great live Dokken 87 show

[gtrwun]

George Lynch has always been one of my favorite players. I love his playing & tone on album. However, live, he's one of the most inconsistent players I've ever seen.

I've seen him live a dozen times since the 80s & he's never put on a REALLY good performance. His timing live is really poor & his chops are no where as good as on album, to the point that I think he punches in so much on album that it's really not a true showing of his real ability as a player.

I disagree with all you observations here. I saw Dokken on Tooth and Nail and Under Lock N Key tours and The band was great and George was on it both times. One of the best, most adventurous hard rock guitarist ive seen live and his tone was bad ass both times too. To each his own. As far as his playing now a days.....we all get older. I know I still play guitar almost every day after playing for 35 years, and im not as good as I use to be either. Not as fluid due to my joint pain and hand issues. It happens.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

George Lynch has always been one of my favorite players. I love his playing & tone on album. However, live, he's one of the most inconsistent players I've ever seen.

I've seen him live a dozen times since the 80s & he's never put on a REALLY good performance. His timing live is really poor & his chops are no where as good as on album, to the point that I think he punches in so much on album that it's really not a true showing of his real ability as a player.

I disagree with all you observations here. I saw Dokken on Tooth and Nail and Under Lock N Key tours and The band was great and George was on it both times. One of the best, most adventurous hard rock guitarist ive seen live and his tone was bad ass both times too. To each his own. As far as his playing now a days.....we all get older. I know I still play guitar almost every day after playing for 35 years, and im not as good as I use to be either. Not as fluid due to my joint pain and hand issues. It happens.

I guess it is all perspective but now i actually am on board with the idea that he punched in a hell of a lot of solos. I was watching some live stuff he did with lynch mob on the first tour with the original lineup and i remember thinking the timing and feel was totally off. That is the thing with his live leads..a lot of the time i feel he is lagging behind and late. Interesting observation. I've also seen some of his playing in those clinics and when he doesn't know what to do or gets lost, he goes to legato and flat notes to sound exotic.Still a great creator and player and wrote some awesome stuff. Just not as consistent as other greats ... like WArren Demartini for example. Find a live video where he really sucks. You just won't find one.

 

[Mailman1971]

I saw them on the Back for the Attack tour opening for Aerosmith....and they sounded GREAT live on that tour.
Maybe this was a bad mix/recording? But I just remember being 17 and thinking how "BAD ASS" that tone was George was playing thru.

 

[lettmusic]

1-Punching in: everyone does it, even the great jazz guys, like Mike Stern will do it sometimes. George no doubt did it a lot on Dokken albums. Live, sometimes he can't do the same or just don't remember. But what you get is a guy who'll improvise live, putting his ass on the line. Sometimes the result is good, sometimes not so good.
2- Inconsistencies live: happens to all bands, especially 80s metal band that put out super glossy produced albums. we picked on George because the bar is high, we expect to hear great shit from him, but he's only human, but yes, he does fuck up a lot live . I remember seeing singers constantly fucking up live, because certain high parts they did in the studio was just too hard to pull off every show live. This list is long: Klaus Meine, Bon jovi, Bruce dickinson,etc..

 

[Jer]

First tape was Dokken, first guitar an ESP....Lynch's playing was made for me lol!

I saw him twice with Lynch Mob and I hate to say but both times sucked. At least we have the REH studio and recorded material.... :

 

[brusky]

agreed - inconsistent live. you gotta remember too that they were always the opening act. So often got the short end of sound quality, setup, etc. But that is not to make excuse - he is too good a player to let his tone get so sloppy - ugh.

 

[eljodon]

His guitar sounds almost sounds like Back for the attack album. I didn't like his guitar tone in that album, very thin. He's guitar sound in Under Luck and key was way better! What's with the echo in Into the Fire? Totally out of sync and bleeding into the drums! His playing is quite sloppy ! With all that gear behind him I expected this huge guitar sound and when he started I was shocked! The sound man could have eq the guitar better it and add sone 90 to 100 hz to make it thicker and maybe make a narrow cut on the upper hi mids! He also uses the echo on the wrong settings unless it was the soundman! Don Dokken's commnets are kind of stupid and fake!