2021/2/4 Dogs In A Pile @ High Peaks Event Production, Saratoga Springs, NY
This was published on Live for Live Music (link below) but is being preserved for posterity here, as well.
Photo credits: Ron Adelberg. Seriously though, do not miss scrolling to the gallery at the end of this post for next level greatness! Sneak preview …
Musicians and venues haven’t been the only ones forced to adjust to live music’s new – and hopefully increasingly temporary – normal. Production teams, management groups, and booking agents have been forced to pivot and tap new reserves of creativity. As logic would follow, so, too, has the end user had to adapt and survive; a function of necessity over choice if live music is your thing.
As fans and musicians are still separated from in-person performances due to the pandemic, bands continue to rely upon live streams for the delivery of much desired content and revenue. But as necessity is the mother of invention, the days of streaming from the living room seem to be far behind us. We all remember what it was like to see a concert in our favorite venue with a band in front of us, lights flashing and popping around us, and big concert sound pouring from the PA as a room full of fans dance and scream and take it all in. Now imagine the same thing but minus the crowd, everything in front of you real as can be, but turn around and you’re in an empty venue, or, odder still, on a Hollywood soundstage designed to look like one. For the consumer at home, the recipient of the final product as interpreted through a series of screens, it’s a production of the highest value. But for those very few in attendance, it’s a magic trick of the highest order.
Dogs In A Pile played a live two set show on February 4 from High Peaks Event Production’s state-of-the-art facility in Saratoga, NY. While High Peaks provides access to staging and lighting equipment typically reserved for national touring acts and regional festivals, the Tree of Forgiveness virtual nightclub uniquely gives fans the opportunity to interact with bands in a meet and greet format both pre- and post-show, thereby packaging the big time production value of a national touring act with the small club intimacy of your favorite local venue. Even more significantly, their shows are promoted, produced, and staffed by a small crew of volunteers whose unpaid efforts allow 100% of revenue to be passed along to the artists.
A product of the rich Asbury Park, NJ music scene by way of the Berklee College of Music, this was the third appearance with Tree of Forgiveness and fourth at High Peaks studio for the genre-spanning jamband. Choose your favorite spot to consume live music and that’s where the stage appeared to be, except it was really in a corrugated metal warehouse in Saratoga Springs, NY. Heavy black curtains partitioned the space from floor to ceiling, professional lighting rigs lined the stage and hung from the rafters, and a small viewing area sat in front of the band, the equivalent of two or three rows of seating. I can’t overemphasize how cool it was to be in the room where it happened, so when this fan-first writer was invited to attend, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
Upon the opening notes, as the band emerged tighter than ever, I was instantly transformed to my happy place on the rail, live music in front of me and dialed in sound pumping from a finely tuned PA. The band quickly found their stride, too, Brian Murray and Jimmy Law leading the way early with a bevy of eye-popping guitar solos. Putting on display their signature knack for composition mixed with improvisation, Dogs was quick to impress with a mix of original debuts and old favorites. As “Time Stands Still” drew to a close in the first set, the guitars dropped out and the rear stage trio of Jeremy Kaplan (keys), Joe Babick (drums), and Sam Lucid (bass) took us on an improvisational journey through the Berklee College of Music jazz department. A Jeremy Kaplan keyboard solo emerged, eventually passing the baton to Sam Lucid for a stroll on his six-string Modulus bass that eventually found its footing in a highly memorable “Craig & Pat”.
The second set started off with the band’s opus, “Thomas Duncan Pt. 2”, replete with a detour through the Grateful Dead’s “Slipknot!” that previewed some late set goodness yet to come and The Beatles’ “Wild Honey Pie” before circling back to itself. Lest we all forget that Dogs is a jamband, “Charlie” both started and finished an uninterrupted hour of music which included covers of Smash Mouth’s “Walkin’ On The Sun”, the Grateful Dead’s “Help On the Way” > “Slipknot!”, and originals “Spun”, “Trunk Rum”, and “Bugle On the Shelf”. Check out the full “Charlie” sandwich.
Dogs In A Pile is a young band and at various moments throughout the show it occurred to me that we were getting a sneak-peak of their future selves, not least of all what it will look like when their traveling crew includes a well-rehearsed lighting director. But beyond that, I was also constantly aware that there was an element of acting involved and the band’s ability to go full tilt for a skeleton crew of fans in a metal warehouse had me in awe of the professionalism and maturity of these young musicians. In lieu of riding the wave of energy usually offered up by a crowd of frenzied fans – alas, there was just one 😉 – the band had to look within to conjure an Academy Award worthy performance. This was every bit a real concert, albeit one of the most exclusive I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending, as only a small handful of us joined the host of others viewing online.
Jazz, blues, and rock; composition, improvisation, and extensive jams; Dogs In A Pile checks all the boxes. Stay tuned for the imminent release of their first ever album, and be sure to visit the Tree of Forgiveness Virtual Nightclub for upcoming events with Waiting on Mongo and Magnolia Boulevard.
16,866 lonely steps.
Setlist …
Set One: Something like Olivia, Didn’t Ya Know* > Look Johnny, Hesitate*, Snow Day, Time Stands Still > Craig & Pat > Can’t Wait For Tonight
Set Two: Thomas Duncan Pt. 2^ > Wild Honey Pie # > Thomas Duncan Pt. 2, Charlie > Walkin’ On The Sun% > Spun > Trunk Rum > Help On the Way > Slipknot! > Bugle On The Shelf > Charlie Encore: Lazy Day, Write You A Song @
* First Time Played
^ Slipknot! Jam
# The Beatles, FTP
% Smash Mouth, FTP
@ Logan Waley, FTP
