By Andrew McClain
Contributing Editor

I’ve always heard that Dr. Dog puts on a great live show, that their draw as a live act overshadows their record sales by a pretty huge margin. I’ve met several people who have seen them six or more times. This kind of dedication to following live shows is usually reserved for bands who have fans that don’t refer to the band by their whole name (see: “The Dead,” “Widespread,” “DMB”).

I wondered Dr. Dog’s draw was, exactly, watching Little Rock’s Rev Room fill up like it did for Girl Talk. Did Dr. Dog have a psychedelic light show? Onstage antics? Hula-hooping? What’s the gimmick that draws a crowd like this for a band that doesn’t really sell that many records?

I really like Dr. Dog, but the answer was still shocking to me: they’re just a great fucking live band.

That’s the gimmick. They’re energetic, intense, and totally present.

Their opener, Cotton Jones, play a softer kind of folk music, with lead Michael Nau and his wife, Whitney McGraw singing magnetic duets. A sizable part of the audience actually demanded an encore from them, which I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed before.

If you’re unfamiliar, Dr. Dog is a band from Pennsylvania that plays a clever blend of psychedelic pop and Americana rock. They manage a dedication to vintage sounds and equipment without seeming too precious about it. The band operates with dual frontmen, lead guitarist Scott McMicken and bassist Toby Leaman. They have another guitarist, a keyboardist (who plays slide guitar on “Lonesome”) and a drummer, Eric Slick.

They opened with “The Trick,” a song from their most recent record, “Be The Void,” which might be their most accessible to date.

Like I said, Dr. Dog isn’t a jam band, but they inspire a similar devotion in their fans. Or maybe just similar fans. (I should mention, for posterity, that if you’re ever at a show and you feel like a small monkey might be gingerly backhanding you to get your attention, it might just be someone with dreadlocks headbanging behind you)

I was surprised when a mosh pit got started about halfway through the shows, and wondered if that was actually the whole idea behind 21+ shows.

They closed with their famous cover of Architecture in Helsinki’s “Heart it Races,” which is one of those covers that might be better-known than the original, for good reason.

Even though I found a portion of the audience to be disagreeable, it’s always a unique experience to attend a show in a packed house. There’s always a peculiar, powerful energy in a big, responsive crowd, and it’s worth it when the performers know what to do with it, which Leaman and McMicken do.

 (All photos courtesy of Stacey Svendsen.)

Tags