It's amazing. It's stupendous. Ladies and Gentlemen, "Punks" of all ages. What you are about to hear is true. It may be shocking, it is not for the weak or faint of heart, but it is 100% true. Like all truths, it has its origins based in urban legend and lore.
All right, now that I have your attention let me tell you about the Street Dogs. Friday night I headed up to Providence, Rhode Island's Met Café. A small club with an over powering sound system, reasonably priced beer and poor lighting. Translation, a great venue.
The Street Dogs were the opening band on the bill and they blew everyone away. For those of you who don't know who the Street Dogs are, they are comprised of some roques and scalawags from some heavy hitting groups: Johnny Rioux (ex-Bruisers, Roger Miret and the Diasters, and the Kickovers) on bass, Rob Giudotti (Every Second) on guitar, Mike McColgan (ex-Dropkick Murphys) vocals, and Jeff Erna (ex-Dropkick Murphys) on drums. For this show, Jeff wasn't available, so Joe "the kid" Sirois from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones filled in on the skins.
The Street Dogs opened up with the title track from their forth-coming record "Savin Hill" (Out September 23). From the first note out of the amps, you knew the Dogs were there one reason and one reason only, to breath some life back into the dying music scene. They are hard hitting and play with such passion and enthusiasm that they had the crowd won over before they finished the first chorus. I haven't seen or heard a set so good in a long, long time. I've been around for awhile (going to punk shows for the past 15 years), have seen some great bands and, let me tell you, these guys rock. They are a tight knit unit yet not one member is stronger than another, so you are not overpowered by just one guy. They compliment each other so nicely and look like they are having the greatest time of their lives up there. This is a rare trait nowadays. It is only something you see in the great ones, the ones that you still hear about twenty years later.
From "Savin Hill", they went straight into "Don't Preach" and Mike went straight into the crowd to sing this one. They then played a few songs that are on their demo, which has been circulating around for awhile. I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one who was singing franticly to "Cutdown on the 12th", "Star", and the hitting you with a one-two punch "Justifiable Fisticuffs". The place went nuts for the "Fisticuffs". They played a few more tracks before coming to the song "Fighter" (which you can download off their website www.street-dogs.com). Everybody there seemed to know this one as there was a huge serge forward to help sing-a-long with Mike. The band kept the crowd going playing one of the greatest songs I've ever heard, "Stand Up". The intensity didn't end until the Street Dogs ended their set with a cover of Sham 69's "Borstal Breakout". Absolutely Fantastic. After their set they went into the crowd and hunted down everyone they saw singing and thanked them for coming out. They also handed out sampler cds, containing two tracks from "Savin Hill" to pretty much everybody in the place.
Please take my advice and go see these guys (check their website for dates, I think they are playing some dates with Flogging Molly), cause they are going to take everybody storm. Think of all the punk elitist points you'll have by saying "That you got to see the Street Dogs back when they were "just an opening band". If you can't see them, pick up their album when it drops or watch Mike sing the National Anthem at Fenway Park on September 24 (Baltimore fans can turn the channel after the anthem so they don't have to watch their team get beaten like a rented mule).
Set List from 7/25/03
Savin Hill
Don't Preach
Cutdown on the 12th
Star
Justifiable Fisticuffs
Pilgrim
Jakes
Fighter
Stand Up
Declaration
Last Call
Borstal Breakout