The Showbox, Seattle, WA
9.15.26

Dogstar and The Backfires Bring Two Distinct Sides of Rock to a Sold-Out Showbox

There was something fitting about Dogstar bringing The Backfires along for a sold-out night at The Showbox. On paper, the two bands occupy different lanes of rock music. In practice, those lanes ran surprisingly well alongside one another, giving Seattle a night that moved between youthful urgency and seasoned melodic grit without ever feeling disjointed.

New York’s The Backfires opened the night with the kind of straight-ahead guitar rock that seems built for a crowded club. Their sound is rooted in alternative and garage rock, but there was enough polish and ambition in the performance to suggest a band already thinking beyond the small rooms they currently inhabit. They played with the confidence of a band that knows exactly what it wants to sound like: loud, immediate and unpretentious.

Then Dogstar took the stage and shifted the atmosphere without losing the momentum. The trio—Bret Domrose, Robert Mailhouse and Keanu Reeves—has developed a sound that is more melodic and reflective, with plenty of guitar-driven rock muscle underneath it. Their current tour supports their new album, All In Now, and the Seattle set drew heavily from that material while reaching back into the band’s catalog on Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees.

Whatever curiosity Reeves’ celebrity brings through the door, Dogstar’s performance made it clear that this is a functioning rock band, not a novelty act. Reeves stayed locked into the bass lines, while Domrose handled the vocals and guitar with a relaxed command. Mailhouse provided the rhythmic backbone, and together the three musicians sounded comfortable in the songs and with each other.

The set moved between newer material and older favorites, including an unexpected cover pf The Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait”, which fit naturally into the set rather than feeling like an obligatory crowd-pleaser.

The Showbox was packed, and the crowd remained engaged from The Backfires’ opening notes through Dogstar’s encore. There was genuine enthusiasm in the room, but it never overwhelmed the music. By the end of the night, The Showbox felt less like a venue hosting two bands and more like one big room united by a simple idea: rock music still works best when it’s played loud, live and with conviction.

Dogstar Setlist:

Siren
Runaway
This Sphere
Joy
Wing
How the Story Ends
Everything Turns Around
Can’t Hardly Wait
Glimmer
Math
The Whisper
Shards of Rain
Exalted
What Is
Marmalade
All In Now
Punch the Sky
Shallow Easy
Breach