Street Dogs / Lost City Angels / Dirty Water

The Street Dogs in their hometown of Boston for an all ages record release party, hell yeah. What’s that? The Red Sox are also playing the Yankees that day and the venue is right next to Fenway. All right, the game starts at 4 and the show is at 5, I’ll give myself an extra hour to get there, “Plenty of time.” Little good that did. After being packed like sardines into the trains and making my through the mayhem surrounding Fenway, I made it to the Axis. I was late and only got to catch about 4 songs from the opening band The Marvels. I had never heard of The Marvels before this and was a little upset that I didn’t get to see their entire set cause these guys and gal really rock. I did pick up their self-released cd, which is pretty good, and look forward to hearing more in the future.

Next up were the Briggs. They had a really good set and impressed a lot of the crowd. They played a lot of stuff off of their “Numbers” album. They sound so much better live than they do on their albums. I liked how the lead singer would sometimes throw on a guitar to help fill out the sound on some tunes. But the highlight of their set, for me, was their cover of the Clash’s “Complete Control”. That puppy was on fire.

Dirty Water then took the stage. Mark Lind has definitely come a long way with his stage presence. I remember seeing him with the Ducky Boys and he seemed a little timid, but now he seems more relaxed and really lets out his personality which made their set a lot more enjoyable. They kicked everything off with “It Starts with You” (which is a fantastic song) and just keep ripping through their set. They played everything off of their self-tilted ep plus threw in some new ones like “No Struggle” and “Hanging Around”.

The next band up were the Lost City Angels and, well, after hearing a bit I decided I needed a fresh air break. They were nothing special, in fact they were quite dull, and the little area outside the club for smoking (Massachusetts has a smoking ban) was packed, so I think most people were thinking exactly what I was.

Once LCA left the stage, everybody piled back into the club. We didn’t have to what long before we heard the sounds of a train and a muffled operator saying, “Next stop Savin Hill Station. Doors open on your left”. The Street Dogs then exploded into the title track from their debut “Savin Hill” and everyone in the place went nuts. When I say everyone, I mean everyone, even the security guys working the barricade were having fun and singing along. I have not seen a set this intense since, I can’t recall if I’ve ever seen anything like it and I’ve been kicking around the punk scene for over 15 years. The lead singer spent more time in the pit singing with everyone then he did on stage. The Street Dogs played every song from “Savin Hill” except for Modern Day Labor Anthem (“Savin Hill” reviewed here) and then threw in a few covers to make sure that the crowd was thoroughly rabid. The band was really into it, I don’t think you could have removed the guitarist’s smile with a crowbar. The only problem with the set was that at the end of it, it took us a while to get a good chant going to get the boys back on stage. I would like to make the suggestion that we don’t try anything fancy and go with what works, “Street Dogs. Street Dogs.”

The Street Dogs are out on tour for a few weeks right now with The Briggs and I can not stress enough the need for you to see them. This is it, everything you’ve ever dreamed of in a punk rock show.