Dogstar are opening up their All In Now Tour in Dublin’s 3Olympia and the LA Alt Rock trio couldn’t have chosen a better place to have done it. Since getting back together in 2020 the band have released two excellent albums containing some of their best songs to date. Playing in front of a full venue tonight with fans travelling from various countries to catch the opening show and hear the new album tracks live the atmosphere was always going to be great, and it was.
The support band tonight come from Belfast and Discord, despite me not really getting into their first track, very quickly turned me around and I really enjoyed their set.
The band have a bit of an older almost 80’s vibe in some of the songs and the vocals fit it perfectly. With a large crowd already assembled by the time they hit the stage it’s great to see the band integrating and earning new followers.
Two songs stick out in particular, the very new ‘Good Friday’ and the closer ‘Feel Forever’ get the crowd well warmed up for the headliner and they get a really good reaction as they wind things up. Another band to keep an eye on.
Before Dogstar hit the stage none other than Guns n Roses bassist Duff McKagan arrives into one of the venues boxes, having played Dublin the previous night it’s nice to see him out supporting the guys. Dogstar will always have the blessing and the curse of having a very famous Bass player from another artistic field, for me it works really well, as a band member he comes across as the unassuming guy he appears to be in real life. In fact Keanu Reeves seems to revel in his job, he can step back into the dark reaches of the stage and just do his thing. The band have been on the go for two distinct periods, the early 1990’s to 2002 and 2020 to now but still keeping in touch and jamming during their down time, releasing 4 studio albums, toured in America, Asia and shows in Europe at numerous Festivals.
The music is alternative rock with mixes of other influences along the way including indie and even goth in places, flipping from the melancholy to faster paced more upbeat tracks like the title track of the new album. There is no messing around at all here, from the moment they hit the stage they are ready to give everything and power through a 20 song set with plenty of interaction with the audience from Brett Domrose (Guitar/Vocals) but you still get the impression that these guys are just as comfortable at home back in their garage. The band is really tight, and if you make a mistake you you know it, Drummer Robert Mailhouse had a slight issue with an intro and the spotlight went straight on him, you have to have a thick skin in music. Reeves and Mailhouse form a formidable partnership while slotting in perfectly with Domrose. The crowd are dancing, one with a sign that just says Breach for most of the set, but she needs patience tonight. But the show zips along.
It has to be said that the new album is very strong, and naturally it was lent on quite heavily tonight, in fact only tracks from the last two albums make the cut. There are plenty of standouts tonight, for me definitely ‘Everything Turns Around’, ‘Joy’, the powerful ‘All In Now’ with a killer bass line and riff that get implanted in your brain and the killer closer ‘Breach’. The set wasn’t the longest you will ever see, but it packed a massive punch filled with highlights, watching Keanu Reeves absolutely loving playing bass will stick with me as much as the great songs the band played. There was a very brief break before the 3 song encore that closed the night, Breach being that set closer, but the audience did not want to let the band go, and they looked like they had the best time on the opening night of a Tour. Hopefully they will return to these shores soon. They hit the UK this weekend with a slot at Download on Sunday and if you have a chance to catch them on any remaining dates do it.
When Dogstar finally take their leave from the stage the crowd are still cheering and singing and that’s when you can really see that the welcome they received tonight means a lot to them. Great show and what a pleasure to be there tonight, the 3Olympia is a perfect venue for a show like this and the band will happily move onto their next show knowing the new songs hit hard live.
Dogstar Setlist –
Siren
Lust
How The Story Ended
Everything Turns Around
Joy
Wing
This Sphere
Blonde
Glimmer
Math
The Whisper
Shardes Of Rain
Exhalted
Runway
What Is
Marmalade
All In Now
Encore:
Punch The Sky
Shallow East
Breach
