Snowed In

After a brief jaunt into the mountains, the Dogs came back down southeast to Denver to return to the Lost Lake for their second of four Wednesday-night shows at the venue during their ‘23 “Colorado Takeover” tour. It apparently wasn’t an easy trip—the band nearly got stranded on a mountain pass between Steamboat and Crested Butte when a winter storm hit the mountains the night of the 30th, resulting in the cancellation of the 3/31 gig (which would have been the 21st of the month). The band got some much-needed rest as a result, which paid off in spades for this event, as well as the next show in Frisco. Unlike the last two and the next two gigs, there was no opening act or sit-ins. I remember the sound at the venue was being much better this night than 3/29, and that's reflected on the board, making repeated relistenings a pleasure.

The gig clocked in at three-and-a-half hours of music (note that there are three songs in the encore slot totaling a cumulative 30 min)—one of their longest of the residency, but not quite the 4-hour marathon of 4/19. I remember finally leaving the venue shortly after 1 AM. The show sold out before the day of, in part due to the band’s announcement that the first set would be a “Dogs Play Dead” set, the first since 6/18/22. That brought in a whole host of punters from the front range, many of whom ended up immediately buying the remaining tix for the following two Denver shows after having their faces stolen by the band. It was such a hot ticket that a few people tried to slip the box office a few bucks for a spot when doors opened.

While the Dead set is good (five debuts!), the true value in this show comes in the second half, which would have gone down as one of the best individual sets of the tour had the band not blown the roof off of 10 Mile two days later.

Dead Set. The Dogs blessed the crowd with three debuts to start the set, but things really start getting tight in Cumberland, which is red-hot (check 4/14 for a more refined rendition of Bucket). The Other One is the band's fourth and doesn't hit the peaks of 11/9, but the transition into Bird Song works perfectly. To date, this is the only performance of Victim, and Bobby would be proud of this rendition. Don’t skip Drums, which includes Jerm for a bit. Ship of Fools was an odd choice to close out the set, but it fits well here.

Dogs Set. This features two-plus hours of music—it’s organized more like an extended single-set Dogs show (a la 9/9) than a typical 2nd set. Can’t Wait is nailed, and features a lyric change to “Jerry on the road” (one of the audience members yelled “Play it like Jerry!” ad nauseam during the first set). The next two tunes served as a Frosty nod to the winter shenanigans: Snow Day has the reggae intro, and the jam makes this iteration a must-listen. Check Jerm’s role on B4B and the whole band’s contributions in G Song. Go Set goes to New York, then Denver, but Brian forgets Plandome Rd for a tick. Jimmy strikes gold in Fenway, and the heat continues through Bent Strange, which features Brian shredding through a Ghost Riders jam. Writing comes close to careening, but the boys stick the landing before departing the stage. All three encore tunes are nailed. Check the extended break after Jessica—the band originally intended to leave it there (Jerm says “I got nothin left!”). Eventually, the band relents to the prodding of the audience and lays down one of the fastest-paced Trunk Rums of all time.

 

Dead Set: 6/10

Dogs Set: 9/10

Overall: 4 stars

 

Highlights:

Cumberland Blues - red hot

Drums - Joey goes hulk mode

Can’t Wait For Tonight - 1 of 2 during the CO tour

Snow Day - up there with the best of ‘23

Blues For Brian>4th of July - Jeremy on fire

G Song - not 10/21, but still excellent

Fenway - Jimmy kills the solo

Bent Strange/Ghost Riders - multiple exceptional jams

Say Something - only missing the sax

Jessica - a personal fave

Trunk Rum - worth the price of admission

 

Sources: The sound-mixing on the board was much improved from N1 at LL. The Dead Set is on YouTube—worth watching to see how hard Joey works on Drums.