Keanu Reeves nails supporting role with his band Dogstar in Pittsburgh show

A three-piece band from California that hadn’t released an album or seriously toured in more than 20 years played Friday night for a sellout crowd at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale.

Dogstar’s bass player might have had something to do with that.

That bass player would be actor Keanu Reeves — perhaps you know him as John Wick, Neo from “The Matrix” or Johnny Utah from “Point Break”? Although he’s known more as a leading man in films, Reeves seemed to relish the opportunity to play a supporting role in the band he helped found in 1991. After releasing a pair of albums in 1996 and 2000, the band known for fuzzy California power pop last played together in 2002 in Japan.

But back in May, Dogstar performed together for the first time in 20 years, and now they’re out on the road in support of their album, “Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees,” which officially came out Friday. Or as guitarist/singer Bret Domrose put it: “We got a (expletive) record out today!”

As the band hit the stage shortly after 9 p.m., a sea of cell phones shot up to document the Hollywood star’s appearance in Pittsburgh. (He’d already been spotted Thursday at a local coffee shop.)

Wearing black pants and a black V-neck shirt, Reeves stayed at stage left most of the night, with his hair flipping and falling into his face as his head bobbed. He seemed happy and locked in on his performance, occasionally sneaking a peek at the audience, but most mostly looking to his right at Domrose or back at drummer Robert Mailhouse.

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Dogstar’s show skewed heavily toward newer material, as they played that entire new album as well as four new songs that haven’t been officially released yet. Only two older songs were played — “Halo” from 2000’s “Happy Ending” album and “Flowers” from a 2009 British compilation album.

For an album that just came out Friday, the crowd appeared receptive and seemingly didn’t mind that Dogstar mostly avoided their early albums.

Despite his preference to remain in a secondary role in the band, Reeves delivered some prominent bass in songs like “How the Story Ends,” “Math,” “Overhang” and “Breach,” the second single off their new album.

Other highlights included a chill “Glimmer,” a changed lyric to reflect Pittsburgh on “Flowers” and Mailhouse’s harmonica performance while drumming on “Dillon Street.”

Dogstar drummer Robert Mailhouse nails the harmonica pic.twitter.com/XL2wEgwrMn

— Mike Palm (@MikePalmMedia) October 7, 2023

For the encore, the band members came out with beers with Mailhouse and Domrose chatting a bit. Reeves offered a quick “thank you” as he spun away from the microphone.

They opened the encore with “Lava Lamp,” another unreleased song before offering one of their only early songs. “You’ve been putting up with this new stuff long enough,” Domrose said before launching into “Halo.”

“This next song is about sticking together and helping out the ones having a hard time,” Domrose said. “It’s called ‘Shallow Easy’ and if we all hang together, we’ll be in the shallow easy forever; we won’t be in that deep (crap).”

They closed with two more yet-to-be released songs, “Shallow Easy” and “Jackbox,” with the latter a faster number that could fit right in on a Queens of the Stone Age album.

Afterwards, Reeves put his hand to his heart, offering waves, fist bumps and guitar picks before leaving the stage, allowing his two bandmates to soak in the limelight for that last moment.

Archer Oh, a surf/garage band from California whose debut album came out last November, opened the show.