Courage Amid An Unplugging Review: Dog's Eye View Refused to Let Things Fall Apart in a Blackout and Put on a Stunning Show

7.7.96 By Mark Dudick (Section: SHOW; Edition: MORNING; Page: F32)

Caption: DOG'S EYE VIEW: The band showed how much it thrives on spontaneity after an accident deprived the Coach House of power.

When a car clipped a telephone pole and knocked out power to the Coach House on Wednesday night, Peter Stuart, the creative voltage behind headliner Dog's Eye View, kept "everything from falling apart" in the parking lot.

Stuart and guitarist Tim Bradshaw, rather than stay cooped in their dark dressing room, ad-libbed a 20-minute version of the band's hit "Everything Falls Apart" for a throng of concert-goers patiently waiting in the will-call line. As the parking lot serenade showed, the New York native, who jump-started his career in Chicago and now is based in Seattle, sizzles with power. It didn't end there. Three hours later, around 10:30, electricity was restored and the band took the stage for a commanding two-hour, 16-song set in front of a standing-room-only crowd.

Stuart introduced "Haywire" as a song you write after a long hard day of driving into telephone poles in Southern California. Midsong, he had the lights turned off, then he stepped from the microphone and showed how to perform unplugged.

The leader of Dog's Eye View is a showman, a natural performer. With his close-cropped hair, a smidgen of a goatee and a devilish smile, Stuart caroused around the stage, strumming his guitar while brandishing his strong voice. His vocals could jolt a dying song back to life.
And he thrived on spontaneity.

Before the show, he'd asked the crowd to make up set lists, provided there were no John Denver tunes. He sampled songs from the lists during the set and was open to suggestions. "Small Wonders," one fan yelled from the audience. Stuart obliged with the mellow ballad from the band's CD "Happy Nowhere." Later, after getting an OK from Bradshaw, bassist John Abbey and drummer Alan Bezozi, he ventured a "really, really, really new song" he wrote in Amsterdam _ "Love Notes in the Mall." Stuart also gave flair to covers of Neil Young's "Walk On," Loudon Wainwright III's "Motel Room" and the Waterboys' "This Is the Sea."

After performing what Stuart called the requisite Iron Maiden/Black Sabbath/Van Halen tune, "Speed of Sound," the group encored with tempestuous originals "Bulletproof and Bleeding" and "Shine."

Opening band the Wallflowers could learn a lot from Dog's Eye View's closing tune. Jakob Dylan's newest incarnation played a dull six-song, 30-minute set. Most of the time an overbearing Hammond organ competed with and often drowned out Dylan's vocals, especially on the quintet's single "Sixth Avenue Heartache." Dog's Eye View, The Wallflowers When: Wednesday night Where: The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano