Saturday Night with The Love Dogs

Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you about my friends, The Love Dogs. They were just here at the Café on Saturday night, February 5, bringing their massively entertaining music to us, once again. The Love Dogs, a Boston-based jump-blues, R&B, and old-time rock & roll band, have been howling together now for 16 years. They have recorded three popular CD’s—"Live and On Fire," "Heavy Petting," and "New Tricks."

They’re one of our most longstanding favorite bands at The Acton Jazz Cafe, performing 4-6 times a year here since 1996.

 Eddie “Duato” Scheer is the lead vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Since we first met, he has married and fathered two children while performing regularly. 

On Saturday night, we celebrated his 50^th birthday. Eddie arrived an hour early, all business, to set up the stage for his renowned, award-winning septet. Alizon Lissance is the legendary keyboardist and co-vocalist in the band. Myanna is one of three funky saxophonists. (Some may remember that we saw both Myanna and Alizon in Girls’ Night Out in the 80’s.) Glenn Shambroom--also the band’s guitarist—and Mario Perret are the other two burning saxophonists. Randy Bramwell is the electric bassist. “Downtown” Steve Brown is the drummer—though there are times, too, when you’ll see Eddie and Steve switch roles mid-show!

At  6 p.m., the early dinner crowd began to filter in, bravely defying the light wintry weather. A few were celebrating birthdays, themselves. We hosted birthday parties, singles’ groups, several couples, and neighbors and friends from surrounding towns. Some stayed for the later show at 9:30 - some left happy after the first show - others arrived late, and in all, more than 125 people enjoyed an evening out. The dancing started early and continued all night long - well, until midnight, anyhow!

Why do so many people follow the Love Dogs around? Here’s what Ed, The Alpha Dog, has to say:

"It's important to us to have fun, and sometimes even when we don't know what we're gonna do next….we have a lot of humor in our music, and we love to surprise each other and make each other laugh. When a crowd can see that, it becomes contagious. Pretty soon they're giving us back as much energy as we're putting out, and the whole thing keeps escalating. We call it the ‘tribal love vibe."

My staff and I were truly happy to see everyone, especially after these last two weeks of snowy nights and questionable road conditions.

Lorenzo was the charming doorman. I was the hostess.  Lee was his masterful-self behind the bar. Linda, Nate, and Joanna were the attentive servers. Cintia and Cindy cooked and Nick did the dishes.

I do feel quite lucky in life to have the opportunity to enjoy so many nice people having fun: working, playing, singing and dancing together, in a place where the music is so vibrant.

I’m like a dog with a bone.