Posts Tagged ‘Doro Pesch’
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
The Masquerade, Atlanta GA
There are some great female singers in Heavy Metal now, but it can be argued that most of them would not be singing Metal, much less enjoying the acceptance and popularity they do today if it were not for Metal’s true queen and pioneer – DORO PESCH.
It is one thing to possess a fantastic singing voice, but it is another thing entirely to have that plus staying power. Since 1984, when she debuted with WARLOCK, DORO has not only continued to release albums and tour but has managed to stay relevant. Her presence and the respect she commands by having a pure Metal heart, being appreciative and respectful of her fans, and bringing magic to her many collaborations makes her a very special – and influential – musician indeed.
Doro released Raise Your Fist in 2012, and like most of her recent catalog, received minor attention and only charted in her home country of Germany. However, she tours the States for her die-hard fans, making a stop at Atlanta’s Masquerade. The room was full of 1980′s throwback – folks who were happy to step out Hair Nation-style. What was impressive was the age range of the attendees. There were little kids brought in by their parents in rock t-shirts and others sliding into their 50′s and a few older than that, all there to rock out to 80′s hits and see some good, straight-up Metal.
There were two bands to take the stage before DORO. Local band BRAZEN ANGEL took the stage first, full of energy and Southern pride. Unfortunately, while all competent musicians, and having a very good singer in Reese Martin, it was clear they were not only local, but definitely more bar band than touring band. As if it was necessary to drive that point home, they mention the fact that their fans, who were out in force and seemed excited to have their local heroes in the lineup, helped them pay-to-play to get on the bill. A faux pas they should never repeat onstage again, even if not necessarily a secret. What they lacked in polish they made up in enthusiasm, however, and they appeared genuinely appreciative of the chance to perform tonight.
 SISTER SIN has grown by leaps and bounds the last few years. Up next was SISTER SIN, a Swedish hard rock outfit fronted by the vocally powerful LIV JAGRELL. Pro and tight, they powered through an athletic set of “old-school metal” that was complementary to the 80′s hard melodic rock style and vibe of the evening. A little bit MÖTLEY CRÜE, a little bit SKID ROW, some gang vocals and a lot of pure energy. The band has been working hard to establish itself and promote their new album, Now and Forever, which has some very strong material. It was great having two bands with strong front women on the same bill, and SISTER SIN was perfect to open up for DORO.
 The Metal Queen herself! When the diminutive DORO came out the crowd went nuts, and what is amazing is how little she seems to have changed over the years. She sounds phenomenal and looks fantastic, not much different from when she first broke through in America. The other gift she has is her command of the stage. She is a powerful presence, but it is tempered with an endearing sweetness and grace. She thanked the crowd early and often, reaching out into the crowd, communicating as if she was speaking to old friends. She also makes her band very much a part of the show instead of treating them as just a backing band. GUITARISTS BAS MAAS and LUCA PRINCIOTTA, NICK DOUGLAS on bass and JOHNNY DEE on drums are an international, highly visual and incredibly tight unit that gave Doro a solid backdrop for her vocals. She played a great mix of her catalog, opening with “Earthshaker Rock” and sprinkling in other favorites such as “I Rule the Ruins” (this writer’s personal fave), “Stay Hard (True As Steel)”, the fan-dedicated “Fur Immer” and “Metal Tango”. She dedicated “Hero” to the late RONNIE JAMES DIO, and there was even a drum solo, giving DORO’s pipes a break and giving the drummer JOHNNY DEE a chance to show his chops. “All We Are”, the song she is probably most famous for here in the States, was actually played toward the end of the set – not as an encore. The band finished the set, and did two more songs for the first encore, the unreleased in the U.S. “Love Me In Black” and “Fight For Rock”. Answering the chanting crowd, she was able to fit in one more song for a second encore, which by fan demand was “East Meets West”. Nearly two hours of music and not one dull moment. DORO’s music may be dated and lyrically lacking to some Metal fans, but her uncomplicated and sincere approach makes the music what it was intended to be – empowering, unifying, and fun.
 “Raise Your Fist” was released last year. Other than the fact that DORO appears untouched by time, what was striking about the night is how the crowd showed their reverence for her. It was a full room though maybe not a sold-out crowd, but you would not have been able to tell from the raucous fan-worship bestowed upon her. Everyone was respectful and kind, and the band worked that room as if they were playing a packed out stadium. Some performers seem to thank their fans almost out of obligation, but DORO seems to be truly appreciative of the fan base that has kept her making music for nearly 30 years, playing songs that fans have requested and touched by the fans knowledge of her music not even released in this country. In a time when pretention and pomposity is king, it was so refreshing to see a performer not only enjoy what they do, but remembers the fans are the reason they get to do it.
