Teenage rocker keeps ’80s vibe alive

The dude walking across the Starbucks parking lot looks exactly like he should.

He's tall and thin with flamingolike legs and long, slender arms poking out of a sleeveless T-shirt.

He's wearing dark shades, which he doesn't take off indoors, and a jumble of beaded bracelets around one of his wrists.

His hair tumbles past his shoulders in a dirty blond tussle.

"It's rock 'n' roll, you gotta be a little flashy, you know?" Dario Lorina says through a thick Boston accent, sipping a coffee on a patio on a sunny Friday afternoon.

Lorina has the appearance of a guy who would have gotten his fair share of underwear thrown at him by big-haired groupies on the Sunset Strip 20 years ago -- even though he's only 19. He has been playing guitar since he was 6 years old, first gaining national attention a little more than three years ago when he was recruited to play guitar in former Warrant frontman Jani Lane's solo band, touring the world when he was only 16.

One show had to be canceled, in fact, because it was in a strip club and Lorina wasn't old enough to be there.

For Lorina, it was trial by fire at an early age.

"The guys in the band and the tour manager were extremely cool about taking me under their wing," he recalls of touring with Lane. "I really just zipped my mouth, opened my eyes, made sure my ears were open and just listened and took everything in. At the end of that three years, it was like, 'Wow, I got a lot of knowledge.' "

Since then, Lorina has joined up with another celebrated '80s hard rocker, Lizzy Borden, with whom he recently headlined a metal fest in Germany in front of 3,000 fans. These days, Lorina's also playing locally in "Rock Star: The Tribute" show at the Steve Wyrick Theater at Planet Hollywood.

In a way, the young, Vegas-based shredder is something of an anachronism, a teen weaned on the Van Halen, Whitesnake and Motley Crue cassette tapes that he'd find in the glove box of his father's car and who pines for a return to the day of the guitar god.

"There are no more Randy Rhodes, no more Van Halens," he sighs. "There's no more sense of the guitar hero, other than that damn game that these kids are hooked on."

But Vegas seems like a bit of an exception. The weekly live band lineup at various Station Casinos clubs is loaded with "Headbangers Ball" staples from two decades ago, and popular local acts such as the Sin City Sinners keep the music of that era alive here.

For Lorina, who moved to Vegas with his family when he was 12, this city is a gilded stepping stone, a town whose instincts often mirror his own.

"I've done a lot with '80s things, that's my vein, but I want to take that style and bring it into today's scene," he says. "That whole image and vibe, I want to try and bring some of that back."

And he's on his way. One parking lot at a time.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.