The Dogs (Fr) + Senor No (Spain) + Jerry Spider Gang (Fr)
@ Orthez, France, February 22 2002In south of France, in the middle of nowhere, somebody suddenly decided to organize a Dogs' show in a sportsroom!!!
Jerry Spider Gang, sadly appointed to be the opener tonight (a dirty job that should have been done by an unknown local band), gave us a demonstration of their high energy R 'n 'R. And it was a great demonstration. Fronted by Lo Spider and his sarcastic attitude, the band separated the crowd in two pieces...one, almost scared, scratching its collective heads in the back of the room and trying to get some comfort at the bar. The other part - fans like me - rushing to the band, and laughing at Lo's jokes.They played a good show, could have been better, but relationships with the organisation made it what is was. They played their new single out on Pitshark, "This is my life", a Turbonegro cover and songs like "The Beast". We have a band to follow, here, and sure we will do that, on the French tour they are planning in May.
Senor No. This is a band you've probably heard about now, as they have played support for every cool band you can pick from your record collection. Really! They played with Hydromatics, Deniz Tek, Dictators... everybody!
This was there first-ever gig in France, and they rocked us. And something is telling me that this "invasion" is not gonna stop there.. What we've got there is a live stage band. Their records (three LPs and a few singles) are real amphetamine bombs, yeah, but on stage - whoahhh!
With this gig, they whipped up a frenzy. Even Mighty Yo from The JSG told me after the storm: "Suddenly, I thought there were 2000 people in the venue." Y eah, I have to agree. Ths songs they played tonight are almost classics, but we also heard a few songs from the upcoming LP to be released days on Loli Jackson, a major label in Spain. This one could be the best R 'n 'R record ever made in Spain!
We saw Xabi shouting and yelling his Spanish words to our face, haranguing the crowd, pulling out the energy from us. We saw Imanol this incredible guitar player jumping so high all over the stage, playin' his Rickenbacker on his head, building fast, distorted solos drenched in feedback.
What more do Ineed to say? The drummer and bass player play so easily play their high-speed rhythms, it's disarming. Songs like "Mira mi dedo" or "Masacrante". Did I hear a Rory Gallagher cover? Yeah, I think so.
And The Dogs?
They came on stage at 2am - 2am! - and after some brief levels checks, they started with an instrumentala surf song.
The sound was perfect, and what a pleasure to listen to their clear Fender sound after all those saturated sounds.
Seeing The Dogs on stage is like being close to a myth, to share a part of rock history. Everyone in the audience had more a student attitude than a punk rock one. Guess why? We didn't want to miss a note, We didn't want to miss the image of Dominique Laboubée singing, playing guitars (and harp on some parts.)
The bassplayer was incredible, a real "Aussie style", with a lot of variations, melodies, ideas and chords. A kind of French Jim Dickson.
We were given a few old songs "Shadow of light", and some other more recent, and even a cover of tthe famous "1, 2, 5" but, ahh..,sorry, I didn't get the setlist.. It was like listening to the perfect compilation of Dogs titles, except they were there, in front of our wide open eyes. Almost a teacher-student relationship.
The show ended late at night wth the Stooges' cover "I Wanna Be Your Dog", played by a guest band made up of The Dogs' Dominique Laboubée, his drummer and bassplayer, Lo Spider and Speedy from JSG, and as a special guest Olivier, former TV Killers guitar player, who now plays in a band called The Jakes.
It was a real return to the '80s, some fresh air and melancholy, that made me think one last thing: The first contemporary punk rock or R 'n' R band to understand that this music needs a little more soul, not only guitars to the max (though that is fun too), then, this band will win a ticket right to the stars.
This band will be a Myth. As the Dogs are. - LAURENT VAN BOUVELEN