 DORO live at The Masquerade.
 DORO and her band. If there was one downside to the show, it was the overall sound. The Masquerade has 3 rooms – Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. DORO’s show was held in Hell, which had a flat, harsh sound that just would not round out. Heaven, where I was fortunate enough to see NEUROSIS last month had a great sound. It doesn’t make sense that there would be such a vast difference in sound quality in the same venue especially when such sonic deficiencies can be easily improved.
This is a minor gripe. The show was great, with DORO showing that while other ‘chick singers’ may come and go, she is legend; she is still the Metal Queen. Anyone who may have forgotten, and was there this night, got one hell of a reminder.
SETLIST:
Earthshaker Rock
I Rule the Ruins
Burning the Witches
Running From the Devil
Stay Hard
Raise Your Fist in the Air
Metal Racer
Fur Immur
Hero
Unholy Love
Breaking the Law
All We Are
Revenge
Metal Tango
First Encore:
Love Me In Black
Fight For Rock
Second Encore:
East Meets West
by Lynn Jordan
Tags: 30 years in Metal, bassist NICK DOUGLAS, BRAZEN ANGEL, Doro, Doro Pesch, drummer JOHNNY DEE, great singers in metal, guitarist BAS MAAS, guitarist LUCA PRINCIOTTA, Hair Nation, LIV JAGRELL, Motley Crue, Raise Your Fist, Reese Martin, rock and roll, RONNIE JAMES DIO tribute song “Hero”, sister sin, skid row, The Metal Queen, Warlock
Posted in Live Show Reviews, Reviews | No Comments »
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
DORO is a legend of hard rock and heavy metal. Since rising to fame with her band WARLOCK in 1984 she has achieved international acclaim as a solo artist and iconic figure in our genre. She is a one woman force majeur as a performer and her huge catalog of great music speaks for itself. In honor of celebrating 25 years in the business she is releasing a DVD this September and having two release concerts, one in New York and one in Chicago. It was an honor and a pleasure catching up with DORO and chatting about her past, present and busy future.
MAA: Your new DVD, DORO: Twenty Five Years in Rock is being released in celebration of your entire career? What does it mean to you to have endured this long in music?
DP: To me it doesn’t even seem that long. It seems like I just started a two or three years ago. I was always a big metalhead and then some highlights of my life I will probably never forget. Great festivals, tours, like my first tour was with JUDAS PRIEST in 1986. My second big tour was with RONNIE JAMES DIO, who I loved so much and I miss him terribly. And then my first big tour in the States was with MEGADETH and we toured with all these great bands. like we just did a tour with MOTORHEAD for a couple of months. It’s just been fantastic, all these years. It was always up and down, but it was great as long as enough metalheads were there. The 90′s weren’t bad, just a few good spots. All in all the last couple of years, it’s been great. Almost as good as the 80′s were.
 This was the poster for the original concert in Doro's hometown of Dusseldorf.
MAA: The concert sounds amazing. How much rehearsal and work went into the show in perform a career retrospective for you?
DP: It took a whole year to prepare and to invite all the guests and to prepare the big stage set. We did a nice stage set, it looked like actually the castle of the WARLOCK with all and the ruins. Then I wanted to have like a real Warlock coming up on stage, kind of like the Eddie of IRON MAIDEN. A really, really big sculpture was made and that took a whole year to do too. We found somebody who was great. I think they were one of the highest level to do it. Then whole show, it took a year to prepare and then actually took another year to even start working on the DVD. It was like our longest show, three and half hours long with all the highlights of each of our albums. Then we did some songs with other artists like some WARLOCK songs and then the SCORPIONS guys they came up; Klaus Meine and Rudolph Schenker and we did two SCORPIONS songs. Actually they were one of my first rock bands, when I grew up. When I was 7 or 8 years old and I was still in school and I didn’t even know the Scorpions where from Germany, but I remember I listened to their songs on the radio. Then it was a great treat, that they would come up and play with me. So I actually played some of their songs in honor of our guests. Definitely one of the highlights of my life. It looks visually really great. Like the best light show, pyrotechnics and the whole stage setting.
