Dokken 2/20/10 Dubuque, IA

Hard Rock from the 80’s invaded the Mississippi Moon Bar in Dubuque, IA when Firehouse opened for Dokken. More than twenty years later people are still trying to slam bands like these. Some people never liked the music, some think they have out grown it…until the music starts.

I have to admit I was kind of hoping Dokken was the opening band so I could leave if I felt like it during Firehouse…until the music started. Firehouse opened the show sounding just like they would on CD. These guys are so clear you may think they are playing with a backing track…except they are from the era when live shows were all about playing the music live and not choreography.

The band made a point more than once during the show to thank the crowd for still coming out after all these years. They pointed out that September 11th of this year will mark the 20th anniversary of when their first album was released.

“All She Wrote” got people’s toes tapping. “Shake and Tumble” got some fists in the air. “Reach for the Sky” got a good reception. There was an on stage marriage proposal and slow dance to “Love of a Lifetime.” The crowd was in 100% by the time “Don’t Treat Me Bad” was belted out to close the set.

Another successful stop in Dubuque for Firehouse.

I really didn’t know what to expect from Dokken. I have seen them several times over the years. In fact, next month will be 25 years since I seen them just a 1/2 mile from where this show is open for KISS. Things change over the years. One time they left after four songs opening for Aerosmith. The last time I had seen them with the original members when they reunited for the Dysfunctional tour Don stormed off the stage for two songs right at the start of the show.One thing I did know was that my two favorite members, George Lynch and Jeff Pilson were not going to be there as they are no longer with the band.

They opened with the “Unchain the Night” intro and then kicked it into “Just Got Lucky.”  Don may as well have pulled up a chair for the first couple of songs. He looked pretty bored and at this point I’m still wondering how the show is going to go.

We were a few songs in before the guy behind me that had been yelling “GEORGE! GEEEOOOOORGE!” finally realized George Lynch was not on stage. The new guitarist is Jon Levin and I have to say if you are not looking at him you may not notice it is him instead of George playing. He stepped in really well and was really a high point of the show.

Moving through more classics like “The Hunter” and “Into the Fire” you can see Don is lightening up. He says that they can play “Dream Warriors” for us since they are taking a couple weeks off….because it isn’t easy to sing. He said it playful but you can tell the guy doesn’t have the chops he used to. Understandable. There have been a lot of screeching high notes come out over the years, it has to catch up some time. The band played this tune pretty tight.

My fears of listening to what might sound like a Dokken cover band have vanished for the most part by the time they hit tunes like “Breaking the Chains” and “It’s Not Love.” Don is having fun now. A playful story leads into “Too High to Fly” and a Jon Levin guitar solo. A good old fashioned guitar solo! By the way, he did some justice to “Kiss of Death” as well!

They did play a new tune that rocked but I can’t say I caught the name of it. I will be looking for it though. “When Heaven Comes Down” and “Tooth and Nail” rocked the die hard Dokken fans. Everyone got in on the closer, “In My Dreams.”

Often when going to one of these shows there will be memories that come back with each song. Remember back to the parties and the time you bought a certain tape. This show was different though. Both of these bands have significant places edged in my memory along with one of my oldest friends who passed away recently.

Jammie Dodds and I used to pound out those Dokken songs for hours in his bedroom on guitars in High School. When we were 19 we took off  to Daytona Beach, Florida. Somewhere along the way in Alabama he bought the first Firehouse cassette and it never left the tape deck in the car. It became the sound track to our trip.

At the start of the song “Alone Again” Don Dokken says, “It’s like being in High School, huh? When Mom and Dad paid all the bills…” I remember Jammie telling his Dad once… “I don’t want to work hard now and have fun when I’m old. I want to have fun now.” He did have fun.

Both of these bands thanked the audience several times for giving them a chance to still be doing this 20 plus years later. I would like to thank both bands for giving me three hours of good memories of my late friend Jammie.

Joining Ratt for the Infestation, the first album in ten years, is former Quiet Riot guitarist Carlos Cavazo. Ratt wanted to get back to the double guitar attack that they had in the days with Warren DeMartini and Robin Crosby. More on the new Ratt later. For now, here is the first single. Comments? What do you think?

If it doesn’t start click on the starting of the bar.

Upon arrival you are hit with a big search box. Enter the desired band name here and you will get a playlist suggested music playlist with various similar artists (but more of the searched artist), a list of the links to the searched band’s videos on YouTube that you can add to the playlist and more tunes from the similar artists you can add to the playlist.

A search for Ratt came up with a live concert video of “Round and Round” and a playlist including AC/DC, Guns and Roses, Skid Row, Motley Crue, and Great White.  There were more artists like Poison, Faster Pussycat, and L.A. Guns over in the related artists.

