Dave Matthews Band Opens 2026 Tour With a Handful of Rarities

Dave Matthews Band opened their 2026 US tour Friday night at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, Texas with a 20-song set that leaned heavily on the corners of their catalog. Rather than stacking the familiar singles, the first show of the run pulled out songs that haven’t surfaced in years.

Early on, the band moved from “So Right” into “Warehouse” and stretched the intro of “American Baby.” But the real signals came mid-set. They played “Only Takes a Moment,” an unreleased track sometimes called “Cha Cha,” for the first time since 2023. That one still exists mostly in live form, no studio version attached.

Deeper still was “Broken Things.” The song got a couple dozen airings between 2012 and 2013 before disappearing almost completely. Two shows in 2021 brought it back briefly, then nothing. Choosing it here, in the middle portion of the night, read as a small declaration.

Dave Matthews closed the encore alone with an acoustic “Take All Day” before the full band returned for the final stretch. There was no attempt to make any of this feel like a grand statement. It was just the setlist of a band treating its first night like a room full of people who’ve been paying attention for a long time.