Dogstar Keeps It Tight at Brooklyn Bowl

Dogstar at Brooklyn Bowl, 12/20/2023
Photo: Rob Hinkal

Wednesday night's show marked my first visit to Germantown’s Brooklyn Bowl — a comfortable, accessible venue that not only honors and respects the power of the mirrorball, but also allows the pleasure of judging strangers’ bowling scores between sets. The pre-show house music for this Dogstar show (the first of two Nashville dates, winding down a fall reunion tour for the trio) deployed an extremely rare The Cure/Blondie/The Cure/Blondie combo, highlighting the uber-’80s influences of the bands to come. The less-than-a-week-away-from-Christmas spirit brought out numerous holiday sweaters and at least one Buddy the Elf and Mrs. Claus to a pretty packed house. There were definitely a few younger faces in the crowd, but the average age was firmly in the “my college had a computer lab” bracket.

Archer Oh.jpg — Archer Oh at Brooklyn Bowl, 12/20/2023
Photo: Rob Hinkal

Openers Archer Oh were a more or less instant hit for me: This is proper rock ’n’ roll. Think a SoCal-infused Strokes with zero overindulgence, a natural understanding of melody, and an insistent drummer (Pedro Hernandez) who’s able to do a lot with a little kit. Youthful energy was evident right from the top and never flagged, with vocalist Arturo “Archer” Medrano balancing plaintive rock crooning and bratty garage-band snarls with aplomb. There was the lightest touch of surf rock (think coasting grooves rather than straight shredding) with occasional dips into dirge-y psych heaviness — but the kind of psych grandma and grandpa understand, treading out far enough to evoke “I Want You (She's So Heavy),” but no further. They mentioned it was their first time in Tennessee, and I would see a longer set if they glide through again. Consider that cassette tape purchased.

For headliners Dogstar — my brain kept choosing to call them “Perro Estrella” — there was, of course, an expected mood shift. The elephant in the room is the massive worldwide sex symbol action star celebrity on bass, and the zooming in of every other camera phone didn’t let you forget it. (“Hey, remember the time we saw Keanu Reeves play bass at a bowling alley?” is a true story hundreds of people can now deploy.) Dogstar by no means comes across as a Keanu Reeves vanity project, and a handful of bass-forward intros doesn’t change that. In fact, it was drummer Robert Mailhouse who pulled in one of the biggest applause bursts of the night when he whipped out rock’s secret weapon: the harmonica.

The songs were all surprisingly short and rock-radio-ready with vocalist Bret Domrose evoking a Bono-esque “Sad Romantic Man” vibe, while Reeves lumbered around with pretty much exactly the same rock-stage energy displayed in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure a mere (sweet Baby Jesus in the manger), uh, 34 years ago. “Sleep,” from the group’s new record Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees, was a highlight, as was the cover of the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” during the encore, making the point again that the band prefers short and punchy to long and meandering. I expected a show like this to run like clockwork and was not disappointed — the openers began at 8 p.m. on the dot and everyone was heading out just after 10, into a chilly, crisp and clear night.