The Love Dogs opened their set at Strange Brew last night with some free form swing blues. Each member of this eight piece briefly strutted his or her stuff. Guitarist Glen Shambroom, who is also a saxophonist, tore it up on bari sax, and Scotty Shetler, filling in for Myanna Pontoppidan, cut loose with his tenor sax, sending off shards of bopping melody.
Keyboardist Alizon Lissance chimed in with jazzy piano chords. I swear! That woman never ages. She still looks much like she does in videos taken of her former 1980s band Girls’ Night Out, frizzy hair and lissome moves still intact. Drummer Downtown Steve Brown smacked his four piece drum set so well he sounded like he had a larger set.
Then, the real show started. Singer Ed Scheer jumped right into the vocal chores of “Much Later” and a dual sax approach had lots of hot horn melody and horn blasts to jump start the Strange Brew’s dinner crowd. The Love Dogs uses mostly just their instruments and amps without any pedals or reverb equipment. This keeps them on their toes to come up with the right dynamics, tones, colors. This is especially true of guitarist/sax man Shambroom. He was the scene stealer last night, with his six string varying from edgy phrases, to thick chords, to just wailing away. He pressed the melodic phrase of “All Over Now” out of his strings with great feel for how that song twists and turns.
The Love Dogs are just so talented and just so much fun and they come up with so much exuberant sound that you just want to holler aloud, “There is a God!” There was so much funky sound going down. Two blaring horns, one edgy, precise guitar, a thumping bass guiding the tiller, a skin-smacking drummer, and one very charismatic front man with genuine range are the ingredients for fun, and successful gigs. I don’t think any club patron could ever ignore this band in favor of TV screens. They just have so much going on. Nobody in sight from the band stand area was ignoring the band. The Love Dogs had everyone enrapt.
Lissance showed good chops on the mildly Joplinesque piano rolls on “Forget About It, Baby,” and Scheer donned his washboard for one called “Safronia B.” Scheer also sang the humorous “Don’t Bug Me” off of The Love Dogs’ New Tricks CD. It had a fun, rollicking beat, and snappy guitar chords from Shambroom that he eventually traded in for notes that seemed to be screaming out of his axe. Another funny song, “Framed” gave Scheer more room to strut his front man stuff. The song’s swinging beat gave it life and Shambroom gave it one of his guitar phrase special toppings.
The Love Dogs have a penchant for playing timeless classics that you just don’t hear too many other bands play. They tackled Tiny Bradshaw’s “Oh, Well” with Shetler’s swinging sax solo sounding 1940s is its colors and tones, and Lissance managed the old time piano chord progressions. Lissance is also a front person in her own right, and she put her tender rasp to good use on “Right Up The Road” and in her other lead vocal slots. “Drink Up” again showed The Love Dogs penchant for putting together an old fashioned sound based on swing blues.
Bassist Randy Bramwell was the true unsung hero of this band last night. His understated pulse may not be the most noticeable thing. Yet, without someone of his caliber holding down the anchor and thickening those grooves, the whole house would fall in upon itself. The band would be all over the place musically. Not every rhythm section can build a strong enough rhythm like Bramwell and Brown.
Throughout the evening a spry young couple were near the stage doing the Argentine Tango to The Love Dogs’ swing blues and New Orleans flavored shuffles. Tunes like “U. P. My Baby,” “Brother John,” and “Devil With Blue Dress” proved popular with crowd, members of which kept coming up to the dance floor. The Dogs also ushered the crowd through memory lane with nostalgic tunes like “Time Is On My Side,” “All Over Now,” “Be My Baby,” and “Midnight Special.” With Shambroom leading the way with his six string phrases, they also performed Cream’s “Strange Brew” as a tribute to the Strange Brew Tavern.
It was a good night for a crowd that was expecting to be hunkered down for a hurricane.
www.thelovedogs.com
