Dave Matthews Band - Bela Fleck and Tim Reynolds Duel

[oneswtwld]

Knickerbocker Arena

[donniedarkodevotte]

Wow. I feel REALLY stupid. I've never seen him before and always assumed that Bela Fleck was a black woman. HE is amazing!

[oneswtwld]

Was here with friends.... AMAZING SHIT!

[Ogiek]

HA! TIM PINKY'D HIM AT THE END!

[philberz]

I am a HUGE fan of DMB and Tim and I really respect Bela. That said, this is kind of stupid and Tim sounds like crap. Didn't they realize they playing in front of thousands of people?

[oneswtwld]

@philberz wow.... you get the new Justin Beiber too?

[oneswtwld]

@philberz wow.... you get the new Justin Beiber too? It is about musicianship, having fun and musicality

[emcee4CEE]

@philberz Can't you hear the crowd screaming afterwards? They realize they are playing in front of thousands of people, and those thousands all loved this! ;)

[beatthedrumson]

wat davematthewsband song is this???

[louthenej]

@beatthedrumson Read the description haha. Two Step

[KENVANMAN1]

That's some great stuff!!! Thanks for the post.

[UppinDisma]

Yo this is awesome, I don't get what anyone who doesn't like this is thinking. That was awesome.

[junt015]

tim got owned...he mustve been having a bad day

[wankatronic]

nah man, that's just Bela Fleck for you. he does shit on a banjo no one should be able to do.

[jamie69247]

@junt015

is that a joke, there 2 totally different sounding instruments, Tim owns ALLLLLL

[Seanyboy52692]

Nice footage

[dMbsndEvL9]

worst duel ive ever heard out of this band and its guests.

[davidcrandall99]

that guitar tone makes me wanna barf

[onehipdawg]

I usually really like Tim Reynolds, not impressed to much with this one...

Was glad NOT to see the rest of the band here though... so it was not all bad!

[marcuswoodruff]

get a grip.. that was freakin awesome.. love them both... seen them both live... and let me tell you, never dissapointed

[onehipdawg]

Far from "freakin awesome" on this occasion!!

Tim's tone is piss-poor here...

And as a banjo player I cannot say anything negative about Lord Bela!!

I have never seen Tim live, or DMB for that matter. Never wanted to parade the Frat-tastic masses....

[Stealth4Health]

@onehipdawg I like DMB, but I have to agree with you about this clip.

[juniormorrison69]

shot the bela down thats for sure

[blahman178]

they both are amazing. but tim's tone is horrible.

[kevinleverne]

Both are excellent although accomplishing all the things Bela has done on banjo is 10 times as difficult. Guitar players have books, cd's and of course other great players to copy and then build their own style apon. With banjo however, after bluegrass your on your own because nobody has done it to a high standard, except Bela. When I say high standard, I mean he has been nominated in more Grammy categorys than ANY other musician. No, he doesn't just alter guitar licks or copy other musicians.

[mistadobalina29]

practice

[tyler5044]

This is legendary.

[Scarr420]

I agree. I looked this up as a what if type of fantasy of 2 amazing musicians and it existed :O. I think alot of people miss the point when 2 legendary musicians "duel" the only winner is the people listening.

[tommygunn16rocky]

i wish tim woulda had an acoustic here then it would've been no contest

[Rjc0316]

haha bullllll tim is a beast but bela fleck is inarguably one of the top 5 banjo players in history

[HillbillyJ]

@Rjc0316 Its hard to imagine there was ever 4 more in the running, LOL.

[Malzarin]

@Rjc0316 I would say say Bela is the greatest recorded banjo player of all time without a doubt. No one has redefined what the instrument is capable of like him! Before modern recordings there is room to argue but nobody has stretched the instrument like Bela, IMHO. Here is where you destroy me with your responses!

[TIE53]

They don't go out of tune. They change keys. It's quite a common musical concept. Maybe you've heard of it...but clearly you haven't.

[ERoths711]

once again, the rest of the band does not change keys with them. That's why it does not sound right. I know what changing keys means, I play a lot of guitar.

