Keanu Reeves Is Coming to Dallas (and So Is His Band)

It’s rare for the bass player to be the biggest star in a band (just facts), but that is how it happened for Dogstar. The group came together thanks to a chance meeting in Los Angeles between drummer Robert Milhouse and an affable, rising actor named Keanu Reeves.

It was 1991, and Reeves was hot off the release of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Point Break, before he'd blow up like the bomb on the bus in Speed and go on to influence Western philosophy with The Matrix.

The rock band, originally named Small Fecal Matter — quite unappetizing for a group that met in a grocery store — eventually settled on "Dogstar" and on singer/guitarist Bret Domrose. It hit a few milestones by opening for David Bowie and playing festivals such as Glastonbury. The band released a few albums in the early ‘90s and called it quits in the early 2000s after a … just-whelming career that was eclipsed, and of course fueled, by its biggest star.

But like Bill and Ted, the group is back for more excellent adventures. After reuniting in the pandemic, members wrote an album titled Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees, which drops in October.

And now, WHOA. Dogstar is playing in Dallas as part of the group’s North American tour. The band will be stopping by the Granada Theater on Sept. 26. Tickets start at $50.

September is shaping up to be an interesting month in live music with indie queen Lana Del Rey recently announcing a Sept. 19 date in Dos Equis Pavilion and Pink playing Sept. 30.

Keanu Reeves, whose name (as every fan knows) means “Cool breeze over the mountains” in Hawaiian, is best known these days as a nice-guy internet boyfriend, the star with the highest approval rating probably ever (hated only and inexplicably by Matthew Perry) and for getting the opposite of MeToo-ed — every day there’s a new story surfacing about Reeves’ secret acts of kindness.

But he just wants to “slap-a the bass,” and will probably perform with Dogstar as his Sad Keanu best, with most of his hair covering his face while wearing all-black. Just a prediction. As a reminder of Keanu Reeves' own wise words to Stephen Colbert about his thoughts on the afterlife, those who love him will not want to miss him. And, oh yeah, his band will be there too.