I love it when bands have interesting or silly names. It’s already a plus point in my book before they have even strummed a chord. When I first heard of Dogs Die in Hot Cars about a year ago, I presumed they would be death-metallers or such like, not artisans of the gorgeous tunes with which they entertained us tonight.
And so a sizable crowd had gathered by the time the latest success story from Scotland had taken to the stage. The last six months or so has seen them play all over the country, picking up new fans wherever they have been. They’re an incredibly accessible band, and I don’t just mean their radio-friendly tunes. Maybe it’s because they come across as a thoroughly nice young group, who clearly enjoy themselves on stage and are quite happy to stay and chat with fans afterwards.
Ruth (keyboards/backing-vocals) was despairing at times with the sound faults bugging her keyboard, but a look of bemusement and a shrug of the shoulders and hardly a soul had noticed. Other bands who would have stormed off stage by then should perhaps sit on the corner of the stage and take notes. Shit happens when you play live. How you deal with it says a lot about a band and their prospects.
It’s always a brave move to parade your hits right at the beginning of the set. It certainly gets the room buzzing and the crowd on their feet and in high spirits, but then you have a heck of a lot to live up to after that. The Dogs took that approach tonight, and as one would expect, I love you cos I have to and current single Godhopping raised the roof. Their exceedingly catchy retro-pop sound, complete with the massive airplay these songs have enjoyed, ensured that they had everyone’s attention.
In a years time I would expect they could play out a whole set with songs of that quality, leaving a crowd mesmerised and gasping for more (and breath). They haven’t quite got that far yet and there were patches here and there where there is room for development, where they perhaps didn’t maintain their grip on the crowd, but these were only fleeting moments. Man Bites Man is as good as anything else they have written while crowd favourite Paul Newman’s Eyes and Lounger did more than enough to suggest that these highland terriers are here to stay.
