The Sundogs
Breaking news: We'll be playing for the
Rose Bowl fans at the Union South on the
UW-Madison campus, 1-3 pm, January 2
Come join us!
- Who we are
- Video, Audio, and Photo Gallery
- Book the Sundogs for your party, festival, benefit, etc.
- Get Your Sundogs T-Shirts!
- Information for
Clients
- Upcoming appearances
- Recent (and not so recent) appearances
- Client Feedback
- Join the Sundogs Fan Club on Facebook!
- Add yourself to the Sundogs friends list on Myspace!
The
Sundogs play the Union Terrace, June 17, 2005
Who we are:
The Sundogs are a four-piece cover band based in Fitchburg, WI. We specialize in fun classic rock and pop-rock tunes from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and yes, even the present. We're especially fond of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Cars, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, and other guitar-oriented bands of that era. We've been told by many of our enthusiastic fans, which range from college students to Baby Boomers, that we play "just the right stuff" from the Golden Age of rock. But a growing number of our songs are drawn from the past few years: Oasis, Green Day, Fastball, Semisonic.
Click here for our playlist and other crumbs of useful info.
The Sundogs are
Jon Martin -- lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and
dead-on Mick
Jagger
impressionist
Grant
Petty -- lead
guitar, backing vocals, and not-so-dead-on Eric
Clapton impressionist
Graham
Judson-- bassist;
backing vocals
(alas, the awesome band pic above still shows our former bassist, Matt
Ackerman, who's
now
off getting rich with his new originals band, Blamm-o).
Brian
Michalowski -- drummer and general purpose
level-headed
guy.
By day (and often night as well), Jon
and Grant
are professors
of meteorology
at
the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. In fact, a fair number of
the people who turn up at a Sundogs
gig are students
who still can't believe their
professors
are in a rock band. Graham works for Thermo Electron
Corporation, and Brian has a printing/graphics business.
In other words, we're all a bunch of white-collar establishment types for whom playing in a rock band is an adolescent fantasy come true. Other guys our age fuss over their lawns, their boats, or their stamp collections. We, on the other hand, blow off work-related stress by turning our amps to eleven and belting out Revolution or Fortunate Son. Be honest, which would you rather do, if you could?
If you've read this far, you probably suspect us of being total hacks. But au contraire, we are at worst only partial hacks, as demonstrated by the fact that people sometimes press money into our hands to thank us for playing! At least that's what we think they're saying. Hard to tell when their speech is slurred like that.
Vital Statistics:
| Bars/clubs | 4 |
| Private parties | 4 |
| Weddings | 7 |
| Festivals/Fairs/Community Events | 3 |
| Corporate events | 1 |
| Wisconsin | 51 |
| Minnesota | 1 |
| Illinois | 3 |
| Iowa | 2 |
| Michigan | 1 |
Most amazing venue for a Sundogs gig, from a historical perspective: The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, IA, on whose very stage Billy Holly played his last concert the night of the the infamous plane crash. The walls of the green room are filled with the handwritten tributes by countless famous (and not-so-famous) bands and musicians, including (now) the Sundogs.
Most elegant/romantic setting for a Sundogs wedding gig: The grounds of the Washington Hotel on Washington Island, Wisconsin.
Most awe-inspiring setting for a Sundogs gig: The massive stage and sound system erected for the Quad Graphics 10th anniversary employee picnic. In terms of sheer size and sonic wattage, this rig was comparable to what one would find in a modern stadium rock concert. Strangely enough, we could barely hear ourselves play.
Ratio of pay for the Sundogs' best-paying gig to that of their worst-paying (non-free) gig: 114
Most anticlimactic Sundogs gig: The one way back in 2003 in which the bar who booked us bought actual radio ads(!) to publicize our gig, and then literally not a single person showed up (besides the bartender). To their credit, they paid us anyway.
Worst wedding gig: The one in which the very drunken wedding guests from a tropical country invited themselves onto the stage, knocked over equipment, and nearly ruined the PA speakers by bellowing into our microphones.
