Doghouse Sam & his Magnatones
Dynamic introduction to a new album
To introduce their fourth album Going Places, Doghouse Sam & his Magnatones gave a concert on Thursday 9 November in the small concert hall of the Muziekodroom in Hasselt. The group maintained the musical style known as rhythm’n’blues, which extremely satisfied the crowd.
The first part of the concert was covered by Ale & Alley which is a group of old time roots music, folk, ballads and blues. Their music type resembles the American country songs which were good enough to prepare the crowd to welcome Doghouse Sam & his Magnatones.
The second part of the concert was covered by the group that the crowd was waiting for since the beginning: Doghouse Sam & his Magnatones. It was worth waiting for. As soon as they came on stage, the music began to be dynamic. Everybody was moving their feet and swayed to the rhythm of the music. To be fair, it was hard to keep our toes from tapping. The room was only colored by the blue, pink and yellow spotlights which filled the place with joy. The place was almost full and the atmosphere was cheerful since the beginning. People were coming to hear blues and that is what they got.
Doghouse Sam and his Magnatones are a group of three people who got themselves quite a reputation in Europe over the last five years thanks to songs like “Knock Knock” (which Ale & Alley played before Doghouse Sam came on stage), “Goin’ Mad”, “Something’s wrong” and “Ain’t got time”.
As the group got on stage, the crowd began to cheer and applaud vividly. They were impatient to hear the new songs of Doghouse Sam. The first to strike a note was Sam, the guitarist and singer of the group who during the whole concert kept on interacting with the crowd by making funny jokes or simply by presenting the song that the group was going to perform.
To support Sam’s guitar, there was the bass of the virtuoso Jack o Roonie and the drums of Franky Gomez. Those three music sounds as well as the voice of Sam surrounded the room to transport the crowd into an atmosphere of blues music. The new songs of Doghouse Sam & his Magnatones’ new third album nearly every time have a link with their previous albums so that the crowd could be transported in the blues universe of the group.
There was a mix of more calm music of pure Rhythm’n’Blues and dynamic songs, which kept the public in the blues rhythm of the concert. Throughout the show, the three members of the group each got a solo moment thanks to which they could share with the public their own personal love and interpretation of the blues music. The public response was joyful. People had come to hear blues music and had a good time and that is what they thought when they got back home on Thursday night.