The rebirth of Dokken should have been complete by now.<\/p>\n
With their last studio effort
\nErase The Slate<\/i>, any doubts about whether Don Dokken and
\ncrew could still carry the torch of hard rock should have been
\nerased. New addition Reb Beach proved, both on record and live at a
\nshow I saw at Chicago’s House Of Blues, that he was more than an
\nadequate guitarist to fill George Lynch’s shoes — so much so that
\nthe tag “former Winger member” should be permanently retired from
\nany future description.<\/p>\n
Yes, Dokken should have been primed for that return to glory.
\nBut something is missing on their latest release (and third live
\ndisc)
\nLive From The Sun<\/i>. And for once, I think I know what it
\nis… but let’s not give out all our secrets in only the third
\nparagraph.<\/p>\n
Recorded in November 1999 in Anaheim, California, Dokken and
\ncrew do an admirable job, plowing through a balanced collection of
\nnew and old songs to the delight of a friendly crowd. The two
\ntracks from
\nErase The Slate<\/i>, “Maddest Hatter” (why this one wasn’t a hit
\nsingle, I will never understand) and “Erase The Slate,” just go to
\ndemonstrate how strong an effort this album was, and how Dokken,
\nBeach, bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer Wild Mick Brown can still
\ndeliver the goods, even after nearly 20 years together.<\/p>\n
Yet one newer song doesn’t have the same muster — namely, “Too
\nHigh To Fly” off of
\nDysfunctional<\/i>. I’ll admit I considered this song to be a low
\npoint in the Chicago show, and I’ll also concede that this version
\nkeeps the morality play to a minimum. But compared to other songs
\non the disc, it’s not the strongest choice that the band could have
\nmade. (Side note: after having the privilege to talk to Don Dokken
\nafter their Chicago gig, I can understand why they included
\nit.)<\/p>\n
If you pick this disc up looking only for the classics, there is
\nplenty on
\nLive From The Sun<\/i> to make you happy. With Beach adding his
\nown unique six-string signatures to tracks like “Kiss Of Death,”
\n“Alone Again” and “In My Dreams,” Dokken show that these songs
\nstill pack a punch. The only disappointment: “The Hunter” is
\nmissing a little bit of the magic from other versions I’ve
\nheard.<\/p>\n
For all of its good performances,
\nLive From The Sun<\/i> has one tragic flaw: it doesn’t allow the
\nlistener to get into the show the same way they would if they were
\nin the front row of the same concert. This gets us to what’s
\nmissing — the visual aspect of Dokken as a band. Like many other
\nlive albums before this one (and thousands that will follow), it is
\ninsanely difficult to capture that raw emotion and bottle it into a
\nplastic and aluminum disc. Try as hard as Dokken did, that energy
\njust doesn’t come through. (With the promise of this show being
\nreleased on DVD and video later this year, I’d like to think that
\nsome of that magic will be rediscovered.)<\/p>\n
I don’t want to sound like
\nLive From The Sun<\/i> is a bad disc — there’s plenty on this
\ndisc to please Dokken fans, and will tide them over until the next
\nstudio effort (which is supposedly going to be out late this year).
\nBut this disc does serve as a reminder that a live album is rarely
\nthe best substitute for being at the show in person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6328],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36616","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dokken","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36616"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36616"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}