Dave Matthews Band returns to Las Vegas after more than a decade

The ants haven’t marched in Las Vegas since Michael Jackson was among the living and Kanye West wasn’t letting Taylor Swift finish acceptance speeches.

Yes, it was way back in 2009 when the Dave Matthews Band last played here.

That was a two-night stand at the MGM Grand Garden, where the rootsy, jam-friendly troupe sold tens of thousands of tickets.

This time, the venue is the much cozier, 3,200-capacity Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

As such, it’s a hot ticket: Seats are going for upward of $3,000 on Ticketmaster’s resale site for the sold-out Feb. 28 show.

The Dave Matthews Band continues to tour in support of its most recent record, 2018’s “Come Tomorrow.”

But above all else, DMB is a live act, and the numbers underscore as much: The group has sold more than 24 million tickets over the past three decades. Its latest Vegas stop figures to add a few more to that tally and ranks high among the top-10 concerts of the month. Here are the rest:

The Doobie Brothers

Feb. 7-8, 12, 14-15, 19 and 21-22, Theatre at The Venetian

“Takin’ It to the Streets” … of Cleveland, where they’ll be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in May, the Doobie Brothers will first hit Vegas. Their blend of guitar torque, resonant multipart harmonies and blue-eyed soul flourishes helped launch yacht rock into open waters 50 years ago.

Dermot Kennedy

Feb. 7, The Pearl at the Palms

Already a superstar in his native Ireland, where his 2019 debut, “Without Fear,” became the fastest-selling album of the year, heart-on-the-sleeve singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy is beginning to make a name for himself on these shores. He plies his ever-earnest folk pop with a voice as rich in emotion as a wheelbarrow full of love letters.

Excision

Feb. 8, Downtown Las Vegas Events Center

The cover of “Apex,” the most recent studio album from this Canadian dubstep heavyweight, comes adorned with volcanoes, dinosaurs and lightning bolts, subtle expressions of power compared to Excision’s bass-as-battering-ram approach to EDM. Wear a neck brace.

‘Jammin’ 105.7’s Love Affair Concert’

Feb. 8, Orleans Arena

Love is in the air — quick, get the Lysol! — or, better yet, get in the mood with R&B and funk mainstays such as Zapp, Atlantic Starr, Rose Royce, Delfonics and others in this amorous “Affair.”

Chastity Belt

Feb. 11, The Bunkhouse Saloon

Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, 7 Year Bitch, Sleater-Kinney, Heavens to Betsy: Does the Pacific Northwest have an enviable pedigree of female-centered indie-rock bands or what? Chastity Belt, from Walla Walla, Washington, doesn’t necessarily sound like any of those bands. Its songbook is more languid than lacerating, with darting guitars and searching, contemplative lyrics, but the group lives up to its impressive lineage nonetheless.

Dierks Bentley

Feb. 14-15, The Chelsea

The man behind maybe the greatest song ever about getting soused at cruising altitude, “Drunk on a Plane,” continues to make the rounds for his bluegrass-inflected latest album, “The Mountain,” where country star Dierks Bentley scales a few creative peaks.

Totally ’80s Live

Feb. 19, House of Blues at Mandalay Bay

You want candy, they’ve got candy: Bow Wow Wow takes us back to an era when legwarmers were a thing and Marty McFly was getting hit on by his mom. The group is joined on this outing by headliners The Motels (“Only the Lonely,” “Suddenly Last Summer”) and When in Rome (“The Promise”). Start Aqua Netting those bangs now.

Dweezil Zappa

Feb. 20, Brooklyn Bowl at The Linq

Frank Zappa once described his second solo album, “Hot Rats,” as a “a movie for your ears,” and what a flick it is: The “Citizen Kane” of jazz rock, “Rats” is one of the seminal works of the genre. Forty years later, Zappa’s son Dweezil pays tribute to that album and more on his “Hot Rats Live! + Other Hot Stuff 1969” tour.

Thrice

Feb. 27, Brooklyn Bowl at The Linq

After dropping early-aughts post-punk standard bearer “The Artist in the Ambulance” in 2003, Thrice went deep on its follow-up, “Vheissu.” That one took its name from a Thomas Pynchon novel and is just as dense and intricately composed as one of his works, with the band employing strings, piano and electronic texturing in meticulously cultivated layers of sound. Thrice is celebrating the album’s 15th anniversary on this tour, and fittingly so: It’s taken about that long to fully digest it.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. Las Vegas Sands operates The Venetian.

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.