Best wedding gig: Almost all of the others.
Video, Audio, and Photo Gallery:
- For sample sound clips from our December 2003 party gig, vist our Gigmaster.com page.
- New! Video clips of live performances on the Union Terrace (2005) and at Bratfest (2009).
- New! Photo Gallery.
Book the Sundogs for Your Party, Festival, Benefit, etc.:
For bookings, please visit our page
at
Gigmaster.com or send
us e-mail.
Please note that we are based in greater MADISON, WISCONSIN, so if you found this page via a web search, there's a good chance we're not in your neck o' the woods. That doesn't mean that we wouldn't be willing to travel to the ends of the earth to play for you, but travel and lodging costs add up quickly once we get outside southern Wisconsin.
As is hopefully very clear by now, we play in a rock band because it's fun. This means we can afford to be selective about the gigs we'll accept. Time permitting, we'll probably do any gig that is reasonably likely to be fun.
Regrettably, this rules out the following:
- We cannot play events where attendees engage in activities that could get us censured, or fired from the University, in trouble with our wives, or all three. This includes underage drinking , use of controlled substances , brandishing weapons, falling from third-story balconies , or tossing women's undergarments up on the stage while we're playing. On second thought, scratch that last one; we'll take our chances .
- Events where the entire audience is under 20.
- Events where the audience has never heard of the Beatles and/or yells out requests for Aqua or Lady Gaga (see "under 20", above)
- Events where the entire audience is over 70.
- Events where the audience thinks the Beatles are personally responsible for the downfall of Western Civilization and/or for our losing the war in Vietnam (see "over 70", above).
- Events where any of the attendees are accomplished musicians and therefore capable of detecting when we have hit a wrong note.
- Any gig where at least some of the audience assumes we're getting paid and therefore we should be better than we are. This restriction applies even if we are, in fact, getting paid.
- Weddings. We don't have anything against weddings; we just can't play traditional "first dance with the bride's father" of music, and we don't wear tuxes - we're a rock band, remember? STOP THE PRESSES!!! When the above words were written, we didn't realize that we would soon be getting more bookings for wedding receptions than any other kind of gig! Seems some newlyweds like having a rock band to keep the energy flowing late into the evening and don't care that we don't wear tuxes! And they can always play polkas and slow ballads through our PA system during the breaks!
- Events where the client assumes that we enjoy playing so much that we're willing to schlep half a ton of gear out of our basements and devote at least a twelve-hour day to getting there, setting up, sound checking, waiting around, playing, tearing down, and driving home at 1am .... FOR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! Hint: It's not our playing that we're getting paid for when you press that thick wad of bills into our exhausted, sweaty palms at the end of the night.
Yes, for our most deranged fans, we now have actual Sundogs t-shirts in all human-appropriate sizes (while supplies last), and four color choices: white, light blue, dark blue , and, er, black.
We haven't really figured out what to charge yet. So if you really want one, come to one of our gigs and we'll engage you in Middle-Eastern-style protracted haggling until you simply give us the keys to your Mercedes Benz convertible in exchange for a shirt that's not even quite the right size, just to get the heck out of there.
For those of you don't own a MB convertible (and can't "borrow" one), don't despair! We will give out one FREE Sundogs t-shirt at every gig! While supplies last. And assuming we don't forget. All you have to do is be the winner of whatever crazy contest we happen to invent on the spot. It might be as simple as us tossing a shirt over our shoulders into the crowd. Like a bouquet at a wedding, only with less likelihood of bloodshed. And we wouldn't do this at actual weddings.
But no matter what you pay in the end, we promise you'll make a tidy profit in 50 years or less by re-selling your vintage Sundogs t-shirt to a popular rock-music-themed chain restaurant for their wall display. (This quite reasonably assumes, of course, that inflation will soon return to levels typical of, oh, post-WWI Germany. And that we will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)
Client Feedback
Recent and
Upcoming
Appearances :
NEW!
For all recent and upcoming gigs, see the schedule posted at our
Gigmaster.com
page