Grunge band Dogstar made its long-awaited comeback on Saturday night (May 27) with its first performance in 20 years at the BottleRock Festival in Northern California.
Featuring Keanu Reeves on bass, plus guitarist/vocalist Bret Domrose, and drummer Rob Mailhouse, the trio performed 12 songs, several new songs. The set also included songs from the band’s previous two albums (1996’s Our Little Visionary and 2000’s Happy Ending).
Dogstar is currently putting the finishing touches on a new album, their first in 23 years. It also stated that more live dates will be announced. The band had been teasing the reunion in the weeks leading up to the announcement, sharing archival footage of past live dates, current rehearsal photos, and scenes from recording sessions posted on a newly launched Instagram account.
Commenting on one of the posts, the band stated, “Thank you everyone for the kind comments. We are overjoyed to see such a response! Honestly, didn’t expect this. It makes us want to play out even more.” They also added, “We will be rolling out some new music this summer, followed by some gigs. As soon as it’s all figured out we will let everyone know immediately. So much to do, but rest assured, we are on it and have assembled a fantastic team that are helping us. We are also going to make a music video to support our first tune… It’s the most satisfying and meaningful batch of songs we’ve ever done.”
In its 1990s heyday, Dogstar opened for David Bowie and Bon Jovi. Their last show before the BottleRock set was in Japan in 2002.
See some of the fan-filmed footage from BottleRock below.
