Showtime! How Ben The Sax Guy Stepped in to Play with Dave Matthews Band at MSG on a Moment’s Notice

Imagine if one of the biggest musical acts in the world called you up tonight and asked if you could play two sold out shows with them at Madison Garden the next two nights. 

For Ben Golder-Novick aka “Ben The Sax Guy” that was his real life when Dave Matthews asked him to sit in with the band at two recent shows, to fill in for regular sax player Jeff Coffin who was out with Covid. 

A Dave Matthews Band show is like no other. They play a unique setlist every night, often with song improvisations on the fly. If they play a two-night stand, they will not repeat a single song. so anyone stepping in would need to play nearly 50 different songs. Well-versed in both band and theater shows, Ben had performed with Dave Matthews six times, but nothing quite this big—or sudden.  

Over 48 hours in New York City, Brooklyn-based Ben experienced what he calls an “explosive, life-changing moment.” Ben lived the moment we all dream of—that one of the creative giants in our field calls us tomorrow and asks if we’d like to throw in with them. 

Here in his own words Ben takes us inside the whirlwind weekend and shares how he rehearsed for the shows on a crazy tight timeframe (he only had a few minutes for each song), how he handled the nerves that come from playing in front of 18,000 people, and how years of practice allowed him to meet the moment.

I got the Covid booster shot on Thursday about four o’clock right as Dave texted me. I’ve known him for a little bit. He’s a really nice guy, as you can imagine, and he just said, “Hi Ben, how are you doing?” 

I’ve told him before that if he ever wanted to see the underground music scene in New York, I could show him around, so I was thinking maybe he wanted to do that. We had a little back and forth and then he said Jeff Coffin has Covid and asked if I would consider joining the band at MSG on Friday and Saturday nights. 

He did say “consider.” 

I was like, yeah, let’s do it. 

The next 24 hours were crazy. For one, I didn’t even have all the instruments needed for the band: tenor sax, soprano sax, baritone sax, and flute. I had a tenor sax and a flute. My soprano sax was in the shop in Brooklyn—I didn’t think I’d need it for a while, so I had told the shop owner to take his time on it. But then I called the shop on Thursday night and I caught the owner just as he was walking out the door. I told him I had the biggest gig of my life the next night and asked if I could get the soprano sax back the next morning. Then I mentioned it was the Dave Matthews Band at MSG and the owner was like, Sh*t. He did it. 

I had to borrow a bari sax, so luckily I was able to go to my buddy Stefan's place, and borrow his. I did not sleep on Thursday night. I was totally wound up. The main preparation was figuring out the songs—I didn’t know what the set list would be for Friday. 

A DMB show is like no other gig. The set list changes each night and Dave typically writes the set list before the show. They have so many different versions of their songs, from the album versions to earlier live versions to how they’re playing the songs now. In my career, I’ve played with seven or eight bands that have played Dave Matthews Band songs, including a tribute band, so I sent Rashawn Ross (Dave Matthews Band trumpet player)  the songs I was familiar with, but we only ended up playing a few of those. 

This time Dave wrote the setlist in the afternoon and I could practice the songs with Rashawn. When I talked to Rashawn before the show, I told him I was comfortable playing the show off of some scripted music, but that when we were on stage he could also hum certain parts, so I knew what notes to play. I’d take my in-ear mic out and then I could hear him hum what we’re doing, then we’d play it. It was how those older jazz groups did it with the oral tradition. There were even a few times where Rashawn and I went to the back corner of the stage and we’d turn off the mics for our instruments. He would play the part for me, and we rehearsed on stage during the show. It is one of the coolest things I’ve done on stage.

Honestly, as soon as it came time to play, I stopped feeling nervous. On one hand, it didn’t seem real. On the other hand, the room is so huge, it felt like being in space. The band takes a very calm approach to their shows. Everyone is zen.

Mentally, I reminded myself it is only music. I felt the absolute worst thing that could happen was if my instruments broke. But I had that extreme confidence in being a musician, who has done this for a while, and to go have a good time because the audience is there for a good time.

One song highlight for me had to be “What Would You Say.” I think the spirits invaded me during it when I went off on that solo. I don’t know what happened. I could feel the energy from the audience. I looked over at Dave, who seemed comfortable for me taking over the room for a moment, and I decided I’m going to town on this. And that’s what I did.

Another moment that stood out was when we played “Madmen’s Eyes”—a new song that isn’t on an album yet and that the band has only played a few times live. That was intensely challenging, because I had to switch horns during that song from bari to soprano. I’ve never had to do a fast switch between instruments like that before. During our rehearsal earlier in the day, Rashawn wrote out the notes for it and we did look at that one for longer than the others. How long? Probably 10 minutes, because we also had to go through everything else.

One quote that comes to mind that 100% got me through this gig comes from filmmaker Robert Rodriguez who once talked to a bunch of aspiring filmmakers and said ‘Everyone who is here has a gift. You’re already creative. Now learn to be technical. Because if you're creative, and you're technical, you're unstoppable.’ That comes to mind here because there were so many technical things I had to figure out during these shows, from using instrument mics I’d never used before to using a new wireless in-ear mic system to the instrument switches to all of the other tricky logistics of playing in Madison Square Garden.

When I was in my early 20s, I would just show up and play. And I realized I needed to work on the technical side of performing. So I learned to be both creative and technical and that helped me here when I got to play on one of the biggest stages of my life.

Follow Ben on Instagram @benthesaxguy and see where he’s playing next here.

If you’d like to read more from The Creative Factor, check out Morten Bonde’s story about working as a LEGO Art Director while losing his sight and how Devo Harris is bringing new dimensions to digital video storytelling in a world where everyone with a phone is a creator.