Matthews Band’s Formula for Success: Keep Jamming

The ‘90s rock world is a Darwinian jungle where today’s toasted hitmaker usually becomes tomorrow’s toast. But the Dave Matthews Band--which headlined Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Wednesday--has a proven theory to sustain its hopes: survival of the jammingest.

As the Grateful Dead, Santana and Neil Young have shown, there is a correlation between the ability to extend a song with instrumental flights and the ability to extend a career. People love a band that can play, and the prospects get even better if those jams take off from hooky, hummable tunes.

Not much on looks, image, theatrics or outrageousness, the Matthews Band, from Charlottesville, Va., has risen mainly on its ability to please by playing.

For the second time in less than a year, singer-guitarist Matthews and his four bandmates packed the 15,400-capacity Irvine Meadows. A new album, “Before These Crowded Streets,” debuted recently at No. 1 and shows signs of keeping pace with the multimillion sales of two previous studio releases.

Anyone watching Matthews closely during his 2 1/2-hour set might conclude that, like some hardy animal species, he and his band are thriving, thanks to an instinct for camouflage. Matthews himself was literally colorless in black pants and gray top; he was an ordinary-seeming guy who limited his showmanship to a few outbursts of bandylegged dancing while furiously strumming his guitar.

Nor is the Matthews Band stocked with distinctive soloists, the usual engine of jam-band fame. Boyd Tinsley’s violin and Leroi Moore’s saxophones riffed or dabbed on tonal shading and Matthews was a rhythmic team player, not a prototypal guitar hero. But the Matthews Band displayed a knack for cohesive undulation that was almost wave-like.

The most distinctive instrument in this jam band was its singer’s voice. Matthews played it like a horn, tossing out conversationally playful, ironic, husky-voiced lines that suddenly leaped to falsetto punctuation points. Several long songs remained eventful, thanks to repeated returns to airy, hook-filled vocal choruses.