Bigger Than Jebus

On Friday, I went to the 1st show of cover band Dwayne Gretzky's February residency at The Horseshoe. It's a bit incredible that they are now more popular than many "original" bands: witness their sold-out NYE show at the 2,000+ Danforth Music Hall. Unsurprisingly, there was already a line-up when I arrived at 9:30 and the bar was at capacity by 10 pm.

So Sam Cash and the Romantic Dogs experienced a rarity for most openers: playing to a full house. Though they played straight up rock, Cash sang like a young Bob Dylan. The first couple of songs sounded generic and didn't get much reaction. But the second half of their set had more interesting numbers (Steal My Car, That Was The Summer) that finally got some positive responses.

Tonight must be "Hits" night because Dwayne Gretzky packed both sets with crowd-pleasers: Psycho Killer, Under Pressure, I Want You Back. They have started to add more 80s numbers including Let's Dance and Sledgehammer. The crowd ate up all the tunes and even managed to dance despite the sardine atmosphere. For the music cognoscenti/hipsters, there was a 4 song Paul Simon mini-set including Boy In The Bucket and Graceland in the 1st set, and a couple of The Band tunes to open and close out the 2nd set.