Apollo Sunshine and Dr. Dog at the Paradise

Watch out world, here comes Apollo Sunshine. Last night, the band kicked off their co-headlining month long tour with Philly Phab Phive - Dr. Dog. The Boston show is the only one that Apollo took the stage second and I’m glad that I got to see it. Back as a 4 piece (and sometimes 5) Apollo is now capable of replicating the huge sound they create in a studio. The band has been holed up in a studio in upstate New York all summer, possibly making their finest album to date (judging by the plethora of new tunes they dropped on us), and they are ready to let the world hear it. There have been no leaks of the new material. Their myspace page has been littered with fuzzy drum jams and hilarious 2 minute covers (such as “(Always Look on the) Brightside”) so this was the first time I was able to hear what they have been up to.

Apollo took the stage and launched in to one of the said new tunes before delving into their repetoire with “Lord”, which evolved into a drum jam with all 4 members playing some sort of percussive instrument. The problem I have today with many indie-rock bands is they never jam stuff out. Apollo have great songs and they could easily just stick with the material but they love to experiment and just go off. They are master musicians (all attended Berklee School of Music) and are capable of playing anything you put in front of them such as basses, guitars, keyboards, drums and any effects boxes you wanna throw at them. They are slaves to sound. Frontman Jesse Gallagher even set up a mic on drummer Jeremy Black’s snare drum and was able to run it through a delay box to create a distorted echo effect (a la many old reggae dub albums) with the hit of a button. Both him and guitarist Sam Cohen had multiple keyboards and effects rigs at their disposal and new guitar player (Quentin?) had a mini drum set up next to him.

Although the band played 65% new material, they did treat the crowd to a couple classics from their sophmore release but unfortunately nothing off Katonah(savages in this town). The big two, “Flip!” and “Today is the Day” (which I hear may be on a Jeep commercial soon), tore the roof off the place with the whole crowd singing along. The always expansive “Phyllis” closed the show but seemed more tame than versions I’ve heard before (Of course last time I heard this song live the band had all eaten some sort of fungi).

Philadelphia’s 70's throwback neo-folk rockers, Dr. Dog opened the show (they are headlining the rest of the tour though) with a 64 minute set touching on their entire catalogue (3 albums and a bunch of unreleased stuff that's streaming from weallbelong.net). These guys aren’t doing anything the Beatles or the Band hasn’t done before but atleast they mimic the best. Their 3 part harmonies came through a little fuzzy in the club’s distorted sound system but were there none the less. I also dig the use of cool diminished chords but their overall harmonic progressions are nothing special. The two singers have such unique vocal styles and shapes that it was nice to put the voice with the face. My favorite song of theirs “The World May Never Know” was alternately arranged into more of a fast shuffle, which I didn’t care for too much. Other than that all the songs sounded excactly like the album version. The Dog don’t quite have the chops or artistic drive that I like in Apollo so much but they do write some damn good drinkin’ songs.


Dr. Dog's set: Ain’t it Strange, The Pretender, The World May Never Know, From, The Girl, Could Use a Hand^, My Old Ways, Hole in Roof^, Keep a Friend, Easy Beat, Worst Trip, Today, Fool’s Life, Call your Bluff^, Die Die Die, The Way the Lazy Do


^ not sure of title so I guessed.

Apollo Sunshine's set: Leavin (Ain’t as Hard as it Used to Be)^, Lord > drums* > Lord, Blue^, Magnolia, Evil^, Piano fugue instrumental^, Who’s That that Walks Around^, Today is the Day, African Cover**, Long to Touch You^, Flip!, Oblivious^

E: Poppa Woody***, Phyllis***
^ new song, not sure of title. * w/ all 4 members on drums. ** Cover song, taken from a compilation found on David Byrne’s world music label. ** w/ tenor sax guest. A guest percussionist also sat in most of the show.