Dogs In A Pile Play New Studio Album ‘Distroid’ In Full At Garcia’s

Dogs In A Pile returned to Garcia’s last night to continue a four-show residency at the Chicago venue which began last week. The New Jersey jam quintet also shared their third studio album, Distroid, on Wednesday, which they performed in full at Garcia’s to celebrate the release.

Distroid follows DIAP’s 2023 studio effort, Bloom. Produced by Dogs keyboardist Jeremy Kaplan, Distroid contains 10 road tested cuts, however, the studio gave the band a chance to extrapolate on the live staples.

“It’s like the live show plus extra bits that we can’t replicate onstage because we don’t have five arms,” Kaplan said of Distroid.

Having more arms is every musician’s dream. While the songs on Distroid have existed in the band’s live repertoire, recording an album often sharpens songs in a way that is different from performing them live. There’s a very symbiotic relationship between how songs evolve live and how they evolve in the studio and Dogs have placed themselves in the sweet spot between the two.

DIAP delivered the front-to-back performance of Distroid as their second set at Garcia’s on Wednesday. The album is set up much like a live jam band show, with relatively shorter, punchier compositions like opener “Go Set,” an ode to New York City penned by guitarist Brian Murray, and Kaplan’s “My Disguise” getting things underway.

Mid-album, Dogs offer the bluegrass-tinged “Shenanigans” ahead of “Thomas Duncan Pt. 3,” which clocks in at 14 minutes on the LP as the record transitions into its extended composition, call back phase. “Pt. 3” of the ongoing DIAP narrative is comprised of musical elements previously heard on the band’s first record, Not Your Average Beagle, on which “Thomas Duncan Pt. 2” resides.

The closing suite of Distroid stitches together two songs, “Samba For Sam” and “Por Que Pedro,” all told clocking in at roughly 18 minutes — an apt second set closer for the jam quintet at Garcia’s. Replays of Dogs In A Pile’s November 19 performance at Garcia’s are available via Nugs.

Dogs would return to encore with a cover of Joe Cocker's 1970 release “Space Captain.”

Setlist (via go-set.net)

Set 1: Bent Strange-> Ghost Riders in the Sky[1]-> Bent Strange, Help on the Way / Slipknot![2] > Creep, Lazy Day, Minnie the Moocher[3], Unfocused > Trunk Rum

Set 2: Go Set > Lucia’s Secret, My Disguise, Nicolette, Shenanigans > Thomas Duncan, Pt. 3, The Bag-> Samba for Sam-> ¿Por Que, Pedro?-> Samba for Sam

Encore: Space Captain[4]

Footnotes:

• [1] Stan Jones
• [2] Grateful Dead
• [3] Cab Calloway
• [4] Joe Cocker

Show Notes:

This show was performed on the day the Dog’s third studio album, “Distroid,” was released. To celebrate, they played the entire album as set two.

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