MAA: The DVD release is being celebrated with two shows, New York and Chicago. How do you keep your voice in shape for touring after all this time?
DP: Oh, actually when I see the fans, when I see they are excited then I can sing ten times better than I could sing like when I’m in the studio or like normal setting. I think the fans, that’s the most important thing in my life, always was and always will be. When I see the people, then the voice is just there. I don’t have to sing ten hours straight, it doesn’t matter. The voice is always there and the more I do it the better I am getting. I feel like it’s just the opposite. I always thought oh, maybe eventually I couldn’t sing anymore. But I think the more you do it the better it works and so now I’m touring so much even when I have a bad cold or when I’m touring hard, when I’m on stage then everything is OK. Afterwords, that’s a different story, but on stage it’s always cool. I don’t do much, just keep on touring and that’s actually the best exercise too for the body. Jumping up and down and headbanging like crazy and stage diving! (Laughing) It’s better than any gym, I think.
 Doro and her countryman Klaus Meine of SCORPIONS
MAA: Can you talk about your shows earlier this summer in Spain with THE DIO DISCIPLES? The videos look amazing!
DP: Oh, yea, I’d love to actually. I was a big RONNIE JAMES DIO fan. I miss him terribly and I think it’s such a big loss for the world. I got the phone call for it. Actually it was friend of mine and she said ‘Hey, I’m just sitting here with Wendy Dio’ and THE DIO DISCIPLES have a tour coming up and Ripper owens, his daughter is getting married. Would you like to fill in to do the Spanish shows.’ And I said ‘Oh man, fucking awesome! And then I said yes! I didn’t even care what I had to do. I said I would want to cancel everything, whatever it takes I definitely want to do it!. Spain, the first one was in Madrid and everything worked really good. Then the second one was Barcelona, I think that was really, really nice. It was so nice to sing all the great RONNIE JAMES DIO songs and some BLACK SABBATH songs, some RAINBOW songs and actually I fell in love all over again with his great music and man, it was awesome! Of course it was very ambivalent on one hand, so sad and on the other hand it was so great too. To keep the music alive and to keep the spirit alive and since we toured together many times I knew all Ron’s band like the guitar player, Craig Goldy. He was so nice. Simon Wright the drummer and Scott Warren on keyboards and we had a great time. I was very welcomed like a big family and the other is singer Toby Jepson. He knew that I was nervous filling in. Because it’s like man, you have to learn 12 songs or 13 songs and it was so much lyrics and I wanted to do really good. Everyone was super nice and amazing. James LoMenzo, he was super nice too and we had a great time and it was a great honor. But I must say nobody can sing like RONNIE JAMES DIO. He was the best and the greatest and we just all tried to do a good job. I definitely sang my heart out, but you can’t touch Ronnie’s voice and Ronnie’s songs. But it was great. I was so happy that they asked me to do it and I would love to do it again in the States. It would be great and I was very happy and thankful and grateful that they asked me to do it.
MAA: You are certainly a hero and an icon to many women in rock and metal. What advice can you give to any ladies just starting out in a band today?
DP: I just would say always follow your heart and and then do everything 150%. Believe in yourself, love your fans and just go for it! Never, ever, ever give up and do what you love and don’t ever let them break you or put you down. Just go for it and I think it does not matter if you are a man or woman, if you have metal in your heart that’s all it takes. I’m still a big metal head and a fan. I love so many bands and musicians so I would say if you need a lift just listen to great bands and get energized and then go out and knock ‘em dead. Give it all you got and try to find good people around you who support you. Maybe a good manager but, in this day and age with the internet, you can do so much stuff on your own. Just work hard on it because it’s never easy, but never give up and eventually it will happen.
 Still going strong!
MAA: What is the progress on the next DORO album?
DP: Yeah. Actually, I think it will come out next year early spring and then I want to do like a full tour in the States. We have a couple of songs already. One song, it’s dedicated to RONNIE JAMES DIO and the title is called “Hero” and I think it’s so nice. I definitely want to take care of this one Like in the end, it’s sounding great and of course Wendy Dio she, she would the one who, who hears it first. I hope she will love it. There’s another song, the working title is “Raise Your Fist” and I want to actually play it at Wacken because I’m playing the opening band this year. I’m doing the Wacken anthem “We Are the Metalheads” and then the new song too. I wanna get all the metalheads and all the fans singing like a choir. We have good songs in the making, but it’ll probably take a couple or 6, 7, 8 more months to really finish it. Sound-wise, I think we are in good shape and all excited and the album will be the whole spectrum from anthems to thrash, to rock to hardcore to speedmetal and some ballads. I love it all! Whatever feels good, but early next year I would say.
