The Dave Matthews Band returned to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion stage on Friday night

Dave Matthews Band at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Friday, May 18, 2018.

See more photos of the crowd that came out to dance the night away in the Woodlands... Dave Matthews Band at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Friday, May 18, 2018.

See more photos of the crowd that came out to dance the night away in the Woodlands... Photo: Jamaal Ellis, For The Houston Chronicle Photo: Jamaal Ellis, For The Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 41 Caption Close The Dave Matthews Band returned to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion stage on Friday night 1 / 41 Back to Gallery

Check out the slideshow above for pictures of the band and the fans who came out to see them on Friday night...

After two years off the road the Virginia-based Dave Matthews Band returned to The Woodlands to kickoff its latest summer tour.

Matthews, himself a father of two teens and a pre-teen, started the show by mentioning the deadly high school shooting in Santa Fe, an hour or so south of the venue. The bloody day painted the band's set with pain and poignancy.

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"I'm not going to tell you about hopes and prayers," Matthews said, the rest of the band looking on. "But I wanna say I'm so sorry. This is the way that it is."

The band then kicked into the title track from the upcoming album "Come Tomorrow" which is the group's first new album in six years, follows 2012's "Away from the World."

Coming up on 27 years together, the band's annual appearance at the outdoor shed north of Houston has always been a sell-out and a gathering place for the genre's fans in the area.

The band, now down to just three original members, has settled into fine place as a jam band for the well-scrubbed collegiate set. Not as funky and random as Phish, as blues-ified as Widespread Panic, and not as crunchy as Dead and Company, DMB still has it in all the right places and Matthews' voice has only grown more soulful with the years. He wears his 51 years well.

These days DMB is made up of Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer extraordinaire Carter Beauford, trumpeter Rashawn Ross, Jeff Coffin on saxophone, guitarist Tim Reynolds, and newly-installed keyboardist Buddy Strong.

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Beauford, always an awe-inspiring drummer to behold, was firing on all cylinders Friday night in the pocket with Lessard.

Longtime violinist Boyd Tinsley exited the group earlier this year, a member since 1992. This week allegations of sexual misconduct on Tinsley's part were being widely-reported by national music press. Although his ringing fiddle is missed, Strong and Reynolds have stepped up with their own theatrics to take its place.

The new disc's lead single, "Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin)", has already been getting a lot of spins on streaming services and on YouTube. When the band played it for the Woodlands crowd, the crowd only seemed half-interested. The song, about watching a child grow up and out, was awfully prescient considering the day's events and Matthews seemed to be cognizant of that.

The middle of Friday night's set leaned heavily on 1998's "Before these Crowded Streets" album which followed up the massive-selling "Crash" from 1996. "Don't Drink the Water" and its colonialism history lesson is straight from the Peter Gabriel playbook and never fails at going over the heads of the dancing sandals in the crowd.

A stirring version of "Typical Situation" from 1994's "Under the Table and Dreaming" breakthrough release has always been a song somehow malleable to most any virulent time. Last night though, it came in the middle of the set, a head-shaking damnation of humanity.

Check out the set list from last night's DMB show here.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.