It pays to be nimble! Last Friday morning I was reading the latest freekly that my spouse brought home the day prior [it distributes on Tues.-Wed.] and to what to my won’dring eyes should appear but an ad in the club listings for the club Eulogy; the live venue adjacent to the Burial Beer taphouse. And the evening’s entertainment were Power Pop royalty; The dBs! And they were playing last Friday evening, so I was lucky that I saw the ad in time. I was on that ticket like white on rice then I texted my neighbor who went to college in Athens all those years ago. If he wasn’t a dBs fan I’d have eaten my proverbial hat.

As it turned out, he was glad to be in on my scheme and would join me in an evening’s fun last Friday night on short notice. The stinging irony was that a few weeks ago an offline thread with commenter schwenko of NYC revealed that he had tickets for The dBs of his own and at that time I expressed slight jealousy at his… well, I can’t call it luck. Every act that tours America pretty much performs a NYC show. For some reason I didn’t look up online to see if there were any tour dates here at the time; my usual modus operandi! But the gig goddesses had decided to smile on me any way.

I’d never seen The dBs, but 15 years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey in town promoting their duo album, ‘hERE aND nOW.” So this would be my first rematch with those gents. This time with their classic rhythm section also playing. The full band had regrouped in the original lineup in 2012 for a new album, their first in 25 years at that point, but the occasion for this tour was that Jefferson Holt’s [ex-R.E.M. Manager] label Propeller Sound Recordings were releasing the band’s iconic one-two punch of the albums “Stands For Decibels” and “Repercussion” on LP for the first time in America at this time. “Stands For Decibels” is out now [CD + LP] and “Repercussion” is due for release on October 18th.

The band were famously a very American jangle-pop band who had their first two albums released on the UK-only Albion label. So this most American of bands, inspired by Big Star [where Stamey played in a late lineup pre-dBs] and The Byrds while soaking up the New Wave of the time, could only be bought on import in their native land. They were anticipating the sound and values which would later manifest via bands like R.EM., who had much better luck with getting their records released and distributed than The dBs did.

That’s not to say that the band don’t proffer a top quality performance by Power Pop icons who have perfected a blend of tuneful hooks cheek-by-jowl with inventive, leftfield excursions that deliver on terms larger than the sum of their impressive parts. Abetted by their clear, powerful harmonies. As a fan of artists like Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, seeing them live was a glimpse at the prowess of the masters of the form who had emerged form the Head of Zeus while their peers were still in development.

The show this evening was a masterclass in the Joy of Pop, performed with a love for its many pleasures as well as a need to push artistic boundaries. The quartet were aided this evening by their keyboardist, Wes Lachot, who allowed them to add the filigree necessary for attaining those reaches for the sublime in excess of that a four piece rock band can achieve. I’ve always loved bands with more than a single lead singer and Holsapple and Stamey traded off material from their excellent catalog, with the exception of numbers that they sang as duets.

The sick, sad thing is, that I’ve never owned any dBs albums [I did buy the 2009 Stamey/Holsapple disc] but fortunately, I had a reasonable familiarity with a few songs from the band’s canon via the medium of cover versions! I’d been a big Marti Jones fan from day one and she had impeccable taste in covers, with two classics on her amazing debut album, “Lonely Is As Lonely Does” and the rip roaring “Neverland.” Both of these tracks would be the only songs I knew front to back here this evening, but the sweet, simple fact was that they were but the tip of the iceberg.

The band had a tight set of 90 minutes and there wasn’t a duff minute among them. This was the sort of show that sees me with a huge grin pasted on my puss the whole time. And as if that wasn’t reason enough for hosannas, the show began right on time at 8:00 PM and ended shortly after ten so we could get home and in bed by 10:20! And the best part of all, the concert sound was the second show in a week with blissfully modest sound volume and a clean mix. Honestly, if I didn’t already have tinnitus, I would not have bothered with earplugs.

My only regret here was that I had been completely unaware that The dBs were touring up front. I would have posted the dates in advance on the blog, and would have been planning to buy my ticket much sooner than the day of show, though the whole quick pivot thing worked out magnificently. My neighbor and I had a great time and were telling our wives about the show yesterday when visiting. If you would like to see the next leg of the tour, here are the dates as the band is now taking a little break.

THE DBs | US FALL ’24 TOUR

• Oct. 11, 2024 | Saint Paul, MN | Amsterdam Bar And Hall
• Oct. 12, 2024 | Chicago, IL | Old Town School Of Folk Music [SOLD OUT]
• Oct. 13, 2024 | Milwaukee, WI | Shank Hall
• Nov. 14, 2024 | San Francisco, CA | The Chapel
• Nov. 16, 2024 | Los Angeles, CA | Zebulon
• Nov. 17, 2024 | Los Angeles, CA | Zebulon [SOLD OUT]
• Dec. 6, 2024 | Winston-Salem, NC | The Southeastern Center For Contemporary Art

And sadly, I didn’t buy the CD of “Stands For Decibels” on the merch table as there will be a lot of dining out planned over the next week for us, so I had to show some restraint. But there is no shortage of CDs, T-shirts, and LPs of the classic at The dBs webstore. CDs are $15 with black + white split LPs just a tenner more. I didn’t know about the “I Thought You Wanted To Know” compilation of ’78-’81 rarities and unreleased material that might be a real corker! But right now it’s on sale at the Propeller Sound Recordings website with CDs for a ten spot and double green vinyl for $25. So if you need any of this tuneage, then DJ hit that button!

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