[joesites]

aS A HUGE dmb FAN i AGREE WITH WHAT YOU SAY, ALTHOUGH THEY ALL PLAYED TOGETHER WELL BACK IN 97-00 THEY ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO HOW THEY CAN PLAY OFF EACHOTHER TODAY

[thehighlander9999]

i know this was 8 months ago but i had to comment. They are NOT playing diatonically on purpose...they are playing chromatically intentionally, it's actually dissonance and crazy-ness that they are after, not always what the listener is accostomed to but interesting and sometimes pretty damn cool non the less.

[BRANSCOMBEx]

this is mess, for both of them

[rongstmj]

agreed

[Chopthattomahawk]

wow

[rgray81]

You put Bela and Tim in the same room and you know you're in for something magical!

[ERoths711]

and I love the deliverance attempt. to attempt that famous banjo-guitar jam: 1:43

[ERoths711]

They go pretty out of tune towards the end, even a little in the beginning. Still pretty cool though. Both amazing musicians.

[ERoths711]

Scratch that. They go back in tune at the end. Towards the middle or beginning-middle they go pretty out of tune.

[iggysoccer20]

what are you talking about? They change keys, they don't go out of tune, its done on purpose.

[ERoths711]

yeah but I don't think the rest of the band changes keys

[iggysoccer20]

you are right they don't. It's just a function of the duel. One of them changes keys and the other shows his ability by recognizing what key was entered and following suit and possibly then making his own key change. BTW sorry if my comment seemed hostile it was intended to be anything of the sort.

[ERoths711]

that's fine. this other person seems a lot more hostile. I just noticed that it didn't sound right and was pretty sure that the band simply didn't catch on or didn't know what to do haha. I mean Dave is not at all the pure musician that Tim and Bela are, (though he is amazing at what he does and is a fantastic song writer), so he probably just continued on in the same key.

[Resatka]

if they had a duel today tim would rape hes prob 5 times better at guitar now

[davidgarrick]

I agree re Tim...he has grown so much (under DMB) IN MY OPINIONI like each of these in their own genra they each have excellent musicians I am greatful when Bella's BANJO'S volume was turned down..a solid picker but.. it always has seemed like its out of place...like a turd in a punch bowl

[tysticks]

theyre just havin fun, tradin off, havin a conversation. they both did very well.

[onehipdawg]

Bela killed it! No doubt. Even though he subjected himself to such a lame ass band ass Dave Matthews...

[jayhawk1234567890]

Carter Beauford won the duel hands down

[Volitanslion]

Bela has it HANDS DOWN! Tim has burn notes all over the place(1:53), they are both great musicians but Tim is just "tapping" nothing real hard about that, atleats Fleck is flatpicking...

[ERoths711]

Tim does not tap at all in this solo. Straight picking the whole way, very impressive. They both show impressive skills, but they both go out of tune in the middle. Maybe Tim started it and threw Bela off, but I honestly cannot say either won this duel.

[anthony1832]

havent even listened to it, and i want the mp3.

[jlin428]

holy shit tim is good

[dpayne1014]

no way, timmy tore that up, bela was on too though

[afrisbeetom]

hellyea!!!

[mikeylikesit182]

I vote bela, in tims defense, triplets are alot easier for a banjo player

[jmnikrick]

I agree completely. Belas licks are so clean, whereas Tim seems to force it, but that's more of a limitation of the instrument.

[shoused]

bela fleck is not in this video...and i'm not sure tim reynolds is either

[jumpermh]

um...bela fleck would be the guy playing the banjo

[spankwilliams]

Goodness they're both amazing

I like tim better normally but Bella was clearly better in this case.

They need victor wooten up there

[masturboide]

These two guys are far beyond reach, blimey...this is just insane.

[FforteAdore]

Tim's off his game biting off more than he can chew. Not only does bela have the better technique, you can hear how much more developed his ear is in this improv.

I love tim reynolds, but this performance is from from what he's capable of.

[911tabz]

damn right -- this is why weed should be legal

[montvilleballer1]

tims better all around...just not here ha

[Ezhuks]

I vote for Bela here for sticking to the groove and the melody.

