Dokken – Ace Of Spades, Sacramento, CA 6/17
By Jeffrey Easton
The 80s in hard rock were defined and ultimately clogged by the so called hair metal movement. So many bands came and went, some inspired the scene like Dokken and Motley Crue and others turned it into a joke, Poison any one? But the ones that persevered through the 90s and beyond, the ones that continued to make relevant records are the ones you still see today, banging it out in the clubs and still packing the fans in on a nightly basis. One of those bands is the above mentioned Dokken with the immortal Don Dokken still commanding the fans to sing with him every night.
So Dokken pulls into Sacramento to yet another packed house, ready to take those diehard fans back in time to when music for them had raw feel and deep emotion augmented by a guitar solo. Don still has Wild Mick Brown in tow and whereas George Lynch is long gone you have Jon Levin in his place and his guitar skills are stupidly amazing. Chris McCarvill is stunning on bass and background vox so I would say Dokken is as solid as ever. The set was mostly classic Dokken, meaning when they were going platinum and touring with the likes of Aerosmith but also deservedly peppered with some more recent tracks because honestly since 1990 there have been some notable Dokken albums. They opened up with Don’t Close Your Eyes and immediately the fans reconnected with their youth and sang along to every word. Don isn’t as young as he used to be but he still took command of stage as if he was still on his first tour. Dokken broke huge in the 80s with standout tracks like In My Dreams, Just Got Lucky, It’s Not Love and Breaking The Chains and they were all offered here without hesitation by a band that was on fire. I’m sure people miss Lynch but Jon Levin got off. His abilities on his Charvel are nothing short of amazing and brings his own flair to these classics and the fans ate every note up. Don peppered their set with stories attached to each song which brought even more life to their histories and brought a real humanity to the performer. Talking about hearing their songs on the radio for the first time or even memories of Dream Warriors from the Nightmare franchise. Tipping a hat to the 90s era was To High To Fly from the Dysfunctional era, which aptly describes the original Dokken’s personality as well as Maddest Hatter from Erase The Slate. Erase The Slate was a good album with the title track being one of the best post Lynch tracks to date and I feel that it should still be in their set. No it is not 1988 but Don can still give a great set and his band had his back all night so here’s to keeping the flame burning.
Official Dokken Site
BUY The Definitive Dokken Collection
BUY Broken Bones
By Jeffrey Easton
The 80s in hard rock were defined and ultimately clogged by the so called hair metal movement. So many bands came and went, some inspired the scene like Dokken and Motley Crue and others turned it into a joke, Poison any one? But the ones that persevered through the 90s and beyond, the ones that continued to make relevant records are the ones you still see today, banging it out in the clubs and still packing the fans in on a nightly basis. One of those bands is the above mentioned Dokken with the immortal Don Dokken still commanding the fans to sing with him every night.
So Dokken pulls into Sacramento to yet another packed house, ready to take those diehard fans back in time to when music for them had raw feel and deep emotion augmented by a guitar solo. Don still has Wild Mick Brown in tow and whereas George Lynch is long gone you have Jon Levin in his place and his guitar skills are stupidly amazing. Chris McCarvill is stunning on bass and background vox so I would say Dokken is as solid as ever. The set was mostly classic Dokken, meaning when they were going platinum and touring with the likes of Aerosmith but also deservedly peppered with some more recent tracks because honestly since 1990 there have been some notable Dokken albums. They opened up with Don’t Close Your Eyes and immediately the fans reconnected with their youth and sang along to every word. Don isn’t as young as he used to be but he still took command of stage as if he was still on his first tour. Dokken broke huge in the 80s with standout tracks like In My Dreams, Just Got Lucky, It’s Not Love and Breaking The Chains and they were all offered here without hesitation by a band that was on fire. I’m sure people miss Lynch but Jon Levin got off. His abilities on his Charvel are nothing short of amazing and brings his own flair to these classics and the fans ate every note up. Don peppered their set with stories attached to each song which brought even more life to their histories and brought a real humanity to the performer. Talking about hearing their songs on the radio for the first time or even memories of Dream Warriors from the Nightmare franchise. Tipping a hat to the 90s era was To High To Fly from the Dysfunctional era, which aptly describes the original Dokken’s personality as well as Maddest Hatter from Erase The Slate. Erase The Slate was a good album with the title track being one of the best post Lynch tracks to date and I feel that it should still be in their set. No it is not 1988 but Don can still give a great set and his band had his back all night so here’s to keeping the flame burning.
Official Dokken Site
BUY The Definitive Dokken Collection
BUY Broken Bones
