Review of Dokken: One Live Night

Introduction

I had never heard Dokken before this disc popped through my letterbox, so I was expecting the worst. Fortunately, I was wrong (again).

There are 14 tracks on the disc, ranging from "Into The Fire" (to get things started, which it does well) to the louder "Unchain The Night", culminating in some great tracks. Before certain tracks, there are some interviews with members of the group, and they make a nice interlude.

Dokken are not anything like the Jimmy Hendrix style of say, Ten Years After, and some of their songs are genuinely pleasant on the ear. The band, comprising of Don Dokken, George Lynch, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown play well together - and you do get the feeling they take a lot from their music.

Video

Dokken: One Live Night is presented in 4:3 Fullscreen, which is acceptable considering the disc`s target audience will be focusing on the music, not the visuals. Having said that, the print is of fairly good quality, with the palette used well, and the visuals are acceptable. There is the odd piece of grain and dust, and the odd compression sign, but on the whole it is an accomplished transfer.

Audio

A DD 5.1 track is on offer, and the surrounds are used really well. The ambience level is just right, and the impact of certain tracks is great. The audio is crisp and clear, and is just like `watching` a CD or high quality MP3 file.

The interviews are quite good, although there is a bit of a lip-sync problem, presumbably because it was shot on low-quality digital video. Although the visuals are bad during these sequences, the audio quality remains the same.

Features

Sparse extras are on offer unfortunately. The only real extra is `Backstage Pass` - a brief behind the scenes featurette on the group`s soundman, which contains some more interviews with Dokken. Due to its short running time, it isn`t really an insight, more of a tacked-on extended sequence.

Having said that, the animated menus are good, with sound and visual clips from the tracks, and the usual track selection.

Conclusion

Overall, this disc has a lot of potential, which is fulfilled well, apart from the lacklustre extras. Surely it wouldn`t have been that much work to have included some more behind the scenes footage, or history of the band Dokken?

The tracks are good on the whole, and the audio is great, so this is a wise purchase for fans of the group or just casual music browsers.