Slaughter & the Dogs

About 20 years after forming and about 15 years after breaking up, a reunited Slaughter & the Dogs played at the 1996 Holidays in the Sun festival in Blackpool, England, fronted by original singer Wayne Barrett. This is a straightforward 70-minute DVD of the concert, with brief interview segments with Barrett interspersed with the concert footage. Actually, the band performs pretty well, and in animated fashion, Barrett jogging-pogoing-prancing around the stage with real energy. Still, there are a couple of major considerations that make this a less desirable item than it might have been. Unavoidably, to begin with, this isn't the band in its prime; as well as the bandmembers acquit themselves, it's still a reunion gig, long after their split and long after punk's heyday. More avoidably, the sound quality isn't great, the vocals lacking presence and definition, as they often do in live punk footage. For those who still want a reasonably good-quality souvenir of this reunion, the band does go through many of its best-known songs, including half a dozen tracks from the 1978 debut album Do It Dog Style, and other notable tunes like "Cranked Up Really High," "Twist & Turn," and covers of the Four Seasons' "You're Ready Now" and the New York Dolls' "Who Are the Mystery Girls." Indeed, one punker gets excited enough to leap onto stage a couple of times during "Cranked Up Really High" to mix with the band before getting thrown off by security. Barrett comes off as a likable, intelligent sort in the interview bits, talking mostly about Slaughter & the Dogs' first incarnation, though not in extreme depth. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide