Following a spring trek that drew critical raves and played before packed crowds in East Coast clubs, TRIPPING BILLIES is extending its tour into the summer to meet fan demand and soothe those widespread yearnings for the band's heralded recreation of the vintage Dave Matthews live vibe in a manner in which it hasn't been experienced since the DMB's pre-stadium days.
 

Highlights include a series of festivals, major vacation destinations, the Boy Scouts National Convention and a string of dates with The Samples. TRIPPING BILLIES will also be seen this summer performing on "Sound Check," a new TV series picked up by NBC.
 

The DMB tribute band for which Dave himself has the utmost respect earned similar media regard from the media during its 2002 spring jaunt. The Cleveland Plain Dealer called TRIPPING BILLIES "one of the top DMB tribute bands in the land" and the Buffalo News viewed the Rochester, N.Y., outfit as "the model of a successful DMB tribute band." Columbus Wired said TRIPPING BILLIES is simply "the best DMB tribute band in the nation." Clearly, TRIPPING BILLIES is the next best thing to being there. Not only is TRIPPING BILLIES the most popular Dave Matthews Band tribute in the United States, it's the most authentic DMB tribute in the world.
 

And for Dave fans especially, there is simply no better bang for the concert buck: "The closest experience to a Dave Matthews show they can get," noted the Wilmington (NC) Star, "without paying $46.50 for a ticket." Understanding that mere replication is not enough, TRIPPING BILLIES adds a secret ingredient that sets it apart from all the other DMB wannabes out there -- the incomparable insistence upon adding its own original,  intricate jams into the music of the Dave Matthews Band to create live improvisational
> moments that truly live and breathe in the concert setting. "Their incredible improvisational skills solidified the feeling of an actual DMB concert," wrote a reviewer for The Heights, the Boston College newspaper, following a TRIPPING BILLIES spring performance there. 

"We try and emulate the show," says Brandon "Dave" DePaul. "We listen to the record to get a base to work from, but we go after the live sound. We try to capture the energy and the spirit."

Indeed, TRIPPING BILLIES gives audiences a full Dave Matthews-style show -- 2 ½ hours of music complete with the characteristic encore. You'll get to hear a lot of the old DMB concert faves that Dave doesn't play live anymore, as well as new material from the DMB's upcoming album.

It's that kind of attention to authenticity and originality that has been causing TRIPPING BILLIES' popularity to skyrocket. Playing to packed houses has lately become the rule rather than the exception.
 

In his new Pocket Books biography, DMB: Music For the People, Nevin Martell writes that "once the music starts, the audience is at a virtual DMB concert."