Reeves' celebrity not enough to carry Dogstar

Courtesy Dogstar From www.dogstarfans.com/photos.html

To quote Elizabeth Berkeley's character Nomi Malone from the movie "Showgirls," the band Dogstar "doesn't suck."

You may be scratching your head in a perplexed manner thinking, "who's Dogstar?"

Well, let me educate. Dogstar is an L.A. band featuring actor Keanu Reeves on bass.

Oh yeah, also in the band are actor Rob Mailhouse ("The Glimmer Man") and Bret Domrose.

Reeves and company played Club Congress May 30 to a capacity crowd, primarily a throng of screaming women and gay men.

Also included on the bill were Albuquerque's The Impostors, and Silverjet. They don't suck as others have said, but they aren't the best band. In fact, their only means of popularity and recognition is Reeves.

After the whole affair and the events of that night, I think the first bands were better than Dogstar.

The Impostors were all right, but too much screaming. Chill! The best thing about this band was its songs. The lyrics told stories of the average man and his struggle with little things in life, like a toaster not working and his car not being cool enough .

Thank God that none of this band's lyrics consisted of such tired trash about being mad at your father because he wouldn't let you go to a high school dance 10 years ago.

Silverjet brought the audience a sense of excitement and giddiness through the rhythm of storytelling music. Their music was fun and frisky, and just made you want to move. Their stories consisted of adolescent love stories. Again.

Back to Dogstar. Musically they are kind of soggy and dreary as the compost heap played everyday on alternative radio stations. So, probably they will be getting lots of airplay soon.

But, that was just a few songs. Actually, Dog Star's music was more diverse than current hit makers Bush, Oasis, Cake and Pearl Jam. The play list consisted of alternative, Top 40, and some metal-induced sounds.

The lyrics came out somewhat nasally and unclear. Of course that seems to be the trend in all fields of music lately.

Currently, the only way to grab the latest Dogstar CD is at their summer concerts, and possibly Zia Records.

The sad thing about Dogstar is that as good as Domrose and Mailhouse will evolve to be one day, the band will never be anything more than a band with an international star.