Halloween has become the musical holiday of the year for jam band fans ever since Phish donned their first musical costume by covering The Beatles’ White Album on 10/31/1994 in Glen Falls, NY. This year, the pandemic-imposed shutdown of large-scale national touring acts like Phish has led many live music lovers to necessarily deviate from their usual traditions and explore what else may be out there, creating an opportunity for smaller, growing bands to forge meaningful connections with new fans on this special occasion.

Just as a Halloween Phish show must be added to the list of what might have been in 2020, so, too, must the emergence of bands like Dogs In A Pile be celebrated. To quote the legend Herb Brooks, “Great moments are born from great opportunity.” Dogs In A Pile’s socially distant outdoor show at LNC Event Center in Huntingdon, PA was just such a moment.

As the Huntingdon Valley was celebrating autumn in its all glory, the scene within the outdoor environs of the LNC Events Center were a haven for hippies, the crowd bedecked in their finest costumes with a full lineup of vendors and local artisans. Brian Murray, lead singer and guitarist for Dogs, remarked, “I saw Phish for the first time in 2013 when I was fourteen years old. I saw my first parking lot scene and Shakedown and experienced all that for the first time and I can’t believe it’s happening at our shows now. It’s just so cool, I’m in awe.” Enjoy it, Brian, you deserve nice things. Many more to come, too.

Pansong, a South Jersey band whose distinctive tone is dictated by the hypnotic sounds of a Handpan drum, as their name implies, opened the festivities with a set that can best be characterized as Caribbean fusion funk. With great energy and a unique sound, their set of mostly originals included a spot-on cover of Pink Floyd’s “Time” that alone would have been worth the price of admission.

As day slowly turned to night and the weather dipped into the low 30s for the headliner, fans in their socially distant pods found a way to manage the cold as the venue both welcomed and encouraged portable fire pits and fans began to huddle around individual flames. Taking advantage of the Stone Pony Summer Stage’s PA system with its full complement of subwoofers and a sound engineer (!) to boot, the soundscape at LNC was both massive and pristine in equal measure. Add in a full light show that included lasers, haze, and even a fire twirler, and the stage was set for the capacity crowd of three hundred to be wowed.

Live For Live Music previewed this show with in-depth bios of the formidable jam band, but what stood out about this performance was how completely it showcased that the band full of wünderkinds and Berklee College of Music’s finest is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Though there would be no musical costume in the image of Vermont’s finest, Dogs In A Pile dressed in costume and made reference to All Hallow’s Eve with a clever setlist that opened with an extended jam of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. “Bubble” followed with trademark Jimmy Law guitar solos that saw his eyes roll back into his head early and often, and a full-band “Crosseyed & Painless” jam brought the crowd energy to an early boil.

Dogs In A Pile – “Thriller” (Michael Jackson) > “Bubble” – 10/31/20

[Video: Marc Komito]

The nods to Halloween continued as the theme song from The Munsters deftly worked its way into Dogs’ original song, “Look Johnny”. A comical dedication of the band’s firs- ever performance of Frank Zappa’s “Dancin’ Fool” segued into originals “Thomas Duncan Pt. 2” and “Blues For Brian”. The set finally closed with “Trunk Rum”, written by bassist Sam Lucid and featuring fiery solos from both Law and Murray on guitar before passing the baton to funkmaster Jeremy Kaplan on the keys.

Dogs In A Pile – “Look Johnny” – 10/31/20

[Video: Marc Komito]

Dogs In A Pile – “Dancin’ Fool” (Frank Zappa) > “Thomas Duncan Part 2” > “Blues For Brian” – 10/31/20

[Video: Marc Komito]

In a night full of firsts and under a rare Halloween full moon, Dire Straits‘ “Money For Nothing” opened the second set with lyrical shoutouts to both the LNC and yours truly.

Dogs In A Pile – “Money For Nothing” (Dire Straits)

[Video: Marc Komito]

Sam Lucid would have stood out in his purple suit and Joker face paint regardless, but arm this bassist with a few extra subs and an extra string (he usually plays a five-string but was playing six) and he turns into another kind of monster entirely. Such was the case in particular on the ensuing “Porque Pedro”. With keyboardist Jeremy Kaplan doing double-duty on trumpet and the killer basslines one would expect from a song written by a bassist, this Mariachi-punk mashup grabs your attention as it spans an impressive range of both genres and intensities.

“Spun” gave Lucid a chance for an imposing solo in which he quoted the theme from Nintendo favorite Mario Kart before the band segued into “Creep” and brought the focus back to the guitarists. It’s easy to lose sight of a drummer playing without a riser and four musicians in front of him, but it’s worth noting that seventeen-year-old drummer Joe Babick is this engine whose beats drive this machine, and he was especially noticeable in this last combo.

Without an album to their credit, “Craig and Pat” is probably the best guess as to which song will be Dogs In A Pile’s first single. Always fun and upbeat, this Halloween edition began with a full version of Bobby Pickett’s “Monster Mash”. Up next, “Samba For Sam” went deep before an extended and Phish-y “Charlie” replete with “Tweezer”-esque nods closed the show. If one were looking for an introduction to Dogs, the closing forty-minutes sequence that comprises these three tracks really epitomizes Dogs In A Pile and highlights both the full range of their musicality and the fun they have on stage. As the hard curfew had already been exceeded by a few minutes, the nearly twenty-minute “Charlie” closed the show.

A big-time show by a big-time band with the full force and scale of a big time production, Dogs In A Pile is an act worthy of your attention. Saturday night was surely one of those nights we all miss so much with the band and crowd riding a wave of communal energy, the mystical hallmark that transforms a simple concert into a spiritual experience. On the heels of a performance that would make their Halloween ancestors of jam proud, Dogs In A Pile started their own tradition on a night that will be long remembered by the sold-out crowd.

With a future as much in question as the present, it remains necessary to recognize and encourage folks like Circle D Productions that are able to transform spaces like the hundred-acre grounds at Events at LNC into safe havens for live music. Saturday night was proof positive that creativity has no bounds and inertia will continue its momentum, even in the face of an opposing force.

Words inspired by 21,900 steps.

Scroll down to listen to a full soundboard audio recording of the show, peruse the setlist, and view a gallery of photos courtesy of photographer Ron Adelberg. For more information on Dogs In A Pile, head here.

Dogs In A Pile – LNC Event Center – Huntingdon, PA – 10/31/20

[Audio: Rich Stoler]

Setlist: Dogs In A Pile | LNC Event Center | Huntingdon, PA | 10/31/20

Set One: Thriller Jam & > Bubble %, Look Johnny *, Dancin’ Fool ^ > Thomas Duncan Part 2 > Blues for Brian, Trunk Rum

Set Two: Money For Nothing #, Porque Pedro ^^ > Spun / > Creep ^/, Craig & Pat > Monster Mash > Craig & Pat > Samba For Sam, Charlie

& Michael Jackson, First Time Played

% with Crosseyed & Painless jam

* with theme from The Munsters jam

^ Frank Zappa, FTP, dedicated to Ross Peterzell w/ lyric changes

# Dire Straits, FTP, w/ LNC and Marc Komito lyrics

^^ Jeremy on trumpet

^/ Mad Kings song (former Jimmy Law band)

/ In The Hall of the Mountain King tease