Poison
Dokken
Sebastian Bach
Mohegan Sun
Uncasville, Connecticut
July 29, 2008
Tony Pijar
Fresh off of their appearances at Rocklahoma, Bach, Dokken and Bret Michaels (this time with the rest of Poison) rolled into Connecticut. This is one of those perfect summer tours; hair metal along with the requisite accouchements.
Sebastian Bach and his band were ferocious. I’ve never been a fan of Bach;s music, but based on what I witnessed I may have to rethink this. He was towering and thunderous in both body and voice. Not only did he air Skid Row stuff, but played some tunes from the excellent “Angel Down” album. Superb!
While Bach was fist-pumping, sweat-filled action, Dokken was polished and proessional. Don exudes breadth and depth – he is truly one of the elder statesmen form the L.A. scence from the 80s. His voice is still holding up nicely and Jon Levin, while mimicking all of George Lynch’s licks a bit, has exemplary chops himself. Dokken aired only one song from the new “Lightning Strikes Again” album, which is magnificent. All of the hits were played, the crowd lapped it up and it was criminal that the band only played for 40 minutes.
From what I’d been told, Poison always puts on a visually exciting show, they did not disappoint. Where Poison and I have been at odds is through their music. I’ve never been a fan of their studio releases, but on the live front they’re a different animal. Opener, “Looked what the Cat Dragged in”, was mean! Michaels is somewhere between Bach and Don Dokken in terms of stage presence; poised yet perpetual movement in his approach. CC DeVille was excellent as well – a much better guitarist than I had thought originally. All in all, it was a fun, engaging evening, but I do hope that Dokken takes on their own headlining tour at some point.
