MMM…NICE PACKAGE TOUR (Live)

First out on this “Mmm … Nice Package Tour,” ‘80s legendary Dokken, or whatever is left of the band. Wild Mick Brown still is, Don Dokken himself likewise, of course, but no Pilson or Lynch. Instead, Barry Sparks handles the bass guitar, and Italian Alex DeRosso does his best George Lynch interpretation. The latter does a decent job, Barry does a nice string job although Pilson’s back-up vocals are missed, Wild Mick is the great drummer he always was, and that leads us to the man himself, Don Dokken, who is the band’s weakest point these days. Firstly, his stage act is not at all impressive. Secondly, he changes the vocal lines in his songs either to fit his own liking, or to fit whatever is left of his voice. Whenever he’s supposed to hit a high note, he either goes down, or he does a sick nasal Klaus Maine thing that leaves me shaking my head. Sorry, but not even a great composer like Don is entitled to change old classics like “Kiss Of Death,” “Alone Again,” “It’s Not Love” or “Into The Fire.” Dokken has my deepest respect for what he did, but what he does nowadays is just milking it. Besides, instead of going public and backstabbing his old friend Jack Russell, a guy that has his voice and stage moves intact and still manages to put on the very best rock’n roll show around, he could have said something in respect to the tragic incident in Rhode Island. Now, before you think this review is colored by the fact that I am a huge fan of Jack Russell, that’s not the case. Dokken has to get his act together, his own act, that is. People were sitting down during the show, by the way …

Now the package got nicer. As nice as it can get, and people got on their feet as Marco Mendoza, Tommy Aldridge, Reb Beach, Doug Aldrich and the one and only David Coverdale entered the nice stage in Universal City. A little “Heeeere’s a song for ya!!!” and a few wolf howls “ao, ao, ao, aooooo!!!”, Whitesnake (or more precisely, David Coverdale’s Whitesnake) broke into “Bad Boys,” followed by “Slide It In” and “Slow And Easy.” The sound was flawless, the band awesome, the nice collection of love songs likewise, and the man himself delivered a stunning performance. He looked damn good (am I allowed to say that?), and he sang pretty close to perfection. He even joked around a bit in his English way, and Coverdale was by far the most charismatic man on stage these two nights. And his band? What a splendid blend of gentlemen they are. Tommy is one of the best heavy metal drummers out there — his talent is as big as his hair. Marco holds it all together while Reb and Doug pay great respect to the reptile legacy. Doug shone through “Crying In The Rain;” he must be the most underrated axes-linger around. Anyone who saw how much better he made Vivian Campbell while gigging with Dio last year knows that. I mean, Dio never worked with someone that awesome since the dark and moody one (Blackmore), and Coverdale never had a snake like that since Sykes. I am not going into a further discussion about his snake though …
Whitesnake did the songs expected from them, “Judgement Day” perhaps a little surprising while “Fool For Your Loving” was not played, but they only had a “happy hour,” like David called it. I feel privileged to have seen this band already, and I can’t wait for the summer festivals. Whitesnake left nothing but smiling faces and horny women behind.

Now what did I expect from Scorpions? Knowing they are able to put on a great show, no matter how much horseshit their last studio album sucked, it became clear why they enjoyed their headliner status. Not because I liked the Germans more than the Brit — I did not — but because they are indeed professionals. A little bit of “Coming Home” leads into Klaus’ “Coming home to Californiaaaaaaaaaa,” then “Bad Boys Running Wild” kicks off, followed by “The Zoo.” It’s a great song, but not a smart pick so early on the set. Meine did his clumsy stage moves, Rudolf was great, the rhythm section much too young, while I was a bit disappointed by Matthias Jabbs’ stage performance. Well, no one gets younger … The set was good, apart from the boring drum solo and guitar solo, which serve no purpose when you are headlining and have such a huge back catalogue. The Scorps were by the way the only band that changed their set slightly around as they did two nights at the same venue. “Big City Nights” ended the main show, and the ballads “Winds Of Change” and of course “Still Loving You” followed as encores. The grande finale? Sure, “Rock You Like A Hurricane.” No band can finish a night like the Scorpions, but the special guests still stole the show.