews joined the board of which benefit concert organization in 2001?
Farm Aid
Farm Aid was launched by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985 to keep family farmers on their land; Matthews joined its board of directors in 2001.
Q 07Which Charlottesville club hosted Dave Matthews Band's regular Tuesday-night shows in the early 1990s?
Trax
Trax became the band's Tuesday-night home after its early gigs at the Eastern Standard, a small restaurant; the weekly show ran until December 1993, when the band left to tour the country.
Q 08The band's first official release, Remember Two Things (1993), came out on which of their own labels?
Bama Rags
Bama Rags, the band's own imprint, issued Remember Two Things in November 1993; recorded mostly live in three clubs, the self-released album went on to be certified platinum.
Q 09The 1994 major-label debut Under the Table and Dreaming was dedicated to whom?
Matthews's sister Anne
Matthews's sister Anne was killed by her husband in early 1994, months before the album came out; it is dedicated to her memory.
Q 10Which guest plays the harmonica solo on Dave Matthews Band's 'What Would You Say'?
John Popper
John Popper of Blues Traveler blew the harmonica solo on 'What Would You Say'; heavy radio play for the single drew casual listeners to a band built on touring and pushed its major-label debut to multi-platinum sales.
Q 11Which song won the band's 1997 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group?
So Much to Say
'So Much to Say' won at the 1997 Grammys over Oasis's 'Wonderwall' and the Smashing Pumpkins' '1979', giving the band its first Grammy.
Q 12Dave Matthews Band's 1997 double live album captured an August 1995 concert at which venue?
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the open-air venue outside Denver, hosted the show; Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95 gave fans an official alternative to the bootleg tapes that had been the only way to hear a full concert.
Q 13Which singer guests on Before These Crowded Streets alongside Béla Fleck and the Kronos Quartet?
Alanis Morissette
Q 21Which actress and long-time fan appears in the video for 'Dreamgirl' from Stand Up?
Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts appears in the 2005 'Dreamgirl' video; nineteen years later the long-time fan gave the speech inducting the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Q 22The Gorge Amphitheatre, home of the band's Labor Day weekend runs, is in which US state?
Washington
Washington is home to the Gorge Amphitheatre, on the Columbia River at George; the band's Labor Day weekend stands there became a tradition, captured on the 2004 live set The Gorge.
Q 23In September 2007 Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer and Nas played a free concert for the students and staff of which university?
Virginia Tech
Alanis Morissette sings on two tracks of Before These Crowded Streets, including the closer 'Spoon'; the album, released in April 1998, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Q 14What was the lead single from Before These Crowded Streets?
Don't Drink the Water
'Don't Drink the Water' reached radio in spring 1998 ahead of the album; Béla Fleck plays banjo on the song, which is about the slaughter of Native Americans by European settlers.
Q 15The live album Listener Supported was recorded in September 1999 for a special on which broadcaster?
PBS
PBS aired the 11 September 1999 concert at East Rutherford, New Jersey as a pledge-drive special, hence the title Listener Supported; the album and a video of the show followed that November.
Q 16Which pop hitmaker co-wrote and produced Everyday (2001), giving Dave Matthews Band a slicker, electric sound?
Glen Ballard
Glen Ballard, producer of Jagged Little Pill, co-wrote every song on Everyday with Matthews after the band scrapped a darker set of recordings; some longtime fans were wary of its slicker, electric sound.
Q 17Which guitar legend guested on the Everyday sessions in Los Angeles?
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana plays electric guitar on the Everyday track 'Mother Father', two years after Matthews sang on 'Love of My Life' for Santana's album Supernatural.
Q 18The abandoned 2000 recordings that leaked online in March 2001 are known to fans as what?
The Lillywhite Sessions
The Lillywhite Sessions, recorded in Virginia in 2000 and shelved as too dark, spread through file-sharing after the March 2001 leak; the band re-recorded most of the songs for Busted Stuff in 2002.
Q 19The Busted Stuff single 'Where Are You Going' was used in which 2002 Adam Sandler film?
Mr. Deeds
Mr. Deeds, Adam Sandler's 2002 comedy, put 'Where Are You Going' on its soundtrack; it was one of only two songs on Busted Stuff not carried over from the band's abandoned 2000 recordings.
Q 20In August 2004, a Dave Matthews Band tour bus dumped waste off a bridge onto a tour boat in which city?
Chicago
Chicago's Kinzie Street Bridge was where the driver emptied the bus's septic tank onto an architecture tour boat on the Chicago River; the driver pleaded guilty and the band paid $200,000 to settle the state's lawsuit.
Virginia Tech hosted the show at Lane Stadium, five months after the shooting on its campus; every student, faculty and staff member was offered a free ticket.
Q 24Dave Matthews Band's saxophonist died in August 2008 from complications of what?
An ATV accident on his farm
An ATV accident on his farm in Virginia on 30 June 2008 left him with serious injuries; he died of complications on 19 August 2008, the night the band played the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Q 25The 'GrooGrux King' of Dave Matthews Band's 2009 album title is which member, who died during its making?
LeRoi Moore
LeRoi Moore, the band's saxophonist, shared the nickname GrooGrux with fellow players until it stuck to him, and he liked to announce 'My name is King', Matthews recalled.
Q 26Which saxophonist, from Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, took over after the founding sax player's death?
Jeff Coffin
Jeff Coffin, the saxophonist of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, stepped in for the summer 2008 tour and stayed on as a permanent member, sharing horn duties with trumpeter Rashawn Ross.
Q 27Which guitarist, a longtime collaborator, became a permanent member of the band in 2008?
Tim Reynolds
Tim Reynolds, who played on the band's studio albums from 1994 and toured with Matthews as an acoustic duo, became a full-time member in 2008 on electric guitar.
Q 28Why did Dave Matthews Band skip its usual summer tour in 2011, two decades after forming?
A planned year off
A planned year off, announced in 2010, broke a run of twenty straight touring years; the band still staged four multi-day Caravan festivals that summer.
Q 29Which song opens Dave Matthews Band's 1994 album Under the Table and Dreaming?
The Best of What's Around
'The Best of What's Around' opens the 1994 album, and its title outlived the record: in 2006 the band borrowed it for a two-disc hits collection, The Best of What's Around Vol. 1.
Q 30Dave Matthews was born in which country?
South Africa
South Africa is where Matthews was born, in Johannesburg in 1967; after high school he left for the United States rather than serve in the army of the apartheid state, which had sent him a conscription letter.