Dr. Dog/The Foundry Field Recordings @ Mojo's, 07/29/08

Guess who figured out what was wrong with his camera (I'll take ISO for 400, Alex). Guess who didn't figure it out until halfway through Dr. Dog's set, though.

Apologies go to the brand new Foundry Field Recordings lineup, featured here in pale silhouettes under the newly rearranged and diffused State-of-the-Art Mojo's Lighting System™ (STAMLS™). The "local opener" actually tore it up for the mildly enthusiastic early-in-the-show crowd of guys with gelled hair in Express button downs and their disproportionately attractive girlfriends, splitting the set between a few older cuts and Some New Stuff. It was ostensibly the first run for the new material, and probably the last time anyone in these parts will hear it until next year. I'm going to make a useless observation, but the end of that second new one was so rad.

Freedence also opened with personal fave "Warning Raids Over Kiev" - freshly dubbed "the most promising thing I've heard come out of Columbia" by an anonymous Bathysphere contributor - which you can hear via the convenient new Playlist player just northeast of this paragraph. Sha-zam!*

(click to enlarge)

Let's introduce the elephant: So what if Dr. Dog is 110% derivative? That's entirely beside the point and actually half the fun. It's one thing to parlay a week-long Big Pink binge into a cover band, but it's another thing to wring a commercially successful and artistically viable career from an unimpeachable list of influences (RIYL The Beatles, The Band, Ziggy Stardust, CSNY with a little extra Y in the breakdowns). Luddites, yes, but I'd be lying if I said those "Down by the River" harmonies don't push all my buttons at once.

The crowd was superb and the encore was unbridled jubilation, though the setlist below doesn't include either of the two encore selections. And photos! With light!

(click to enlarge)

* Andy Griffith Show reference #001 in case anyone's looking for a new game

[photos and review by Zach Noland]