Dave Matthews Band Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
48 free Dave Matthews Band trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 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 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Dave Matthews Band formed in 1991 in which city?
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia, is where Matthews assembled the band in 1991; the city's club scene hosted its early weekly shows before the major-label deal.
Q 02What was Dave Matthews doing for a living in 1990 when a lawyer friend persuaded him to record a demo?
Bartending at Miller's
Bartending at Miller's, a bar with live jazz near the university, put Matthews beside the players he served whiskey to; his friend Ross Hoffman, a lawyer, pressed him to record his own songs.
Q 03Which drummer, then playing on a BET jazz show, was the first musician Matthews approached?
Carter Beauford
Carter Beauford, a local jazz drummer then in the house band of a BET jazz show, was the first player Matthews recruited, before the saxophonist and the rest of the line-up.
Q 04Which instrument did founding member LeRoi Moore play?
Saxophone
Saxophone was LeRoi Moore's instrument; a local jazz player with the John D'earth Quintet, he was the second founding recruit, after the drummer, and arranged many of the band's early horn parts.
Q 05Boyd 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 06The band's first keyboardist, who left in March 1993, was a waiter at Miller's named what?
Peter Griesar
Peter Griesar, a Miller's co-worker of Matthews, played keyboards and harmonica in the early line-up and quit in March 1993, leaving the group a five-piece for its first records.
Q 07The band considered calling itself 'Dumwelah', a Tswana word meaning what?
Hello
'Hello' is the meaning of the Tswana greeting behind 'Dumwelah'; nobody liked it, and the group became Dave Matthews Band when someone wrote 'band' after Matthews's name on a booking.
Q 08Which Charlottesville club hosted the band's regular Tuesday-night shows, widely traded on tape?
Trax
Trax, a club near the university, gave the band a standing Tuesday-night slot in its first years; fans' tapes of those shows spread its name along the East Coast.
Q 09The band's long-time manager, Coran Capshaw, first knew them as owner of which Richmond venue?
The Flood Zone
The Flood Zone, Capshaw's club in Richmond, gave the band a weekly slot in its first years; Capshaw became its manager and later founded Red Light Management.
Q 10The band's first official release, Remember Two Things (1993), came out on which of their own labels?
Bama Rags
Bama Rags Records, the label the band created for its own releases, issued Remember Two Things in late 1993, a mix of live and studio tracks; RCA reissued it after the band signed with the major.
Q 11The 1994 major-label debut Under the Table and Dreaming was dedicated to whom?
Matthews's sister Anne
Matthews's sister Anne, his older sibling, was killed by her husband in a murder-suicide in January 1994, eight months before the album's release that September.
Q 12Which Blues Traveler frontman plays harmonica on 'What Would You Say'?
John Popper
John Popper, Blues Traveler's singer and harmonica player, plays the harmonica solo on 'What Would You Say', the 1994 lead single from Under the Table and Dreaming and the band's first radio hit.
Q 13Which song won the band's 1997 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group?
So Much to Say
Q 21The Busted Stuff single 'Where Are You Going' was used in which 2002 Adam Sandler film?
Mr. Deeds
The album was produced by Stephen Harris, Lillywhite's former engineer.
Q 22In August 2004, a band's 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.
Q 23Which actress and long-time fan appears in the video for 'Dreamgirl' from Stand Up?
Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts, a fan who had seen the band many times, stars in the 'Dreamgirl' video; Stand Up, the 2005 album the song came from, debuted at No. 1.
'So Much to Say', from the 1996 album Crash, took Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 39th Grammy Awards in February 1997, the band's first Grammy.
Q 14The band's first full-length live album, released in 1997, was recorded at which venue?
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, carved into the rock outside Denver, hosted the 15 August 1995 concert issued in October 1997 as Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95, the band's first full-length live album.
Q 15Which singer guests on Before These Crowded Streets alongside Béla Fleck and the Kronos Quartet?
Alanis Morissette
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 16What was the lead single from Before These Crowded Streets?
Don't Drink the Water
'Don't Drink the Water', released in March 1998 ahead of the album, was its lead single; 'Stay (Wasting Time)' and 'Crush' followed it to radio later that year.
Q 17The 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 18Everyday (2001) was written and produced with which collaborator known for Jagged Little Pill?
Glen Ballard
Glen Ballard co-wrote all of Everyday with Matthews in a few weeks in Los Angeles and produced it; its short pop-rock songs and electric guitar split the fan base.
Q 19Which guitar legend guested on the Everyday sessions in Los Angeles?
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana plays guitar on 'Mother Father', a track from Everyday cut in Los Angeles in late 2000; the album came out in February 2001.
Q 20The 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 24The 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 25Which guests featured at the band's September 2007 free concert for Virginia Tech?
John Mayer, Phil Vassar and Nas
John Mayer, Phil Vassar and Nas joined the band at Lane Stadium on 6 September 2007 for the free Concert for Virginia Tech, five months after the campus shooting; Nas's booking drew protests.
Q 26The 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 27In the title of the 2009 album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, who is said to be 'the King'?
The band's late saxophonist
The band's late saxophonist, whose nickname was GrooGrux, is the King of the title; the 2009 album, cut partly in New Orleans, was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys.
Q 28Which 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 29Which 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 30Why did the band not tour in 2011?
It was a planned year off for their 20th anniversary
It was a planned year off for their 20th anniversary: the band skipped a full tour for the first time but staged four multi-day Caravan festivals, the Atlantic City one issued as Live in Atlantic City.