Remember when I mentioned it wasn’t as slick as Pandora Radio? Well, it isn’t as pretty. There is the same element of surprise when you wait to see what the next song will be. There are some things that are better. Like control over which songs are in the playlist (you can eliminate a tune by throwing a quick click on a box) once it is formed. As far as I can tell it is not going to tell you at some point in the month that you used up your listens for that time period.

Overall I think it is something I will use when I’m in the mood for a certain music (The Joe Bonamassa search results were interesting).

I raise a Zippo lighter to Mashable for bringing this to my attention. \m/

The intention of this post was to not only show you the video but to give you a little back ground on the artist. That information is not easy to come by so what I will share is some of his Bio on iLike.com (while you are there hit the I like Button)…

I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. I worked in a goldsmith shop and an auction company growing up. I came up at the feet of honest to God mountain people singing bluegrass music about dying and losing lovers. My dad told me stories about our family killing people, killing each other and the generalities that go along with a family of bootlegers, preachers and splintered women. I didn’t think it was fashionable to talk about those things and then one day the apostles of suburbia began making up songs about how cool it was, then took it to the people and sang it to ‘em. – I don’t know about that. These are my stories, I try to be as honest as a liar and a thief knows how to be, I hope you find some threads of truth in here.

Linkage:
Vote for the video!
Official Band Website
Matt King on MySpace

From the IMA site:

Discover an eclectic mix of self-released & independent label talent culled from six continents. The Independent Music Awards celebrates artists that follow their own muse – with over 250 Nominees there’s plenty to please the most discerning music fans.

So do your part to support independent music. Listen, discover & champion your favorites.

It’s easy to get lost going through the different categories and artists. I have already found several bands whose material I have downloaded and will later give a quick profile on MusicLee Inclined. Go check it out and if you find something oters should hear please leave it in the comments or post it on our Facebook page.

Links:

Independent Music Awards

Nominees:Once here you can check out the different categories, join in the fun and register and vote.

From his website…

This is my first solo record. I’m head over heels about it. Everything was recorded in Austin, TX at my house. Download it, burn it, put it on in your car or on your home stereo and turn it up loud.

You can preview the songs right on the landing page of the link above. I have to say that the first thing I thought of as the title track started playing was how much I miss living in Austin, Texas.

Check him out at MySpace and Facebook.

I learned of this at Mashable.com’s Free Music Monday..check that out too!

For Christmas this year MusicWife got me a ticket to an upcoming show at the Mississippi Moon Bar in Dubuque, Iowa. I attempted to get one of the Black Friday (the one after Thanksgiving) $1 tickets to Dokken and Firehouse but they sold the allotted amount of tickets before I got there. MusicWife came through.

It has been a good ten years since I have seen either of these bands and I was curious what their setlist looks like these days. Doing a search for Dokken (clearly the band of the two I’m interested in seeing) I was led to a site called Setlist.fm. Setlist.fm is a wiki site where users can add setlists as they wish.

Being a wiki site it is only updated as often as someone enters a show of course. The Dokken show I found was ironically a year from the date I will be attending in February. It’s kinda cool though that each song there is a “play” button that will take you to some media (usually YouTube) to check it out. This is helpful for those songs being played in the “non-Dokken” years of my life.

Granted these are only as reliable as the people entering them but it is fun to look through, especially if someone was obsessed enough with a band 20 years ago that they logged and kept a setlist from a concert you attended.

There are no restrictions in terms of what you can listen to or when. Forget about the hassle of waiting for files to download and fill up your hard drive before you get round to organising them. Spotify is instant, fun and simple.

Raising a lighter to Lifehacker

I was listening to Hair Nation on Sirius Satellite Radio tonight and heard this song, bringing memories up again. this is the second time I have heard it on there so it’s not a fluke…someone else thought it was cool somewhere along the lines.

Check out the video and watch Skippy from Family Ties get bounced around.

Swinging by VH1’s website I stumbled over to VH1 Classic’s part of the domain to find full episode videos from their flash to the past, That Metal Show. Since I don’t have the station anymore I can see myself visiting often to catch up on the past episodes as well as those coming.

In the episode I watched tonight they talk a little bit about the Grunge bands that would have still been cool without the Grunge movement (I for the record have always thought that Soundgarden made a good hard rock band), have a sit down with Steve Vai (talks a bit about his time with David Lee Roth, Zappa, and Whitesnake), do a Q&A with the guys from Chickenfoot (like asking Satch if his son will someday play bass for the band), and more.

Here is part of the episode. to catch the other two parts GO HERE.