Dorothy @ The Echo

Dorothy | The Echo (Los Angeles, CA) | May 10, 2016 |

Dorothy2The name of their upcoming debut album may be ROCKISDEAD, but what the hard rocking Los Angeles quartet Dorothy threw down at the Echo testifies to otherwise. Gotta love it, God bless it and throw up your Dio sign and head bang to it because it’s a good music time to be alive.

With a drink in her right hand and a crew of scuzzy riffs and thunderous beat-makers at her side, Dorothy Martin (vox) along with DJ Black (guitar), Gregg Cash (bass) and a shirtless even before the first note was played Zac Morris (drums) leaned into the Echo’s sold out crowd in order to raise a little rock and roll hell.

We fully expected to get the full ROCKISDEAD album treatment (feel free to pre-order that puppy right HERE) as the album is stacked front to back with the songs Dorothy has road tested and thrashed out onstage over the past two years: they delivered all but “Shelter.” And in a room packed with hardcore fans, it was a case of familiarity not breeding anything close to contempt. You could barely hear Martin’s vocals when she launched into “Gun In My Hand”: damned near every voice in the room was singing it for her, to her, with her and it was a pattern of events that repeated itself through the night. Martin’s ability to soulfully wail and belt (along with being quite the mistress/master of the rock and roll back bend) is a beautiful weapon that she wields with deceptively effortless ease and outright seductive swagger. What rock icons has she been likened to? Who cares, because Martin is creating her own story, fishnet stockings and all.

While the lady may be the ruby red-lipped, raven haired stunner/face and namesake of the outfit, don’t doubt that Dorothy is a complete package. Black’s guitar tendencies run the lines of full bodied, classic rock and the controlled turbulence of “Dark Nights” and the sinful stomp of “Wicked Ones” highlight the percussive combination of Cash and Morris: all a brew of dangerous abandon and finesse not at all for the faint of heart. But that’s the beauty of it: metallic and bluesy to the taste, rooted with a soulful low end.

Odds and ends:

  • Everybody say ‘hi’ to Martin’s mom because no one’s too cool to shout out the parental units.
  • Apparently Morris has never seen Game of Thrones. Not one episode. Why is this guy in the band?!? Oh yeah: he’s good at what he does. Winter is coming for you, Morris.
  • Come to a Dorothy show, get relationship advice. Per Martin: get off Tinder so that you can meet your soulmate at a show…or, perhaps, even the library.
  • Post-show receiving line at the merch table: feel free to judge a band by what happens off the stage. Aside from selling goods, there were mass selfies, long hugs, hi fives, group photos, and all around graciousness and mutual loving the fierceness.