In 18-degree weather, a crowd of eager fans willingly stood outside on a Saturday night. That may sound crazy, but it makes a little more sense once you realize that they were lined up to see Philadelphian rock sextet Dr. Dog play at the House of Blues.
The opening act, Chadwick Stokes, is an acoustic guitar solo act who sings about, among other topics, living on a commune with Cat Stevens. On such a frigid night, the Jamaica Plain native was dressed in wool cargo pants with his wife’s leggings underneath, as he explained to the crowd.
Stokes’s music and style of singing is reminiscent of jam band Dispatch — appropriately, too, as he is a founding member of both Dispatch and State Radio. Taking advantage of the way in which acoustic performances emphasize vocals, Stokes’s lyrics are varying and thoughtful. He played one song about “an old folks home,” and then another about how veterans don’t receive the care they need when they return home.
As a whole, his playful stage banter and lively music captured the audience’s attention and had them fully engaged, even if they hadn’t heard his music before. There was a good deal of chatter over his performance in the beginning, but much of that died down into reverent murmurs by the end of his half-hour set.
After Stokes finished, the members of Dr. Dog walked onto the stage in matching black and white shoes and kicked off an almost non-stop set with their take on Architecture in Helsinki’s “Heart It Races.” The tune might be the band’s flagship song if its others were not equally as catchy.
All of Dr. Dog’s music features bright harmonies, which the band was able to deliver seemingly effortlessly on stage. Dr. Dog’s live sound replicated the quality of their records — no easy feat when performing for an hour-and-a-half.
The band kept up the high-energy feeling on stage throughout the whole set, and the crowd reacted accordingly. The audience was mostly categorized by a young, enthusiastic, college-aged crowd. They danced and sang along to the choruses, illustrating how Dr. Dog attracts an almost cult-like following. When bass guitarist and lead singer Toby Leaman jumped down from the stage and crowd-surfed into the crowd, cheers erupted.
The canine cohorts showed they were not afraid to have a several minute-long instrumental break in the middle of one of their songs. If they lost any of the audience’s attention during it, they knew they would immediately have it back when they finally transitioned into another drum-pounding, danceable song from their enormous repertoire.
Since 2002, Dr. Dog have released seven studio albums, four EPs and a live album, “Live at the Flamingo Hotel” in January, giving them an extensive amount of material to choose from for their shows. They played a great deal from their two most recent albums, “B-Room” and “Be the Void” but also explored their earlier, more lo-fi music. One of the first tracks of the night, “Mystery to Me,” is from their first album “Toothbrush” and features heavy influence from The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
Hearing Dr. Dog perform songs from their lo-fi days with the equipment and sound of their modern recordings gives their live shows a unique edge. It also gives the sense that, without getting repetitive, they’ve steadily branded a specific sound for themselves over the span of more than a decade.
The slow mastering of that sound shows itself in the fluidity of their performance, too. The band members switched instruments multiple times, with Leaman taking an acoustic guitar and lead guitarist Scott McMicken playing bass without the music ever actually stopping.
Dr. Dog’s stage banter, to be honest, was practically non-existent. But from their dancing on stage and consistently visible high energy, anyone from the audience could tell they were having a good time.
In all, the boys demonstrated the result of a talent fine-tuned over the years, presenting an unfailingly enjoyable and musically impressive performance. Make sure to catch them if they ever walk onto another Boston stage in their matching black and white shoes again. It will be worth your time to see what comes next.
