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| 1. Picture Gallery | 2. 'No One Like You' video clip | 3. Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs interview | 4. Rudolf Schenker interview |
July 29th 2010, Citizens Business Bank Arena, Ontario CA: Around seven months back, the legendary Scorpions announced that they had decided to say farewell to their fans, but not before putting out a largely successful final studio album 'Sting In The Tail' and doing the 'Get Your Sting And Blackout' world tour that would last at least a couple of years. This particular gig was part of the first North American leg of this tour. To say that I was looking forward to it with much eagerness and anticipation would be a huge understatement.
Philadelphia rockers Cinderella, the opening band for nine shows on this tour including three California dates, got the show going at 8 o' clock. With all due respect to them for being a band that's been around for more than 25 years, nothing impressed me about their first couple of songs and it just kept getting worse. Never have I seen a band with an almost zero stage presence and a complete failure to entertain the crowd in attendance. I'm afraid they were that band. The constant change of guitars didn't really help nor did it make much sense. The only reason why people should change guitars on stage is when there's a different tuning on the next set of songs. How many different tunings could they've had in a set of 11 songs? As bad as I feel saying this, if I were to pick the most uninteresting live band I've ever seen, it would have to be Cinderella. I seriously wished we had gotten one of the other bands opening on this tour. So for people who are going to see or have seen the Scorpions on this tour with Ratt, Dokken, MSG or Tesla as the opener, I envy each and every one of you.
- Here's the complete set list:
- Somebody Save Me
- Push Push
- Night Songs
- Fallin' Apart At The Seams
- Heartbreak Station
- Coming Home
- Shelter Me
- Nobody's Fool
- Gypsy Road
- Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)
- Shake Me
After that endurance test, the time had finally arrived for the mighty Germans to hit the stage. The giant screens in the backdrop lit up for the first time tonight as the band opened their show with the title track from the latest album, 'Sting In The Tail'. It was every bit as enjoyable as I had imagined it in my mind, listening to it at home. The live performance was almost identical to the studio version as the band totally nailed it. As expected, their stage was very elaborate and grand, with the giant screens, a very high drum riser that is typical of a huge 'arena rock' band the Scorpions are and risers either side of the drums for the other members. In addition, the stage was extended from its centre for frontman Klaus (and the others) to run onto. All this ensured that every person in the arena got to see their favorite musicians from up-close, and not just the people sitting in the first few rows.
After that truly rocking start that gave us the first glimpse into the live Scorpions experience, they continued with 'Make It Real' from the Animal Magnetism album, which was by no means a letdown from the previous song. It was time for some Love At First Sting, with 'Bad Boys Running Wild'. I would say the main riff in this song is one of the most powerful guitar riffs in rock music. To be able to see it being replicated live, with Klaus' ever-amazing vocals turning it into one of the highlights of the entire night, it was just surreal. The first three songs by themselves were like a short but wonderful trip down memory lane for a Scorpions fan as we went from 2010 to 1980 to 1984. If you were at this show and are one of those people who were ready to bash the Scorpions by calling them as 'old' or 'not as good as before' on the basis of this tour, these three songs alone should have firmly zipped your mouth shut and it would stay that way for the rest of the night.
'The Zoo' brought the tempo down but nonetheless, the crowd seemed to be having fun singing along to it. They went further old school as next came the first of three Lovedrive songs, 'Coast To Coast'. It was a truly blissful moment as Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs stood at the edge of the stage laying down the riffs and solos for this glorious instrumental. Such was the impact of this performance that the song still echoes in my mind even when I'm not listening to it. A nice and easy yet exciting rendition of 'Loving You Sunday Morning' followed it up. It was like coming back full circle to where they started the night, to the new album, as the next song was 'The Best Is Yet To Come'. Watching Klaus croon the lyrics was perhaps the most emotional part of the night for everyone in attendance, as he got the crowd to sing the 'heya-e-yo' part in unison.
The acoustic segment of the night was up next, as Klaus dedicated 'Send Me An Angel' to the one and only Ronnie James Dio, a fitting tribute to one legend by another. The 10,000 strong crowd was particularly loud with the words on this one, more so than any other song tonight, really proving how much Dio is loved and missed. This was followed by 'Holiday', another crowd favorite. Matthias was delightful on the acoustic guitar in these songs. Klaus showed that he still has the range in his vocals to perform the rocking numbers as well as the ballads with aplomb, with able support from the other members. After those last three ballads, 'Raised On Rock' sort of kick-started things off once again as the heads started banging and the hands played air guitar. This song signifies the Scorpions in every sense of the word. It is very suitable as the opening song on the latest album and indeed as a part of this live set. If ever there was a band that was truly 'raised on rock', the Scorpions must be it.
'Tease Me Please Me' was up next, followed by my favorite Scorpions song, 'Dynamite'. It was great to see them pull it off live with effortless ease. Right from the main riff to the lyrics to the palm-muted guitar part to Klaus' high-pitched screams, this song drives you fucking crazy and when played live with the aid of the stage set-up I described earlier, in front of an arena-sized crowd, it becomes a dynamite for real. The 'Kottak attack' drum solo was a combination of James Kottak on drums and video clips showing Kottak himself in the background. It wasn't a bad solo by any means, but I felt it dragged on for too long. People started sitting down in their seats half way through it and to me that's always a sign of not enjoying what's happening on stage. 'Get your sting and blackout', shouted James as he addressed the crowd and led the band into 'Blackout' itself. The entire crowd went up in a roar of approval, as if to say, 'That's more like it!'
Another individual solo followed Blackout, this time by Matthias Jabs. It was of the perfect duration, wasn't meant to show off any crazy virtuosic guitar skills and maintained the essence and spirit of the Scorpions' style of music. The last song of the main set, 'Big City Nights' followed. The chorus was sung loud and clear on this one by more or less every person inside the arena. The band went in and came back out for the encore performance of 'No One Like You' (watch video clip) and 'Rock You Like A Hurricane'. They had saved the best for last, that's for sure. They delivered these songs with tremendous energy and things reached an amazing crescendo. Bands should learn a thing or two from the Scorpions about how to bring a gig to a rocking end. I've used the word 'rocking' more than a couple of times in this review, because the Scorpions define that word. Webster's dictionary should change the meaning of that word to "an adjective best used to describe the Scorpions' live performance".
Overall, it was a delightfully entertaining journey through some of the Scorpions' fan favourites, with three songs each from Lovedrive, Blackout and Love At First Sting, a couple each from Animal Magnetism and Crazy World, as well as three offerings from the latest album Sting In The Tail. Although I wanted them to play a longer set, it was of reasonable duration considering the Klaus and Rudolf's ages of 62 and 61 respectively. All the band members were in top form and I didn't notice any glitches in performance. They were full of energy and their interaction with the crowd was beyond excellent. They were successfully able to involve the crowd and make it quite an intimate show despite it being a huge arena-sized venue. The set itself wasn't quite the career retrospective that many might have expected, but I'm sure the early Scorpions tunes will feature in the future legs of this tour, when the original members join in the party.
New rock bands keep forming every now and then, but I really feel that the music that these bands put out has taken too much of an extreme form and the good old, simple, fun sounding rock music has died down. Even after all these years, it still comes down to bands like AC/DC, KISS and The Scorpions to deliver a good rock show and remind everyone what rock music really used to sound like in its purest, most innocent form. The Scorpions stamped themselves in the minds of the Ontario fans by doing just that tonight, and showed that they still are unarguably one of the best live bands that exist.
But I have a feeling that the best is yet to come.
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