Dog Company in Dallas
The golden age of punk rock was never so golden anyway, and whatever people might be complaining about today, history is already revealing that we don’t know much. Even when it comes to our own tastes. It seems like the groups that are remembered with the most enthusiasm now weren’t all that well-liked when they were around. It might be one of the big occupational hazards of that particular school of music, where there is always a bit of a threat of violence even when the fans really love you. It’s also true that they won’t realize they love you until after it’s all over. But while the going is still good, it wouldn’t hurt to head out to Dallas and stay here, and have a listen.
Try to not hate Dog Company, because this is one of the groups that the fans will likely remember loving. We won’t notice that it’s been love, however, until we’re in our thirties, talking about the scene here with old friends after our 12-step meetings, but perhaps that’s the way it’s supposed to go. If it was good enough for the last generation, then it can happen to us, too, and maybe there’s a little more sense each time the wheel spins. We also have a chance to help our idols not take their roles seriously enough to let it destroy them, and maybe having idols is not going to help us anyway.
That’s one of the basic tenets of punk rock in all the waves, and it’s something that Dog Company has down solid. They started in 2004, so they are definitely riding the recent wave of this art form. The rhetoric is solid, with a political idealism that has no room for negotiation, and is almost utterly realist in its core. The first wave happened too fast for us to realize what we were doing, and the second one brought along some sudden philosophers that had to make it up as they went, trying to narrate what the first wave was doing. By this, the third or possibly fifth, the philosophy has died down or at least been overwatered, until now, and suddenly there is a great hope in the midst of the despair.