Review: Dr. Dog & Deer Tick @ Terminal 5

The Providence-based act peppered their set with the “classics” – Baltimore Blues, Ashamed and These Old Shoes with its shout along chorus, as well as a handful of new tunes that will appear on their forthcoming album. The majority of the tunes were delivered in McCauley’s signature whiskey-soaked and cigarette-smoke saturated vocals. McCauley also used the opportunity to play Me, Me, Me from the new alt.country super-group MG&V he’s a part of with Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and Matt Vasquez from Delta Spirit who will release their debut later this year.

Just when the band seemed to be getting comfortable, thanks in part to a bottle of Jack Daniels that was being liberally swigged from, their time on stage was quickly elapsing. In true Deer Tick fashion they closed with two covers – Chuck Berry’s rock and roll classic Maybelline and a jammed out version of ZZ Top’s Cheap Sunglasses. The latter featured some blazing sax work and Southern-boogie guitar duels earning roars from the audience.

While Deer Tick succeeded in whetting the crowd’s appetite, it was clear early on that the majority of the sold out crowd was there to see psychedelic-pop revivalists Dr. Dog, as their boisterous fans chanted the band’s name over and over just a few songs in. The Philadelphia-based act, who is currently riding the buzz of their latest release, and Anti- Records debut Shame, Shame, kicked off their set appropriately with the bouncy bass lines of album’s lead track Stranger. Built around their gorgeous sun-drenched, Beach Boys-esque harmonies, Dr. Dog has rapidly matured from a lo-fi, psych-rock act to a critically acclaimed band that on this night was playing its largest headlining show to date at the cavernous three-leveled venue.

Over the next two hours, the band leaned almost exclusively on material from their last two albums (playing almost every track off their latest), as lead singers Toby Leaman (bass) and Scott McMicken (guitar) enthusiastically bounced around the stage trading vocal duties from song to song much like Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir used to do. The duo’s ying and yang were at play throughout the night as Leaman’s all-in booming vocal delivery, on songs like Army Of Ancients and The Ark, were contrasted by McMicken’s more tender and subtle tones on tunes such as Where’d All The Time Go and I Only Wear Blue.

The crowd, clearly feeding off the band’s energy, danced and sang along quite loudly at times to newer tunes like Mirror, Mirror with its breakneck speed peak, the breezy summer beach rocker Shadow People and the David Bowie-esque Shame, Shame. While longtime fans were treated to The Girl and The Way The Lazy Do from 2007’s We All Belong late in the show, they were the only “older” songs played the entire evening.

Hitting the stage for the encore, Dr. Dog launched into Jackie Wants A Black Eye which was followed by two of my personal highlights of the night – their fantastic acid-disco-folk cover of Architecture In Helsinki’s Heart It Races, and the show closing Fate deep cut My Friend, which has always reminded me of The Beatles’ A Day In The Life, with its various winding sections and tempo changes.

While selling out a 3,000 person room clearly demonstrates a band’s popularity, this gig certainly felt very much like a coming out party for Dr. Dog who will next play at this weekend’s Mountain Jam, and have scheduled appearances at Bonnaroo, High Sierra, All Good and a recently announced free gig at Governor’s Island on July 17.

Deer Tick
Easy, Baltimore Blues, Me Me Me*, Ashamed, New Song, 20 Miles, New Song, These Old Shoes, Maybeline**, Cheap Sunglasses***

* MG&V, **Chuck Berry, ***ZZ Top

Dr. Dog

Stranger, I Only Wear Blue, The Old Days, Army of Ancient, Mirror Mirror, The Ark, The Rabbit The Bat & The Reindeer, Hang On, Unbearable Why, Station, Shadow People, Shoulda Known Better, Where’d All The Time Go?, The Beach, The Breeze, The Girl, Later, The Way The Lazy Do, Shame Shame

Encore: Jackie Wants a Black Eye, Heart It Races*, My Friend

*Architecture In Helsinki

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