This specific concert left me with highly mixed emotions. What was worrying for most of the fans gathered outside the Gagarin 205 live club, since U.S. heavy rockers Dokken - even if existing for more than 22 years - was the fact that they'd be playing for the first time ever in Athens, Greece. Still, they did offer a wonderful gig last year in the sub-capital of Greece, Thessaloniki, but not that many Athenians had traveled up there to see them perform live back then. Having attended the 2005 gig, I'd have another 'helping hand' on whether they are still capable of delivering high-octane dozes of melodic heavy_hard rockin' music after so many years of career or not.

Of course, the doors would open 45 minutes after the officially announced time... More or less, 500 faces - most of them familiar, after all these years - entered the venue and started taking their spots under the DJ's selections of 'fitting' tunes like Blue Murder, Warrant and Cinderella. Not more than 15' minutes later, Thessaloniki act W.A.N.T.E.D. hit the stage. Obviously 'chopped' by the sound engineer - I wonder if they even had the chance to do some sound check - they tried hard to create a party atmosphere and (to a certain level) they succeeded. In great appetite, this young quintet stayed in top mood with their U.S.-influenced 'sleazy' Hard Rock, in the vein of acts like XYZ, Kiss, Vain, Aerosmith and Babylon A.D. Great vocals by a fine singer, a marvelous guitarist - even if only 30% of his work could be heard - and a great onstage chemistry in general. Performing 6-7 of their own tunes (the A Night To Remember tune is a killer!), they also played a great Kiss cover (Shout It Out Loud) and left in a warm applause for their sincere, rockin' performance.

Cult Greek classic metallers Spitfire were to follow. This band has released one of the best pieces of Greek Metal music ever, First Attack (1986, EMI Greece) and even if this is was destined to be their sole studio release so far, their appearance after all those years was highly anticipated. And what a killer show this was! Nearly an hour of classic Heavy Metal the Spitfire way, with mainman Elias Logginidis spiting fire with his Flying V, plus the dynamic performance of 'occasional member' monster drummer Mark Cross (ex-Helloween_Metallium_Kingdom Come, Winter's Bane), even if he did make some slight 'did-not-have-time-to-do-my-homework-properly' mistakes. Playing nearly all the First Attack songs, they raised hell with Street Fighter and Evil Thoughts Around while the unplugged intermezzo did make most of the audience shiver, with Walk Alone and Whispers creating a memorizing atmosphere. Still, it was the band's eternal killer hit Lead Me On that - closing the band's setlist - did drive the crowd crazy! The band walked off in a thunderous applause and I was thinking of my first concert, exactly 20 years ago (May 1986), with (again) Spitfire supporting British legends Saxon. Good to see you again after all these years, guys!

After the immense performance of Spitfire (I'm now sure that enough fans did come to the concert only because of them), it was time for the headliners to do their shit. The 25 minute break was a pain in the ass; then Dokken walked on stage and turned on the action! Starting off with the 1985 classic Unchain The Night hundreds of fists were raised in the air, while the unbelievable (four a four-piece, single-guitar band) solid, heavy, thunderous sound did drive the whole venue quite crazy. Into The Fire was next to follow with the whole venue singing along the chorus, while the mid-tempo 1987 anthem Dream Warriors was a music killer! Alone Again created a sentimental breeze in the air; still a 'destroying' ballad after 20 years! Kiss Of Death (was played 45rpm!), The Hunter, Breakin' The Chains and Paris Is Burning (an obscure 'gem' from the 1981 first album!), on the other hand, did manage to have heads banging all over the place.

However, I can't quite understand Dokken's obsession (or Don himself; we'll talk about this later on) with songs like Too High Too Fly (off 1995's Dysfunctional album - Columbia Records). A good riff, anyway, but with a boring spiritual_psychedelic_'space' interlude that definitely omits the band's so far power. Was it by accident that the 'voltage' did show weakness on afterwards? It's Not Love did not sound the same, again with a jam break in the middle, while Just Got Lucky and Tooth And Nail temporarily upgraded our mood. Walking off the stage, Dokken returned for a couple of songs, one that I cannot recall right now and - because of public demand - In My dreams. Under a great applause, they said goodbye after 90 minutes of performance.

Forget the music stuff; the setlist would be great anyway! To the troupe: Mick Brown is a certified looney, we know that! Excellent performance behind the kit, great backup vocals and a general party feeling - cocktails! - through the band's show. Bary Sparks, on the other hand - a brilliant bass player - did deliver a helluva performance, giving the band the 'Metal' rhythm section approach of the past, while he never stopped smiling and reacting cheerfully with the audience. Tony Levin, to say the least, is the appropriate guitarist for Dokken. Perfect playing, with a calm yet powerful attitude, he did 'hold' the whole band in his arms with his guitar work. With an enormous sound, he surely is a musician you can count on.

And when it comes to Don? Many will disagree, but - for me - Don doesn't 'have it' anymore. Tired (or bored) he sang half of the songs' lyrics while he just spoke - in lower notes - the rest. He also spoke a lot in between the songs, resulting in a lack of flow in the setlist. Don seems to enjoy the Too High To Fly style of songs_singing now, or just wishes he would not be 'obliged' to play so many songs from the 'golden' Dokken / Lynch era. Or - obviously enough - he does not have the same voice anymore. All of his acts may be reasonable, but it was not just my thought that his musicians were killing machines, opposed to his performance. I'd propose they took another singer but if he left then there'd be no Dokken around; so this is it. Sad but true.

A few words concerning the crowd: when you want just to see a concert, you stand in the middle_back of the venue's arena, letting people who wanna express themselves more 'drastically' share the front rows. In a total of 600 people, just 100 of them would make some noise, half of them 'packed' in the middle of the arena. Contrarily, cameras and mobiles and all this shit are 'placed' in premium positions; a sign of the times. Dokken did degrade their outgoing power from the middle of their show and onwards, but the audience was equally responsible for that too. Forget the fuckin' cameras, please, next time...In addition, try to forget to come to shows you don't really feel like going to. No 'celebrity' shit anymore, please...

For someone seeing Dokken for the first time, this surely was a great experience. Anyway, it was a really good show. Still, some things are quite obvious in the eyes of 'core' fans and should be mentioned for the sake of this great band's legacy. Whistling the tune of Alone Again, walking out of the Gagarin 2005 club...