I remember sitting in Study Hall in 1988 and settling an argument as to if AC/DC was coming to the area. I was the walking tour date listings in our High School. Granted, I was getting some of my info from the issue of Rolling Stone that everyone had access to in the library. My sources went deeper though…Hit Parader, Circus, Metal Edge. Anyway, the answer was no.

Why the flashback? I have been meaning to mention this site for a while. Last night I followed one of the emails I get back to WolfGang’s Vault to listen to some classic B.B. King that is on sale for $4.00. I tell ya, live music is such a visual thing, but there are some shows on there that are so crisp and clear from decades ago that it’s like flashing back to being there…even if you were not catching shows yet. For example, there is an awesome Aerosmith show live from Central Park in 1975 that makes me flash back to the times I seen them in the 80s. (more…)

Dokken 2/20/10 Dubuque, IA

Hard Rock from the 80′s invaded the Mississippi Moon Bar in Dubuque, IA when Firehouse opened for Dokken. More than twenty years later people are still trying to slam bands like these. Some people never liked the music, some think they have out grown it…until the music starts.

I have to admit I was kind of hoping Dokken was the opening band so I could leave if I felt like it during Firehouse…until the music started. Firehouse opened the show sounding just like they would on CD. These guys are so clear you may think they are playing with a backing track…except they are from the era when live shows were all about playing the music live and not choreography. (more…)

For Christmas this year MusicWife got me a ticket to an upcoming show at the Mississippi Moon Bar in Dubuque, Iowa. I attempted to get one of the Black Friday (the one after Thanksgiving) $1 tickets to Dokken and Firehouse but they sold the allotted amount of tickets before I got there. MusicWife came through.

It has been a good ten years since I have seen either of these bands and I was curious what their setlist looks like these days. Doing a search for Dokken (clearly the band of the two I’m interested in seeing) I was led to a site called Setlist.fm. Setlist.fm is a wiki site where users can add setlists as they wish.

Being a wiki site it is only updated as often as someone enters a show of course. The Dokken show I found was ironically a year from the date I will be attending in February. It’s kinda cool though that each song there is a “play” button that will take you to some media (usually YouTube) to check it out. This is helpful for those songs being played in the “non-Dokken” years of my life.

Granted these are only as reliable as the people entering them but it is fun to look through, especially if someone was obsessed enough with a band 20 years ago that they logged and kept a setlist from a concert you attended.