It’s not that common in Greece to be treated with concerts by multi platinum hard rock acts that have left their permanent mark in the music business.
As a matter of fact, it’s quite rare these days for such bands –especially from USA- to be visiting our country and unfortunately the turnout of the fans was rather disappointing. Dokken is a legendary band that might not have retained the popularity level of the 80s (only a handful have managed to do that) but the fact that only 250 people found their way at the Kyttaro Club that night doesn’t do justice to the name and status of Dokken. On the other hand, there is a well-built argument that maybe sheds some light on why this was the case, as we will see below…
At 10 o’clock exactly and wit
hout any opening act, Dokken hit the stage with Jon Levin’s guitar riff of “Kiss of Death” giving the signal for a great kickstart! “The Hunter” and “Dream Warriors” that followed revealed the notion of the band to perform a best-of set list while it becomes plain evident right from the beginning that the trio of “Wild” Mick Brown, Jon Levin and Mark Boals is absolutely on fire! Especially Mick Brown was a juggernaut behind his drums and Jon Levin proved once again that he is a worthy replacement of George Lynch. I’d expected, though, more backing vocals from Boals as he possesses a great vocal range. And how about the man himself…Don Dokken? Well, it was clear that he didn’t have the vocal capabilities that once had in the past. It was a respected effort from a great frontman who struggles sometimes with his voice and the extra weight and the excess with the alcohol surely don’t make things any easier. Also, the comparisons with his last performance here in Greece (9 years ago) were inevitable and the truth is that he was better back then. Time, surely, has left its mark on him. Mick Brown’s…cocktail breaks may be rock n’ roll but didn’t help the smooth flow of the live show.
Having said that, Dokken opened fire with an arsenal of timeless hits and this is where they based their overall performance. Apart from the aforementioned songs, Dokken also played: “Into The Fire”, “Breaking The Chains” (excellent crowd reaction on this one), “In My Dreams”, “Paris is Burning” (extraordinary version), “Too High To Fly” (superb song from a criminally underrated album), “Alone Again”, “It’s Not Love”, “Just Got Lucky”, “When Heaven Comes Down”, “Tooth and Nail”…I guess that’s what Dokken had in store from us and no one was disappointed from that song selection.
The band left the stage with the promise to come back soon but –as we said, judging by the low attendance- we wouldn’t hold our breath for that.
All in all, it was an honest show and the fans had a good time although they would definitely prefer a better vocal performance by Don Dokken.
Sakis Nikas
Φωτό: Dimitris Katsekala, Jason Kasioptas, Mits Voulgaridis, Mariza “Crash” -Thanks to everyone who participated in our Facebook contest!
