As I got off the tram to head the wrong way up Acland St, I could hear a harmonica calling. Magic! That’d be Dave.

It’s 2 years since I last saw him play & sing with Steve Lucas. Two years ago the band was Heinous Hounds & they often played in the basement at the Espy, not far from where they were playing on Friday March 25. I liked what the Hounds did. The band had 4 vocalists who took turns to sing. Nothing was rehearsed. Each vocalist named a song & they just played it.

There are some ex-Hounds in the Steve Lucas Band – Steve, obviously, Dave as harmonica player & 2nd vocalist & drummer Robbo who just a few days earlier I had seen with Spectrum. Busy lad that Robbo! To round out the band that night was bassist Peter Mavric, who I had seen play with the Hounds once when Jerome wasn’t available.

As Steve called a break I watched Peter charge out of the Dogs Bar with his double bass. It looked as though it was escaping & he was chasing after it. He returned more sedately with an electric bass ready for the 2nd set. That was the set I had gone for – the electric set. It was delivered Hounds-style but with just the Steve & Dave tag team. Dave sang some real classics & some rarer, less well known tunes. Everybody Must Get Stoned, Roll Over Beethoven and the Chuck Berry gem You Never Can Tell were reminiscent of Hounds gigs.

The Dogs Bar is great. It has a great atmosphere. Lots of people were dancing, not restricted by the small space.

I know I’ll go back to that bar to hear this band again on a last Friday of the month.