The Ivy Room in Albany California is a neighborhood bar and music venue steeped in Bay Area music history. Originally opened in the early 1940’s, this 200 person venue hosts a myriad of local and global acts of all musical genres. Tonight is The Dickies with Lost Puppy Forever and the Lolly Gaggers.
Lost Puppy Forever was up first. This musical duo consists of a bass player and drummer. It felt a bit odd at first but, it works. The bass player, dressed in a dog onesie, belted out the vocals while the drummer, dressed in a full on dog costume, kept the beat going. The short set of “dog rock” was full of energy and positive dog messages. Two standout songs were “Storm Area 51 Can’t Stop Us All” and “Pizza Song”. The crowd seemed to agree.
Lost Puppies Forever are:
Next up were the Lolly Gaggers. This all queer quartet from the Bay Area, California. Their quick 9 song set consisted of songs ranging from life in a pandemic to loss of a friend to just life being gay. Their charismatic lead vocalist Cary, sporting dark wrap around sunglasses, delivered the meaningful and poignant lyrics like a seasoned pro. He finally removed his glasses to get serious for a moment as he discussed the dangers of the opiate epidemic and the benefits of carrying Narcan to save lives.
The Lolly Gaggers are:
Eden Grace – drums
Cary Escovedo – vocals
Blair Menn – guitar, vocals
Critter Fetkovich – bass
Last, but not least, was the Dickies. This legendary punk band hit the stage for it’s second show today (there was a matinee set earlier). The lead singer Leonard Graves Phillips (who turned 65 this year) and the guitarist Stan Lee, bantered back and forth about this being the matinee show part 2 and this being the late show. They eventually agreed that its a French word and moved on to start the show. Most of the songs came off the first three albums and are all certified punk classics. The set also contained four cover songs, the Moody Blues “Nights in White Satin”, The Quick’s “Pretty Please Me”, Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and P.F. Sloan’s “Eve of Destruction”. My personal favorites were “You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)” and “Gigantor”. These have been my favorite Dickies songs since high school. It was obvious they were crowd favorites as well as the pit blew up. They finished the set with a newer song, “Banana Split (The Tra La La Song)”. This song is well on its way to being a Dickies classic. I am glad I finally got to see them and they did not disappoint.
The Dickies are:
Leonard Graves Phillips – Vocals
Stan Lee – Guitar
Ben David Seelig – guitar
Adam Gomez – drums
Eddie Tatar – Bass
Dickies Setlist:
Encore
Follow Lost Puppies Forever at:
Follow the Lolly Gaggers at:
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Photographer of about 10 years, I have been shooting concerts for about 8 of those years. I started to get serious about concert photography about 6 or 7 years ago and now try to shoot as many as I can. I shoot mostly rock but, have done some country and big band stuff. I love music and since I am nowhere close to being a musician, this is a way I can be a small part of what, in the words of Henry Rollins, “gets me through the highs, the lows and everything in between”.
