12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Wild Beach Ride..., February 11, 2002
This review is from: Dokken - Live from the Sun (DVD)
Recorded at the Sun Theater in Anaheim, "Live From The Sun" features original Dokken members, Don Dokken on vocals, Jeff Pilson on bass and "Wild" Mick Brown on drums. Ex-Winger guitarist, Reb Beach replaces original guitarist, George Lynch. The disc features live concert material on DVD on one side, and on the other side an audio only CD recording of the concert.
The well edited video features multiple angles, split screen, and multiple window presentations. At times there are as many as four separate windows on screen at one time. The effect is pretty cool. Most of the time the image cuts are in synch with the music, and you have enough time for your eyes to rove around before the image switches to something else. This presentation helps keep repeated viewings from becoming predictable or boring.
Singer Don Dokken, is showing his age a bit, but he still has the same set of pipes that made him one of hard rock's great voices. Approaching 50, the man still rocks, but his singing style doesn't include a lot of prancing around on stage. That's more in bassist Jeff Pilson's department. He is all over the stage, and expends so much energy that he is soaked in sweat by the fourth number. Steady Mick Brown mans the drums.
What really makes this video exciting is Reb Beach. I had the opportunity of seeing Dokken live during the "Erase the Slate" tour, and this video doesn't come close to capturing the energy and excitement of Reb's playing. He is a rock and roll animal, and his playing blew me away. He has George Lynch's rhythm chops down pat. For the solos, he plays most of George's signature licks, mixed in with own wild playing style. Beach, to a greater degree than Lynch, incorporates the "tapping" technique into his playing style. Tapping, once the rage in the 80's, has almost disappeared, so it's cool to see it being used again in a tasteful manner. Reb is so technically proficient, that he makes everything look way too easy.
The set list primarily contains "classic" songs from 80's period, like "Alone Again", "It's Not Love" and "Kiss of Death". The exceptions are "Erase the Slate" and "The Maddest Hatter" two harder tunes from the Beach era Dokken, and "Too High To Fly" from the reunion album "Dysfunctional". "Too High" is one song that assumes a new life when performed live. Recognizing this, the video attempts to add some additional atmosphere to the number, the results are only partially successful, but they did try. The final number "In My Dreams", features excerpts from the original 1985 music video, acknowledging the passage of time, and noting the changes that have occurred over the years.
Dokken has had a long and rocky past, and part of their history is explored in a short but informative interview segment, one of the disc's bonus features. A couple of music videos of acoustic numbers are also included. A photo gallery of the band, and images of art by Don Dokken, round out the extras. This video becomes a bit more significant because both Reb Beach and Jeff Pilson have since left Dokken. I fully expect that Don Dokken will continue to rock on, and recommend "Live From The Sun", the best concert DVD I have seen, to fans of heavy metal everywhere.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best 80's "Hair" Band By Far., January 14, 2001
This review is from: Dokken - Live from the Sun (DVD)
On the positive side, the music simply rules. I saw Dokken twice last year in St.Petersburg Fl as the headline act with Great White opening up, and in Tampa on the Poison tour. This DVD is a must have for any Dokken fan and any fan of the genre. Reb Beach makes one almost forget about George Lynch. On the negative side, I cant understand why all the split screens and floating boxes?? Lets just see the band live on stage. After a while, all the fancy split screens gave me a headache. Also, why the band chose that particular venue (the Sun Theatre in Anaheim Ca.) is unclear. The crowd was pretty pathetic thus the minimum of crowd shots was understandable. Forgetting these issues, the band covers all the essential songs except for perhaps "just got lucky" and "when heaven comes down". Pop this DVD in your player,hopefully its hooked up to your surround system, turn up the volume, and get ready to do some Rockin with Dokken.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Dokken fan dream come true., October 12, 2001
This review is from: Dokken - Live from the Sun (DVD)
Dokken was one of those bands from the 80's that was kind of ignore by the critics, but not by the fans. A lot of the songs like "Alone Again", "In my Dreams" (one of the best songs on this DVD), "Paris is Burning" are still landmarks of the heavy/hard rock scene from the 80's.
This DVD has superior quality in sound and images with a lot of creativity on the "sub scenes" featuring clips from their original videos. Also there are 2 excellent unplugged songs taken from the "One Live Night". The interview is also interesting which describes a lot of the turbelence behind the downfall of the band during the late 80's.
Reb Beach (Winger, Alice Cooper) is an excellent replacement for George Lynch and in some ways he is even better!!! I think this DVD is one of the best around, not only for the music but also because of the quality and the information that it has.
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