Dio concert review; June 12th, 1997 by Dave Hines

The following is a review of a Dio show on the fourth North American leg of the Angry Machines tour, originally e-mailed to me.

From: Dave Hines (dhines@gis.net)
Subject: DIO concert Hampton Beach, NH , USA 1997 June 12
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 01:01:19 -0400

It might be important to know I've been a fan of Ronnie's since the Rainbow days. I've played lead guitar for over 20 years. I've seen Ronnie with Rainbow, Sabbath and now on his own. I was not under the influence of anything.

Now to the concert review. . . .

D+ at best.

When I pay 25 dollars to see a show, I want my moneys worth. Just being able to see him on stage is not enough. The Casino is a 3000 to 3500 seater at best. I've seen some great shows there: Benitar, Santana, Jethro Tull and I've played there myself so I'm aware of the acoustics.

Their sound man should be shot!!! This idiot (And I was seated right in front of him) couldn't regulate the volume on his own stereo system at home much less a concert venue. I like loud. I expected loud. But there comes that point where you cross over the line of loud into unintelligible. It was a muddled mess of ear piercing noise. The songs I was unfamiliar with I couldn't follow. The songs I knew I could only follow by watching Ronnies mouth. But the drunken morons in the audience loved it and couldnt tell the difference.

That was problem number one.

The other was the amount of time they were on stage. Show started at about 9:15. Ended at 10:45. At first look that soounds like I got my moneys worth: an hour and a half of music. But when you remove the 15 minute drum solo, the 12-15 minute bass solo, the 15 minute guitar solo, Ron was on stage playing for only 45 minutes!!! These guys are technically proficient but thats not what we came to see. It was boring. People were running to the bar or to the bathroom during these periods of "Hey, let me show you how I can play" This is from a man who has more material than he can shake a stick at.

I was psyched reading all the other reviews on the Dio home page: "...dont miss this show!" "... Ronnie at his best!" This was a major dissapointment. What Ronnie needs to do is fire that sound man, restrict the other band member solos to under 5 minutes (I'd get rid of them all together) , and play more of the songs that we've come to expect from a talent such as Ronnie.