REVIEW BY DAVID TAYLOR AND PHOTOS BY ROBERT A CHADWICK | Go Venue Magazine
On Tuesday, August 27, the Los Angeles rock band, Dogstar, returned to the Omaha area, for the second time since 1997(!) when they played the Ranch Bowl, to play The Astro in La Vista. They brought their melodic alternative rock with a heavy tinge for the crowd to enjoy.
The night’s opening act and direct support came from Sons of Silver, also from Los Angeles. They were beginning their leg of the Dogstar tour that night. Their driving rock made it a great fit to warm the audience up for Dogstar. When I saw promo photos for them, I saw they were a five-piece, so I assumed they had a rhythm guitarist, but the fifth member is a keyboardist, Brina Kabler, so that was a cool reveal. Lead singer/rhythm guitarist Pete RG was fighting a sore throat, but he still sounded good. He arrived in town a couple of days early, and I heard great things about the Astro. If you’re seeing Dogstar on this leg of the tour, make sure to come early to check out Sons of Silver because you won’t be disappointed. It sounds like there will be an album with their recent singles and unreleased material coming soon, so keep an eye on that.
Dogstar from Los Angeles was ready for the Omaha crowd. Dogstar has been a band since the early 1990s and reunited during the lockdown of 2020, jamming out in quarantine and writing new material that led to a new album that came out last year, Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees. The group was such a tight-knit trio led by Bret Domrose on guitar and vocals, Robert Mailhouse on drums, and Keanu Reeves (yes, THAT one) on bass. For a band that took a lengthy break, they sounded fresh and great. I was quite impressed with Keanu Reeves’s bass playing, very energetic and enthusiastic. He was definitely in his comfort zone. Bret Domrose used some incredible guitar effects that were ear candy, complemented well with his playing. Robert Mailhouse pounded those drums hard and heavy. In addition to the new songs from the latest album, they also played songs that will be on their next album, which makes me excited to hear that they want to keep on making music. They even performed a cover of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”, which got the crowd very excited. I hope the crowd that showed up for Keanu came out of the concert big Dogstar fans. I am happy that he can set aside time from working on film projects to focus on this passion project of his, getting to tour the country to places like Omaha he would never get to if he wasn’t in this line of work. I can’t wait to hear their next album, hopefully coming by the end of next year.
Dogstar
Sons of Silver
Follow our socials, only take a second and is free by finding us on:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
