25 November 2012

Stray Dogs


I went out on Thursday night to see a band. A couple of my Singaporean friends had been badgering me for a while to come with them. I like live music and I love to dance. I have however been a bit disappointed before with the quality of local bands so I had been putting them off. "This will be different" they assured me. "There are a couple of guys playing from the original Stray Dogs". The Stray Dogs were Rock and Roll icons in Singapore. From the 80's. 

So I thought I would give it a crack.

The venue was an old pump station. It was pretty local. It was a covered outdoor venue. It was very cool. There was a full house but my friends were connected so we had a table near the bar and the stage. The first set was pretty average. There was lots of noise but nothing was extraordinary. The music wasn't enough to get me to my feet. I looked knowingly at my friends. 

"Just wait" they said. "This is just a warm up".

For the second set a little fella walked onto the stage and opened a saxophone case. He looked fairly unassuming. He was bespectacled and he was neatly dressed. He looked like he could have worked in a shop. There was a different lead singer now too who also played the lead guitar. He was a wrinkled old dude with snow white hair. 

He was one of the Dogs.

The opening number was Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". It blew me away. The guy on the sax went off. The vocals were smooth. The crowd was beginning to hum. The second number was "The Sultans of Swing" - the Dire Straits classic. I jumped to my feet and into the throng. I let the music take hold. As one we danced in the moonlight. The sax solo went on and on. It was sensational. The music was pulsating. It was spanking. The band did a couple more Dire Strait covers then a sensational version of Bruce Springsteen's "Jungle Road". We were lapping it up. The set ended with haunting renditions of Van Morrison's "Moondance', 'It Stoned Me" and "Into the Mystic". It was Blues at its very best. 

It brought tears to my eyes.

Who says there is no Soul in Singapore? 

I can't wait to see them again.    

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