Congrats on that gig, man! I'd love to open for them sometime.
I did have a memorable experience with Dokken a couple years back.
Copied this right from my HC post about it:
My buddy's band brought me up to Minneapolis as their guitar tech for a show opening for Dokken this weekend. There were 5 bands total, playing a benefit concert for the Minnesota tornado victims. Saturday morning, we get to the site for sound check just as Dokken is getting their sound check done, and Jon Levin is just ripping it up. He rented a couple DSL full stacks and the tone was just killer. Talked to Jon a little after their sound check and was talking gear; really cool mellow guy.
Pic of the backline and Dokken sound check
Opening bands sounded pretty good. A cover band Pype went on and just ripped right through the Led Zepplin hits. The singer was maybe my age or younger, but really pulled off Robert Plant like nobody's business. Hit all the notes, had a lot of that vibe too. Great band. Did a couple Tool covers that sounded great as well.
Show started at 2:30, and here's a shot of the monstrous crowd by 5pm-ish:
No, that is not a joke. Place was fuckin' EMPTY. Huge parking lot just west of the Vikings stadium reserved for this huge show, and hardly anybody showed up. Had all of us baffled. Rumors were saying it cost somewhere around $50k to put this thing on, and even with the presale/donations, the guy lost about $30k after all is said and done. Wow.
But Buckethead made an appearance:
As the night progressed, bands were getting better, yet no new people coming in. By the time Dokken was arriving for their set, here's who they were playing for:
Just couldn't believe it. I was saying that Dokken was going to be PISSED when they got there to see maybe 15 people that showed up, but that was really the tip of the iceberg.
For a period of about 3 hours, the drummer (who was actually a fill-in) for my buddy's band was pretty much nowhere to be found. After a while, we see him pop out of a limo/bus with a shit eatin' grin on his face. The bus was full of booze and he was just in there chillin and killin the keg, half a bottle of JD, and whatever else that was stocked. The promotors had put a little food in there for all the bands and crew, and a little alcohol too. What we didn't know, was that all the alcohol was apparently reserved just for Dokken. The bus driver finally kicked him out because Dokken was on there way in and wanted to loosen up a bit before their set. Not only was Dokken playing for barely anybody, some jackass drank all their booze
. To add insult to injury, no joke, the SECOND they all step out of their shuttle van to go to their limo/bus, it starts pouring rain like nobody's business, just completely soaking them.
A friend and I managed to talk to Don a little before they took the stage, and Don was just pissed. Not livid throwing shit around, but pissed and whiny, as he probably should be given all that led up to that point.
So our drummer, completely drunk, starts to call Don Dokken "Dan", believing that Dan is his real name. "Hey Dan, are you gonna play Dream Warriors?!?" "DAN!" LOL We were laughing so fucking hard (at Don's expense, but oh well).
So Dokken gets up on stage, and Mick and Don are making comments to the crowd like, "ok, looks like a private party, where the **** is everybody?" semi jabbing, semi joking. Started playing, and you knew right away Don didn't give a fuck. Lazy ass, sloppy singing, didn't want to be there, but the rest of the band killed it. Don finally loosened up a bit as the set went on, but man the first song was just a trainwreck.
They play for about 45 minutes, pretty much the Greatest Hits tracks, plus a brand new one that sounded pretty good, then Jon starts playing the set-ending extended solo stuff and that was the night. No encore?
Hey it was a good show still, and the day was full of fun.
Later in the evening, my buddy's band goes out to mingle/party a bit (I ended up staying back due to a migraine). Upon getting back to our hotel, they get in the elevator, ride up a couple floors, then the elevator stops. Door opens up, and its none other than "Dan" Dokken stepping in with a cradled bag of Doritos, and with a very upper teenage . . . . . male in tow.
They all said it looked very suspicious to why the guy was accompanying Don given the way the two were interacting with/looking at each other, but hey, could be a relative, friend, whatever. It was interesting because our drummer ended up chatting with Don's sister during their set, and asked what "Dan" was up to these days. "Has he settled down, married, anything?" Her response was basically, "well we really don't talk about that". Hmm. Again, whatever, none of my care.
My buddy Jimi starts the small talk on the elevator "Hey man, good show, you guys played well". Don: "Yeah, for all 12 of you, what the fuck was that about?", pushes his floor button, then reaches in the bag of Doritos and munches away. Very silent the rest of the ride up.
The next morning when we were checking out of the hotel we ran into Jon and Sean (bassist) again and chatted up about gear, etc. Both were real nice guys even for that hour of the morning and the shitfest show of last night.
Man what a crazy ass day. It was a great experience, and sure did make for some good stories. Weather was perfect save for about 30 minutes of rain. I did get a few pics of Dokken's set, so I'll share a few:
Dokken and Lynch and fused in my mind.
