Dead End Drive-In: Now Showing – The Dogs D’Amour
Written by Johnny H
Sunday, 21 September 2014 02:55
The Dogs D’Amour – ‘From Here Is An Eternity’ (King Outlaw)
Apart from the bonus DVD that came with the excellent and long since deleted ‘Heart Shaped Skulls’ Dogs D’Amour retrospective from a decade or so ago, classic – as in “most popular” – Dogs line up material on video has been in pretty short supply much confined to our well-worn VHS tapes of old, that is of course until now.
‘From Here Is An Eternity’ then is a long overdue Dogs D’Amour visual treasure trove split across 2 DVDs that features not only the Wolverhampton show from the band’s short but sweet eight date 2013 reunion tour, but also a second disc of vintage era Dogs material interspersed with some behind the scenes footage from the ‘Cyber Recordings’ EP again in 2013.
Sounds a delicious prospect doesn’t it….and it is. However before we kick off with what is actually contained within this most lovely of packages I must admit I was at first put off by the just shy of £30 asking price that the band was asking for the “With Frills” version of this set on Tyla’s Art Tavern website, especially when you consider that the “No Frills” version which is basically the same DVD albeit minus 2 signed pieces of paper and a sticker retails for £10 less. I do fully understand that musicians have to remain fed and watered but I cannot help but feel that perhaps an annual Art Tavern membership al a Metallica’s superb Metclub or to a slightly lesser extent The Hip Priests’ Facebook Spasm Gang with automatic access to “member’s only” versions of these releases might be the best way forward for the band and Tyla, especially when looking to keep their diehard fans from perhaps feeling that with the plethora of new releases they are unleashing on them that they may be being somewhat.. umm.. exploited. This of course is then not helped by the fact that Amazon then announce they will retail the “No Frills” version for £13.99 in the run up to its official release on 29th September 2014. Ho-hum!
This minor price point gripe aside though I have to say that once you plonk the first DVD into your player you are in for a real TV Dogs Dinner. Clocking in at 88 minutes the 21 song set captured back in March 2013 at the Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton will be perhaps many people’s first chance to see what Bam, Tyla, Jo and Steve actually looked and sounded like back on the same stage together after all those uncharted years of musical displacement, but for yours truly it’s more of a chance to see what the band sounded like a few shows on from the Borderline show I attended on the first night of the tour.
Shot on multiple cameras it is the excellent sound of the live recording (albeit with a few feedback sheiks early on) that hammers home the fact that the Dogs on top form and playing as they do here all their “hits” really are an epic force in the world of rock ‘n’ roll.
In saying that they have always been just that though and if you ever needed any more proof of that fact then the 80 minute second DVD is here to cast asunder any such Doggy doubters.
Starting with what appears to be personal video footage from the band’s 1989 appearance at an open air show in Tokyo, whilst the picture and sound quality are very much “of their time” this is some of the finest footage I have ever seen from this era. Tyla, all American accented up, cigarette perma fixed to the corner of his mouth looks every inch the rock star on the rise that he was back then, just like his blood brothers Jo, Bam, and Steve who flank him in what turns out to be a real powerhouse performance that is lapped up by the Japanese faithful who simply hang on every single note.
The one camera editing might not exactly be state of the art but it is the only way you will ever see this stuff so I’m just grateful to be able to see the likes of ‘I Don’t Want You To Go’ and ‘Heartbreak’ (however brief the segment is) in all their original 1989 glory.
Accompanying this live set are various Japanese TV clips from around about the same time featuring the likes of ‘Billy Two River’s’ and ‘Bullet Proof Poet’ live and acoustic, whilst from further back in the archive you also get the band recording TV Idents and laying down a fantastic version of ‘Medicine Man’ ahead of the release of ‘In The Dynamite Jet Saloon’. Again don’t expect Dolby Digital sound or 3D visuals here, this is simply fantastic archive footage the likes of which made the £30 asking price I paid seem almost worth it… oh and before anyone bites, that’s meant as irony.
Coming full circle the second DVD then adds over 30 minutes of rehearsal footage and promo reels from the 2013 reunion EP, and this folks is the stuff I love to watch having a somewhat unhealthy fascination in how bands go about writing and recording, it is an absolute delight to watch Tyla and Steve sitting down with acoustic guitars to work on new material after so many years apart. I just wish there were more of it.
Look, If you are a fan of The Dogs D’Amour you need this DVD in your life, trust me, you are incomplete without it, whichever version of it you decide to buy though is totally up to you.
http://www.tylasarttavern.com/
To pick up your copy of ‘From Here Is An Eternity’ – CLICK HERE
