Doug Aldrich, who’s played with the likes of David Coverdale’s Whitesnake (a member since 2002) and also with Ronnie James Dio’s band, DIO, was in the southern Austrian town of Velden during his “Steamroller Tour” in the Bluesiana club, a great little venue for many outstanding concerts (such as Steve Vai and the upcoming concert with former Rolling Stones legend Mick Taylor). For old Kiss fans out there, Doug had even auditioned once for that famous band but didn’t get the gig. As a result though of the audition he eventually met Gene Simmons and the two are still friends to this day.
Aldrich was joined on stage by Joe Travers, who also happens to play drums with Dweezil Zappa’s, “Zappa Plays Zappa”. Yes indeed, Dweezil just happens to be the offspring of that other unforgettable rock legend, Frank Zappa (Travers has had a musical relationship with Dweezil for more than 15 years).
He’s also considered the “Vaultmeister” of the Zappa family musical archives, unquestionably an enviable task seeing that the vault itself contains all media types from audio to film & video (Travers was lucky to have seen Frank in concert in 1988, his first and only time too).
The third component was bass-vocalist Michael Devin, also of Whitesnake fame.
The Velden show was also a chance for Aldrich to take this great little jam band on the road around Europe during Whitesnake’s year-long hiatus.
