924 days, 19 hours, 45 minutes…approximately speaking. Not that we were keeping a tally, but when you’re unsure when or even if you’ll ever see one of your favorite Philly bands again, that time adds up. But also, it evaporates the moment Dr. Dog takes the stage at The Mann Center to a crowd of 10,000+ fans, a multi-generational mix of people sweating through the July heat but electrified and eager to see the indie veterans play their first hometown gig since retiring from touring in 2021.
Appropriately, they opened with “Where’s All The Time Go?”, a shimmering and sublime number from their breakout 2009 LP Shame, Shame. And from there, the band took the audience on a rollicking ride across their discography, offering up sure-fire crowd pleasers (“You’re gonna like this one, I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life,” bassist Toby Leaman said before the band kicked into “Shadow People,” and the singalong that resulted was indeed massive) with less-heard deep cuts (the mellow “Say Something” drew all the way back to 2005 and Easy Beat).
Dr. Dog | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Though the core of Dr. Dog remains much as it’s been for the past 15 years — Scott McMicken on guitar, Toby Leaman on bass, both sharing lead vocal duty and bolting around the stage with abandon while backed by guitarist Frank McElroy, keyboardist Zach Miller, and drummer Eric Slick — the Dr. Dog of 2024 has some fresh components. The Nashville-based Philadelphia native Dom Billett joined the mix on percussion and an array of other instrumentation. Meanwhile, Asheville singers Alyse Baca, Dulci Ellenberger, and Becca Nicholson brought the dense vocal layers of the band’s studio work to life onstage in a way we haven’t experienced before. Their impact was particularly felt on the stacked harmonies of the crowd favorite “Jackie Wants A Black Eye,” as well as the counterpoint vocals of the sultry groover “Talk Is Cheap,” one of two new songs the band played Saturday.
The band’s self-titled eleventh album releases this week, and though we certainly could have heard more of it in the mix at The Mann — those who arrived early might have caught many highlights from the record being played over the PA on the pre-show playlist, in a heady mix alongside reggae and dub cuts perfect for the sweltering temperatures — the other new selection in the proper setlist was a special one.
Drummer Eric Slick gets his first lead vocal on a Dr. Dog record on this outing, a warm and positive tune called “Tell Your Friends,” and he stepped downstage to sing it mid-set to a welcoming reception. While Leaman adjusted his vocal mic for Slick, and Slick teased Leaman over their height difference, the drummer reflected on the significance of playing The Mann as someone who grew up in Fairmount and saw his first concert at this venue 35 years ago (Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band, August of 1989, Slick was 2).
Dr. Dog | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
The concert, though, truly was significant for the whole of this band that’s worked hard and repped Philly through and through for two-plus decades, working its way through bigger and bigger spaces. Bringing out 10,000 fans in your hometown is nothing to shrug at, and you could tell from their constant brimming smiles and pensive banter that it was not lost on them. When he kicked out the plug of his stage fan, Leaman said “Forget this Lasko from Home Depot, how are the real fans out there doing?” Dad joke though it may have been, it generated a round of cheers, prompting Leaman to follow up more humbly: “This is kind of nerve-wracking, but this rules though, thank you so much.” A reflective McMicken put it succinctly, calling the gig “such a wonderfully overwhelming occasion.”
Overwhelming for band, unpredictable for crowd, with a setlist maybe a bit tailored for a city that’s spent the week roasting in the upper 90s — the slow moments in their catalog felt very slow, so much so that this writer didn’t recognize the long intro to “Ain’t It Strange” until its lyrics kicked in — but the moments that went big did so in equal extremes, with “That Old Black Hole” and “The Rabbit, The Bat, And The Reindeer” exploding with joy and energy and love like only Dr. Dog can.
Kevin Morby | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Opening the show was a knockout pairing of Nashville indie singer-songwriter Kevin Morby and reunited Philly rockers The Teeth. Morby and his band (which featured Slick pulling double duty as his fill-in drummer) were charismatic and impactful, drawing on 2022’s This Is A Photograph and its mix of gnarly rock with flourishes of sax, flute, and piano (credit multi-instrumental Cochemea Gastelum with all of those). “Rock Bottom” slammed, “City Music” soared, the singer promised to be back soon.
Meanwhile, The Teeth — who came up in the early aughties scene with Dr. Dog, were early labelmates of theirs on Park The Van records, and reunited at the top of this year — took the stage first with an incredibly kinetic set. Brothers Peter and Aaron MoDavis leapt and screamed to jammers like “Peter Goes To 43rd Street” and “Ball of The Dead Rat,” sax player Dom Malandro wailed and mixed it up with impressively mustachioed guitarist Brian Ashby, and the band got a new song in the mix that Setlist.fm tells us is called “Cowslip Castle.” Is there a new Teeth album on the way? Time will tell.
Below, check out photos from Dr. Dog and friends’ Saturday night show at the Mann; the band heads to Colorado this Thursday to play Red Rocks Amphitheater, details on that concert here.
The Teeth | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Kevin Morby | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Dr. Dog | photo by John Vettese for WXPN