Keanu Reeves had only appeared in one installment of the “Matrix” series and was nowhere near the blockbuster “John Wick” franchise the last time he performed a show with his band Dogstar.
But this weekend, Reeves and the rest of Dogstar played their first live set in 23 years, taking the stage at the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival in Napa, Calif.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the band delighted the crowd with songs from their two released studio albums — 1996′s “Our Little Visionary” and 2000′s “Happy Ending” — and selections from their forthcoming third album.
The gig came a few weeks after Dogstar announced their comeback on Instagram, saying the new music they’ll release this summer represents “the most satisfying and meaningful batch of songs” they’d ever done.
After that Instagram post, BottleRock talent buyer Tom Hoppa DM’d the group with an invitation to the music festival, as guitarist and vocalist Bret Domrose told the Chronicle.
Domrose also said that the band’s protracted hiatus “organically happened.”
“There was never a big blowout, like, ‘I’m never talking to you again!’” he added. “We took a break and it was a really long break.”
But now, that break is over. “Today was like our first kind of foray out,” Reeves, the bassist for the band, told the newspaper. “The band wants to play. We have a record, so we’re just kind of trying to figure out the best way to marry those two things.”
Reeves also said that Robert Mailhouse, Dogstar’s drummer, helped calm his nerves before the show. “He was just super positive,” the actor said. “He was like, ‘Listen to the music. Just be present in the song, and it will go from there.’”
Of course, the 58-year-old isn’t giving up his day job. He spent part of this month filming the movie “Good Fortune” while his film “John Wick: Chapter 4″ crossed the $1-billion line at the global box office.