MAA: Thanks so much for your time today and good luck at Wacken. It’s been and honor an a pleasure!
DP: Thank you so much for having me and for all of your years of support!
(Special Thanks to DORO, Nuclear Blast and Earsplit PR)
by Keith (Keefy) Chachkes
Tags: Anthems, ballads, bassist James LoMenzo, career retrospectives, Doro Pesch, drummer Simon Wright, Eddie the `Ed, elaborate stage sets, guest appearances, guitarist Craig Goldy, hardcore, headbanging like crazy, heavy metal, icons, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Keefy, Klaus Meine and Rudolph Schenker, living legends, Megadeth, metalheads, Motorhead, rock, ronnie james dio, Scorpions, Scott Warren on keyboards, singer Toby Jepson, Speed Metal, stage diving, THE DIO DISCIPLES, thrash, Tim “Ripper” Owens, twenty-five years in metal, Warlock, Wendy Dio, years in the making, “Hero”, “Raise Your Fist”, “We Are the Metalheads”
Posted in Feature Interviews, Interviews | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
CHRISTIAN MISTRESS
Agony & Opium (20 Buck Spin)
The terms “throwback” and “vintage” have become as common in metal circles as “brutal” and “evil,” so much so that the authenticity of bands that embrace music that likely predate their own existence on earth has come into question. So any time a new band reaches three decades back for their sound, there’s bound to be snarky comments and raised eyebrows, and that hasn’t eluded Olympia, Wash., riff monsters CHRISTIAN MISTRESS, a band that sounds like a perfect meeting of 1970s HEART and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The basis for such questioning? Uh … just because?
Instead of wondering baselessly, let’s just accept that this quintet perhaps really does dig the scintillating guitars of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and raspy siren Christine Davis (who you’re always worrying is going to go hoarse) could hold her own with, say, Doro Pesch if WARLOCK was suddenly down a throat. And by the way, I don’t question whether their aim is true, but you know Internet folk. Always looking for a controversy. Hearing is believing, and if you can’t feel their conviction, chances are you’re dead.
The band’s six-cut debut for 20 Buck Spin (home to other notables such as LITURGY, LAUDANUM, MEGASUS, etc.) Agony & Opium is one that’ll have you hankering for an aging Corvette (badly in need of a paint job, of course), an old JUDAS PRIEST tee, some warm-ass beer (Schlitz or some shit like that), and an abandoned baseball field in which to indulge in these treats. These blazing half-dozen cuts will sound like they were custom made for that setting, as they recall a time when rock was rock, with no pretension, no concern about pushing some cola or new energy drink, no worry about eventually ending up the star of a reality show. It’s there to be loud and to swagger, and if there’s a little mystery and mythos throw in for good measure, all the better.
While the guitars are king here, Davis is sure-handed queen, standing out front, commanding your attention, proving she’s tougher than you’ll ever be. From the opening of “Riding on the Edges,” she has you in her grasp, pulling you through the VAN HALEN-like power of “Desert Rose,” on top of “Black Vigil” and into closing ballad “Omega Stone,” which might make you think of the IRON MAIDEN closet classic “Remember Tomorrow.” And because the album is so short (they get the leave-you-wanting-more factor), hitting repeat will be organic. And necessary.
Agony & Opium may grab ideas from the past, but they’re not necessarily living there (unlike my baseball field scenario). Surely they grew up with an admiration for these styles – they understand them too deeply to not be well versed – and, as they’ve grown up, developed an understanding of what makes the sounds so timeless and how to translate them into the modern era. The same reason people young and old go batshit for DIO is the same reason the same crowd likely will cling to CHRISTIAN MISTRESS – experiencing the spirit of true heavy metal, having the chance to take a fantastical escape, and being compelled to hold up the horns with one hand, while tipping the last drops of beer into your mouth with the other. What’s better than that?
Rating: B
Brian Krasman
Tags: 20 Buck Spin, agony & opium, christian mistress, Christine Davis, Doro Pesch, heart, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Laudanum, Liturgy, Magasus, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Reviews, van halen, Warlock
Posted in The Bunker | No Comments »
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