Dokken - Live From The Sun
Performance 
Production
|
Dokken - Live From The Sun
Performance |
|
Dokken were one of the better bands to escape from the 1980s "hair-metal" era. They had one of the finest guitar slingers of the day, with George Lynch, the quintessential 80s-rock vocalist, with Don Dokken, and their albums were chock full of catchy melodies and memorable riffs. Their songs ranged from power ballads ("Alone Again"), to pop-rock ("Just Got Lucky") to flat out speed-metal ("Tooth And Nail"). A little something for everyone. The death of hair-metal at the end of the 80s nearly caused the death of Dokken. Don and George's dislike of each other was well know and this eventually took its toll when in 1988, after the Monsters of Rock tour and a multi-platinum album, the band called it quits. In 1994, the four original band members got back together and went on to release three albums and a live video. In 1998, Lynch left the band and was replaced by Reb Beach, formerly of Winger, who appears on this video. I was intrigued when I first saw that Beach had joined Dokken and played on this DVD. I had always enjoyed his guitar playing in that band that Beavis & Butthead destroyed, and was curious to see how he would fill Lynch's shoes. Live From The Sun was recorded at the Sun Theater in Anaheim, California November 4th, 1999, during Dokken's tour in support of their Erase The Slate album, which was recorded with Beach. Don is looking a little more weathered these days, but his voice still sounds pretty damn good. He seems to really love being onstage singing the old, and especially the new, Dokken tunes. Beach has lost the two-cans-of-hairspray, Jon Bon Jovi look of his Winger days, and now looks more like a younger Steve Morse, with his long, ultra-straight hair, neatly trimmed goatee, and sleeveless vest. His playing on this DVD also reminds me of Morse, in the way that he infuses his own playing style into the songs while still staying faithful to Lynch's sound. Morse also does this brilliantly with Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore's songs. The setlist was quite satisfying overall, touching on almost all of their albums. Tooth And Nail and Under Lock And Key received the most play, each getting three songs. My only complaint is that they only played one song, "Kiss Of Death", from my favorite Dokken album, Back For The Attack. Their set was fairly short too, only twelve songs at 75 minutes, so it would have been perfect if they would have added, say, "Heaven Sent", "Dream Warriors", and "Burning Like A Flame", from that album. They performed two new songs from the Erase The Slate album, opening the show with the fast and heavy "Erase The Slate", and later playing the more melodic "Maddest Hatter". These are both impressive songs and are very reminiscent of the Tooth and Nail material, which made me want to hear more from the new album. "Too High To Fly", from the Dysfunctional album blatantly ripped off the into the Zeppelin's "In The Evening", but it was cool nonetheless. Let's just call it a "tribute". I was worried that this video might be too good to be true. A legendary 80's hair-metal band, live in concert, rocking out to their best songs, with three of the four original members, and a kick-ass replacement guitarist. Well my fellow head bangers, it WAS too good to be true, because although the music and performance kicked-ass, the overwhelming use of video special effects nearly ruins the experience. Don Dokken himself supposedly threw this mess of a video production together and all I can say is, stick to singing Don! ONLY SINGING! Oh where do I begin. How about with the non-stop use of split screens. Double-split, triple-split, how about quadruple-split screens. I don't know what I would have done without being able to see Don, Mick, Reb, AND the audience all on separate windows at the same time. Hey, do you like watching the band through a funhouse mirror? How about as if they are playing inside a bubbling fish tank. I could go on an on but I won't. Hopefully you get the point. Almost never are you just allowed to soak in the straight concert without any special effects. What a crime. The sharpness and detail of the video was pretty good, considering it was shot on video tape in a darkened theater with the usual amount of rock concert stage lighting. The audio is also fairly good and presents the live concert atmosphere very well. I would have preferred the guitar to be slightly louder in the mix, but the instruments were all mixed quite well. It was hard to tell if the camera work was good, with all of the split screens and special effects, but for the brief moments when just the performance was shown, things looked great. The special features include an interview with the three original band members. They sure sounded sincere about the current status of the band and pressing on into the future with this lineup, but since then they have gone through about four personnel changes, to this date (10/12/04), including Jeff Pilson, who I heard is playing with George Lynch again. Overall, this is an excellent DVD for any fan of Dokken and this style of rock and roll. Do I smell a hair-metal comeback by the end of this decade? Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - October 2004 |
|
Technical Details |
|
|
Audio Transfer |
Video Transfer |
|
Set List |
Performers |
|
Running Time: 75 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - November 2000 |