[PatchworkDream]

This just rocked my world!

[killerbunny01]

WOW @ bella... he fkn dominated Tim there! Hes amazing!

[SteveDave227]

As much as Tim's guitar sounds like paper ripping in this clip, I must say that they both tore the stage to pieces. I especially love how Bela starts playing dueling banjos and Tim puts it into a really freaky not-quite-off-key riff, then they exchange cool disharmonic licks until Bela puts it back in key and automatically Tim picks it back into shape as well. They're both such quick and intuitive and ingenious players. Absolutely mind-blowing clip.

[nitrateandthesodium]

Tim got owned. Bela is the shit.

[OGjb88]

i have to admit, tim sounded a little off in this. he should stick with acoustic and do another concert with just dave

[ambiencraze]

ive been watching this film and i had to stop it.

his distortion sounds awful.

his playing isnt that great.

i mean compared to bela, he pretty much ate his own shit up there on the stage.

he fucked up so many times and the audience thinks hes the second coming of jesus.

i mean there probably real high and tripping or shome shit.

but srill.

my trip would have ended up in hell, if i heard him trying to play fast like he was.

he needs to practice.

shit.

[OGjb88]

theyre both amazing guitarists. tim is just really creative. especially with adding effects to the song as with radio city. just curious, did bela do the end to the last stop and the stone?

[dust3313]

dude bela plays a banjo

[OGjb88]

ya think?! if you listen to the stone all the way through theres an ending riff that has a banjo in it. theres an ending riff at the end of the dreaming tree also. and at the end of the last stop theres a banjo finishing it out. i was pretty sure that bella did that but i was just making sure. so yeah i know that he plays banjo.

[gspyambo]

Willy NelSON needs to take on Bela

[nightmarecinema33]

this is awesome

but the tone on that les paul kinda sucks.

TR is still amazing though.

[SeekUp51]

they aren't trying to outdo each other, they are just having fun performing it's not a contest

[bobsasleep]

im glad this exists

[mitchelljeremy]

Bela vs. Tim

And the winner is....

Bela Fleck by a landslide!!

[Jaybizzle83]

tim is great at electric but his fingers are to strong for electric because he is used to playing 12 string and light gauge acoustic. so thats why he sounds crazy!

[chunkman89]

i prefer tim acoustic

[nathanw]

lol tim cant stand up to bela. he needs more interval training!

[sh0cker13]

i think bela wins

[rdj218]

this is soooo coool!! Thank you for posting such a fab treat!

[davefan12]

Dont know much about bela fleck but his work on BTCS was awesome.But timy is so fast.

[Marchofdapigz]

bela fleck is hawt

[Roose63]

The things Bela does is simply amazing but the things Tim does just makes me want to put the guitar down and walk away. He's too good haha (I was kidding about the putting the guitar down part).

[jlatham]

Bela FTW

[theprofessiona1]

Wow. THat is all i have to say. A banjo solo for Two Step just fits AMAZINGLY into the song.

[MikeNee123]

this is so sick.... i dont know whos better, bela fleck or tim reynolds

[crushme41dmb]

Bela, no question about it. Although I love Tim, what is he doing?! I understand he's trying to get really creative, but times that it's obvious he's supposed to be 'shadowing' bela, he's not even in the right time signature. I know this will probably get me a thumbs down, but I love Tim . . . just please pick up an acoustic guitar again because that's where he shines.

[dre2142]

Theyre jamming.....total improv.

[abbottgr]

i completely agree with you, he just stepping on bella....nonetheless, still amazing

[TheLiquidSword]

awesome vid. tim can be a little overbearing with his solo's, but good none the less.

[JayBTV]

12/5/98

[codeyh]

What's the date on this anyone?

[Leckbandwidth]

Timmy's an acoustic player. all the way. His style just doesn't go with his tone. I like him better when it's just raw acoustic tones.

[RhythmRiff]

haha wow. sick.

[abbottgr]

daves like...yup there good

[fukyouhadjis]

damn right!

[dANc1nGd3viL]

damn right is damn right

[DMB34364041]

damnit yall are damn right, damn right.