The Winery Dogs – “XXIII First Paw” tour
March 13, 2023
DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids, Michigan

For those unfamiliar with the band “The Winery Dogs”, this is a sort of “supergroup” comprised of Mike Portnoy on drums, Billy Sheehan on bass guitar, and Richie Kotzen on guitars, vocals, and keyboards. Their debut self-titled release came out in 2013, followed by their second release “Hot Streak” in 2015, and a new third release “III” here in 2023. I enjoy all three but found the first release most enjoyable of the three – so far.

Past tours would hit major cities, and typically skip Grand Rapids. So, when the 2023 tour was published with a stop at the DeVos Performance Hall, many area musicians were excited – including myself. On the other hand, I knew the performance hall was a tad large for this act (it was about 1/2 full – at most), but that simply meant the audience was not crammed into a small club – I like some room around myself.

For this stop on the tour, there was no opening act. The concert was scheduled to start at 7:30pm, and things were rolling by 7:45pm – almost “on time”. Billy, Mike, and Richie came out to applause and opened with tracks from the new release including “Gaslight” and “Xanadu”. They spent the rest of the evening with tracks from all three releases but did play most of the new release. Each member has amazing talent, while also bringing plenty of energy to the stage. This is a good thing, since the production was minimal – not specialized lighting or stage effects – just a band and some generic lighting (and the occasional vertical fog towers). Richie Kotzen is a phenomenal finger-style guitar player, while also having a very soulful voice reminiscent of Chris Cornell (RIP). Mike Portnoy is a versatile drummer, having played in numerous bands over the years. I’ve seen him play with Neal Morse Band, Transatlantic, and Sons of Apollo. He has the finesse to handle progressive rock, while also the energy for metal, and just about anything else in between. Billy Sheehan is a legend on electric bass. Another who has played in tons of band and recordings over almost 50 years. He is a finger-style bass guitarist who likes have some “growl” (distortion) in his bass tone. He has often been sited for having a skillset to keep up with the “shredder” guitar players note-for-note – meaning he can play really fast. Billy is always fun to watch on stage, as he knows how to entertain while doing musical acrobatics on the bass.

The band played for 2 hours, sticking mostly to a classic rock “power trio” style. Everyone in the band got their chance to be featured. Most songs involved points of improvisation where the soloist could wander off, while the remaining members kept things grounded. Dynamics were very important to the band, so they did not spend the entire evening pummeling the crowd with volume. Richie had multiple moments where he would start off soft, and work his way up to a peak, before bringing it back down again. Billy and Mike were always listening for just the right spots to compliment what Richie was doing, while sticking to the song arrangements when needed. For an encore, Richie started off on a keyboard and singing a very bluesy soulful song “Regret”. This took a while to build, and eventually Richie moved to his guitar. The song was an emotional performance which left most in the crowd amazed.

Overall, this band is a great opportunity to see three very high level musicians working together to bring live music to the stage. There are no tracks or enhancements here – it is all coming from the 3 guys on stage. If you like the power trio classic rock/hard rock/blues style, I highly recommend you check out The Winery Dogs – especially in live performance. And thanks to the band for coming to Grand Rapids.

Here is video I shot of “”Captain Love”: