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The Dave Matthews band is a band of gypsies if there ever was one. With a following that is quite gypsy-like, caravaning around from city to city to follow what they hail as the greatest band ever, fans eat, sleep and breathe Dave Matthews band. Since its beginnings as an astounding live act, the Dave Matthews Band has released four live albums, the latest of which, "Live in Chicago," was recorded in December of 1998 at the last stop of Matthews' tour of the States. The recording pre-dates "Listener Supported," the band's previous live release, which was recorded during September of 1999.

So the main question we're left with when digesting a fourth Dave Matthew's Band related live release is the inevitable: why? And the answer to this is simple: it's what the fans want. Since its incarnation, the band has encouraged fans to bring recorders to bootleg their concerts. The tradition continues today, as Dave Matthews Band bootlegs are some of the most heavily traded on the internet, and not without good reason. The band's set list always varies from night to night, and they often weave songs together, add in extended jams and instrumental solos, have guest musicians, and rock out as every good band should but few actually do. The band turns songs like the relatively short "Jimi Thing" into all day affairs.

On "Live in Chicago," guest musician Tim Reynolds, who recorded with Matthews previously on "Live at Luther College" and who often performs live with the band, adds his electric guitar flare to the richly textured, melody-heavy music that the band creates so well. It sometimes sounds as if Reynolds took a few lessons at the Randy Rhodes school of guitar, with his lightning-fast licks that are, for the most part, anything but folksy or jazzy. All of the band members are paramount musicians, and take every chance they get to extend their virtuosity to their legions of drooling fans. Victor Wooten, one of the albums guest musicians, executes some of the album's most amazing playing, with his unparalleled bass solo on "#41" blowing all notions of the bass guitar as strictly a rhythm instrument completely out of the water.

Matthews voice at the beginning of the album is gravelly and harsh, sounding light years from the radio friendly and unmistakable voice with which audiences are familiar. The set list draws heavily from "Before These Crowded Streets," but when Matthews ventures back into familiar territory with old favorites like "Too Much" and "Crash Into Me," that coffee rich voice normalizes to what we're used to.

Everything that fans love in the Dave Matthews Band is here. From the jazz drumming to the saxophone solos to the cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" to finish out this amazing set, Matthews does not disappoint. While it might be better for first time listeners to pick up one of Matthews' studio albums to join the fray, "Live in Chicago" shows the band in its natural habitat, the stage, a place it they rule with comfort, ease, and undeniable style.