Support bands in general can be very tedious to watch at the best of times, this is usually due to the fact that normally the audience don't care about watching the support as they only care about the headliners. Which means quite often you will get people talking or having their back to the support band whilst they are playing.
Over the last few years there have only been a small number of support bands that had the potential to move on and dominate the music scene, the bands that I have personally witnessed as support before going onto bigger things were The Libertines supporting Supergrass, and The Darkness supporting Def Leppard. Both support bands went on to become household names.
Funnily enough despite their name, 'DOGS' have that so called X-factor which makes them stand out from all of the other bands on the scene at the moment, and they will undoubtedly be moving on upwards just like The Libertines and The Darkness have done before them.
The band members of DOGS arrived on the tiny stage looking rather shabby with hair that covers their eyes like a shaggy dog. With the utmost respect to the band, their image could do with some more work especially whilst they are still attempting to gain fans.
However their poor image is soon forgotten as they belted out their opening track 'London Bridge', the guitar effects on this track are stunningly wild and frenzied, with Rikki Mehta (guitarist) arching is back as far as possible during the song almost as if he is part of the guitar. Throughout the evening Rikki was laying into his guitar like a man possessed, here is one hell of a guitarist, enthusiastic and passionate about his music.
Johnny Cooke (vocals) seems to already have the stage presence required to control an audience- he wasn't in your face but at the same time he wasn't shy either- he had got the balance just right so that everybody in the room were interested in watching and listening to him.
The band as a whole seem to have a brilliant chemistry- but instead of them all being similar they are opposites you have the frantic, hectic, spotlight hogging wild pace of Rikki on guitars contrasting with Luciano Vargas (Guitar and vocals) who is chilled, laid back, and just stands in the shadows. I would class this band as having a yin and yan type relationship due to the fact that despite being competent on their own, they need each other to make DOGS the brutal force that it is.
DOGS are certainly one of the most entertaining support bands that I have seen in a long time, and without a doubt these have what it takes to become a huge success. A genuinely brilliant pack of musicians!
article by: Luke Seagrave
published: 10/02/2005 11:53
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.