Ronnie James Dio & Boneback

The first concert I ever saw was Dio, Whitesnake and Ronnie Montrose in 1984 at the Watsonville Fair Grounds. I was in tenth grade.

Since then I always wanted to see Dio again and reminisce in his portion of the rock and roll pie which he helped create with monolithic giant Black Sabbath, the lesser-known Rainbow.

Dio has held his age better than most old-school rockers and his voice was as clear as a bell, not like Robert Plant at Live Aid. The sound was also excellent.

The first two songs came fast and then Dio said, "Thank you Sacramento. We have a lot of good music to play for you tonight," and it was just as fast back into the swing. This was just what I wanted to hear.

Dio played "Don’t Talk To Strangers," the ultra-heavy "Holy Diver" and arguably his best composition from his Black Sabbath days "Heaven and Hell," after which Dio responded to the voracious cheers, "You just can’t buy this kind of love."

Then curiously, they only played one song off of the new album. It was called "Bubble Machines" and it was good but why stop there? You would think they would want to promote their new work. The seemingly appreciative Dio was apparently unwilling to play more than 14 songs.

I did hear the underdogs-of-the-world anthem "The Last in Line," which totally rocked, "Rainbow in The Dark" and the second of the two encores, Black Sabbath’s "The Mob Rules," which sounded great but why stop there?

Despite the shortness however, it was a good show and provided the usual token guitar and drum solo. Both of which were both good and no bass solo thank goodness because I think he was too busy posing to impress instead of playing to impress, and the show also included the '90s invention of crowd surfing. What? Crowd surfing at a Dio show. What’s next, Dio in a flannel?

-Brett Lueder

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