First time the Dogs have made it to the 502 - my current city of residence. I've been to every single Dogs KY performance and I plan to keep that up. This was my 16th show and I brought a crew of 4 other first-timers and one buddy who it was his 2nd Dogs show.

Little Things is always a real fun opener - got my body moving instantly. I locked in with Brian at one point singing about the 'pay no attention to the background sounds' line... who doesn't love to see someone singing the words back to them in the crowd?

The first tune was merely to draw in the normies... because once Craig and Pat showed up... things got weird. Super deep jam into Craig which contained a Ghost Riders jam before going back to end Craig - the last 2 minutes of the 2nd half of Craig is some of the most epic shit I've ever heard.

The > did not stop coming - when the band hit the HIT at the beginning of Spun, I looked back to my buddy and informed him that we were about to spin... stuck in a spiral, spin 'til I'm spun. I think the prior GOAT drums was the Mission Ballroom in CO but.... this Spun takes the cake for me - probably attendance bias, but idc - check out the drum solo here in Spun.

Once Spun was winding down, I saw Jeremy clutching the trumpet - that can only mean one thing! Nosotro vamos ay el banco... no cervezas para tu... My homie crew consisted of some bi-lingual first-gen Mexican/Cuban-Kentuckians, so they got HYPE over the Spanish section of Pedro.

To end, a sweet, BUMPIN' Appleseed - I think the boys got carried away and hit curfew earlier than anticipated... not complaining, but when Appleseed ended, I was like "That's it??!! Naurrrrrrr" LOL - maybe the best opening single set I've seen, potentially save 9/8/22

This show kicked off my 4-night run following the Dogs around the Midwest/South - my 2nd time following any sort of band for consecutive night shows. Drove 7hr from Louisville, KY to the AC Madison just blocks away from the High Noon Saloon and prepared for the show of a lifetime. 

The boy's first time in Madison... I think there was something to do with the water in the area... Asbury Park has a lot of water.. Madison is surrounded by seemingly great lakes. 

Westward is maybe my favorite opener, competing with Crazy, but golly, what a song. What a story. My first Four More Days followed which was a certified booty-shaker. Cats is always funky as hail.. The Hesitate was an early jaw-dropper; one online comment I read, someone said that was their favorite jam of the night before having to dip out early. MASSIVE PURE DIRTY BUBBLE - the drums alone on this track have special abilities to change people. Way To Be is always a mega-hard set closer. Isn't life so damn pretty?

Now... set 2... this is where some history took place. All you gotta do is shout "Let's do Stevie Lew!" as the boys are walking on LOL shoutout to Matty O! The next 37 minutes of music may be my all time favorite jams I've ever witnessed. It Gets Better ---> Let U Go tore the place up. The Joey bass bombs in IGB - you can hear our reactions on the SBD :) LOL I thought "Surely, that can't be right, something in the sound just malfunctioned..." but then it happened again and shook the High Noon!! We were fuckin' hoppin'. Applesauce is a Brian shredder song, if ya didn't know. They sliddddd right into Fenway, and then WOTW is such an awesome story... hope you're not gonna do what I think you're goin' to...

The classic Boogie On Linus and Lucy outro felt so good - shoutout to Kate and Steven from Univ. of Madison - they boogied hard w/ me all night!! Maybe my favorite Dogs show of all time, so far... even counting The Great Divide..

I've asked Sir Casey what the price is for this sbd to be released... I'm willing to pay, but I'm also afraid because then everybody is going to hear me experiencing Dogs for the first time and I'm going to be known as 'the guy who kinda sorta ruined the 9/8/22 sbd because he kept screaming at Sam calling him 'Bassman'". Is there a character limit on these reviews? I'm about to find out... this is my story.

My good friend Daniel Combs (formerly of Jahman Brahman, TUB, currently playing with Elora Dash, Josh Clark's Visible Spectrum) recommended that I attend Birds of a Feather music festival just Southeast of Cinci, since I had just recently moved from Western North Carolina to Louisville, KY. I trust Daniel, so I bought blind-faith tickets for 2022 - I didn't wanna wait...let's not hesitate, I thought. Eventually, the Dogs would be announced as the night 1 headliner - I hadn't heard a lick of them... found a YouTube set... let 'er rip... and the rest is history.

Just a week or even days prior to departing for BOAF, the boys released 8/21/22 on Nugs - the Road to the Ramble show in/around Bmore. I listened to this set over and over and blasted it on the car-drive to the festival just thinking "holy shit, im about to be rocking with these dudes at this TINY ass hippy festival'. I was so, so, so excited. My wife was (and probably still is) over hearing me gush about what was to occur. Prior to the show...let's just say I had a little too much, too fast and needed some privacy during BareFuzz (they rock though, minus my Ralphing).

Showtime comes... I'm feeling GOOD... the boys have set up... the first song? One of my favorites - Westward. I think Brian may have noticed me singing it because... I was probably screaming it in a crowd of 10 - 15 ppl. Now I really think it's time we made a change...Now I gotta tell myself it's gonna be okay...

This was, I think, my first time hearing Tillie and it absolutely rocked me. I remember thinking, "I've never EVER heard a chorus sound like this before..."... hi-ho the silver, send the gold, shots fired, i was never told - idk if those lyrics are right but if they are i love them so much - Pirate type shit. 

I don't even remember the Look Johnny... but I'm sure it was so bitchin'. The Royals though.... I remember being so deep and lost in the sauce during the jam and then when they went back into the chorus... me and my group of ppl were just like WHATTTT THHUUUUUU and erupted into funky groves.

I also had no recollection of the Smash Mouth cover, but the girl I was hanging out with absolutely loved it lol

Spun made me spin, for sure... and the end of Spun > Trunk Rum clav intro literally made my jaw drop. I hadn't ever heard it before. I knew my life was going to be different after that.

To end it all, the classic Boogie On Linus n Lucy... by this time, the less-than-acre of hippies, young and old, were stomping to some of the greatest music ever written. I NEED to re-hear this!!!!

I ended up leaving the festival early, missing out on The Werks and some other cool groups because I was just so obsessed with the Dogs instantaneously. Nothing has been the same since.

 

 

Derby Day '23 - I, funnily enough, vacated the Derby City around noon and drove my wife's car (thank u bb) to Indy for a gorgeous one-night-stand. I sat outside the HI-FI during soundcheck and could hear through the walls. They soundchecked with Gumball, Bent Strange [the album chorus version, still yet to be debuted, I think], and Lucia's Secret, which that one and Gumball wouldn't even make their debut appearances until a little bit later. After soundcheck, Sam, Brian, and Mr. Tooker found me chillin' out front and we went and I bought them all a drink. 3 High Noons and a Lone Star for a couple of stinking Dogs, please, bartender.

My phone notes say there was a 'soft Jeremy intro' right before Rinky Dink - I know that is just him noodling around but I loved it so I noted it... it must have felt significant to me, at the time. 

The Snow Day felt XL'd to me... I remember Brian making some noise that sounded like a fucking soaring eagle screech... me and the older feller next to me were geeking tf out up front.

As the boys walked onto the stage for the second set, I yelled to Jeremy "Play some Sound of Music shit!" and he did - he riffed a little bit of My Favorite Things - this interaction didn't make the soundboard, though.

Go Set had an absolutely WILD jam with at least one Phish tease (Roggae). Finally, the Gumbo>Jerm play-out to end the night. I totally saw a dad-and-daughter duo and the dad must've been a mega Phan because he was EMBARRASSING her during Gumbo with his singings and moves LOL X'D I love it... dance your ass off, dad-man. It's going to be hard for me to not give every show a 5/5.