Keanu Reeves reunites with band Dogstar for first show in more than 20 years

Jessica is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, where she covers TV, movies, and pop culture. Her work has appeared in Bustle, NYLON, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, and more. She lives in California with her dog.

For the first time in more than 20 years, Keanu Reeves took the stage with his alternative rock band at Napa Valley’s BottleRock festival on Saturday.

Though the 58-year-old actor was apparently a little nervous about performing in front of a live crowd, Reeves told the San Francisco Chronicle that his bandmate Robert Mailhouse was able to put him at ease: “He was just super positive. He was like, ‘Listen to the music. Just be present in the song, and it will go from there.'”

And so it did. The band — which also includes Bret Domrose — performed songs from their past two albums (1996’s Our Little Visionary and 2000’s Happy Ending), as well as new tracks from their forthcoming third album, including “Glimmer” and “Flowers.”

Keanu Reeves performs with Dogstar at the BottleRock Festival in Napa, Calif. JIM BENNETT/GETTY

Formed in the mid-1990s in Los Angeles, Dogstar announced their grand return last summer. Reeves, a bassist and backing vocalist, told Billboard earlier this week that he missed playing with his buds, whom he reconnected with at the start of the pandemic for jam sessions.

“We played the catalog songs, and then we can’t help it — we just started writing,” Reeves said. “I missed playing together, I missed writing together, I missed doing shows together. It’s something I’ve always missed. Once we started to play, and it felt good, and really positive and creative, that’s when it was like, ‘Okay, let’s make this happen.'”

Within the first two-and-a-half months of 2020, Reeves and co. penned enough songs for the new album (the title and release date are still TBD).

The actor was, of course, a rising star before the group disbanded in the early 2000s, starring in the Bill & Ted movies, Speed, Dracula, and The Matrix. Now, he’s thrilled to be able to return to his alt-rock roots. “It’s a space that I love and a space that I tried to protect,” he said.

Reeves most recently starred in John Wick 4, and Lionsgate confirmed earlier this week that a fifth installment of the action film with Reeves as the titular assassin was in early development. A box office hit, the fourth iteration from director Chad Stahelski has grossed over $420 million globally since its March theatrical release.

Check out Reeves’ performance with Dogstar in the clip above.