a Long Way Home

Roger Hodgson is the voice of Supertramp. Co-founding the band in 1969, he was the lead singer and writer of nearly all their hits throughout the band's heyday in the seventies and early eighties. Since leaving Supertramp in 1983 he has had a series of critically acclaimed and successful solo albums and come through a major accident in the late eighties that threatened his entire career. This DVD, the first live release from either Roger or Supertramp, was filmed in Montreal and catches Roger Hodgson at his very best.

After regaining a large amount of credibility with their fans with the release of “Erase The Slate”, an album the reestablished the band’s riff driven metal credentials and spelled the end of any future experimentation in the murky world of grunge mediocrity, Dokken came to a crossroads of sort and had to decide whether they would continue revisiting their past of try something different. Having dropped the flamboyant 80s guitarist Reb Beach, they ended up picking up former Europe guitarist John Norum, an axe slinger whose metal credentials are a bit firmer than Reb’s, his appearance on “The Final Countdown” not withstanding. But unlike the expected result of more 80s inspired metal, what ends up coming about is a dark and somewhat doom rock oriented exploration of Don Dokken’s deeper side.

If it seems upon first listen that Evan Marks' snappy, fluid electric lines are vaguely reminiscent of Steve Laury's, the connection makes perfect sense; Marks subbed in Fattburger's guitar chair for a few years after Laury left the group. While select ballads on the Cleveland native's stellar debut ease through that band's familiar laid-back ideals, Marks seems more comfortable darting in new and daring directions as both composer and jam-happy player. Label connections work wonders, with Jeff Lorber's synth rack and Art Porter's funky delicacies punching up groove after funk-filled electronic groove. For example, "Racer X," with its burning blues rock bravura, is one of the most unpredictable genre tracks ever. Marks has the vision of an edgy contemporary instrumentalist, but there is also a healthy dose of jazz seasoning in his mix…