Photo by Allegra Fisher. More on Flickr »
I walked by the entrance to the Gargoyle a few hours before Dr. Dog took the stage, and I saw trees and ferns being loaded in alongside amps, drums and guitar cases. I was beginning to suspect that this would be a great show. Turns out I was right, and the trees, flowers, pink flamingos and other miscellaneous plants and animals covering the stage certainly didn’t hurt – I felt like I was watching a show in a botanical garden. Or Jurassic Park…
Dr. Dog – The Breeze
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The members of Dr. Dog are not the types of dudes to stand around, passively letting their hands coax some sad sound out of their respective instruments. They sang, danced, moved to the music, jumped up and down, and even sat down on stage to play when the mood hit them. Their energy rallied the crowd’s as well – the sold-out audience was more than happy to rock out with the band. Who can blame the head-banging, jumping-up-and-down crowd, when Dr. Dog was playing such outrageously good music?
The sentiment of Dr. Dog’s normal kitschy beats was not totally lost on their live performance, but it was muted by the impressively bass heavy sound engineered by their sound techs. The overall effect was jammy, but considering how talented the musicians I witnessed at the Gargoyle were, it was still a feel good time. The songs they played were, without exception, catchy, engaging, fun, and well-written, with not a single shallow-sounding, vacant pop song among them.
Their 10+ song set also had the virtue of not being a uniform blend of songs that all sounded the same. At one point towards the middle of their set, all but one band member left the stage, leading to a quite beautiful three song acoustic-sounding interlude. Doesn’t sound like it fits with my earlier description of their music? Well it does. This was not some Dave Matthews/John Mayer-esque dude singing bland music and playing boring acoustic guitar type songs. These songs were soulful and energetic, and the crowd was captivated.
The topping on the cake, though, was the encore. Encores are not common at the Gargoyle, and they are rarely as unique anywhere as this one was. After rocking the crowd for a few minutes, one of the band members remarked that, “anything could happen…everyone from the crowd could even just sit down.” A little bit of nervous laughter later, and everyone in the Gargoyle was on the floor, and the closest thing possible to a sit-down-dance-party ensued. Have you ever seen every person at a rock show simultaneously sit down? If not, you’ll just have to imagine how cool of an end it was to an all-around great show, sorry.
sitting down to the encore of a dr. dog set sounds absolutely perfect. their live show is life changing. they are magic makers.