Celebrating their 50th year in music, The Scorpions are touring the United States and stopped by the Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica this past Wednesday night. Along on this run of dates are veteran hard rockers Queensryche. The Scorpions are on tour in support of their latest offering “Return to Forever,” their 18th studio release. The band played a perfect midsize venue in Nautica, enabling the fans to really see them in an intimate setting (rather than an arena or amphitheater).
You may remember before their last tour in 2012, the band vowed to retire following that tour. Well, the zest and fire of performing never left and it kept the band form going away. “Return to Forever” is a true classic Scorpions album in every sense. It’s very melodic with great hooks and great melodies.
Led by 67 years young Klaus Meine on vocals, I still don’t really see any difference since the first time I saw him sing in 1988 and up to now. His voice still has great tempo and pitch and Meine still performs, overall, at a high level. Meine reminisced about the glory days of the band and talked about playing in Cleveland for the first time back in 1979 at the old Municipal Stadium.
The band played a wide range of songs from early career tunes like “Speedy’s Coming” to new songs like “Going Out With a Bang” and “We Built This House.” Guitarist Rudolph Schenker couldn’t contain his enthusianm. You can hear him saying “Yeah” Yeah” constantly with smiles and moving about the stage. His counterpart on guitar, Mattias Jabs, was a lot more subtle and was given duties of the talkbox at the end of song “The Zoo.”
For some reason, Schenker disappeared for the instrumental “Delicate Dance” as Jabs was front and center for this and Schenker was replaced by a guitar tech. Another instrumental was played where both Scheneker and Jabs were at the forefront during “In the Line of Fire.” I loved the visuals that the band had on the video screens with the American flag and various color schemes and patterns throughout the show. Schenker had a smoke tube attached to the body of the guitar for the song “Blackout.” Meine went crazy with his cowbell playing and tossing out at least 25 drumsticks throughout the evenings performance. The band has never sounded better and we are lucky that they are still here providing great music and very entertaining shows.
Opening the show was Queensryche. Playing a shortened 45 minute set, the band dished out eight (8) songs highlighted by the vocal performance of Todd LaTorre on “Queen of the Reich.” I still love the playing of drummer Scott Rockenfield. I still believe he is one of the top drummers in rock and he doesn’t get his due credit. The band will be releasing a brand new album on October 2nd titled “Condition Human.”
Scorpions setlist:
Going Out with a Bang
Make It Real
The Zoo
Coast to Coast
Top of the Bill / Steamrock Fever / Speedy’s Coming / Catch Your Train
We Built This House
Delicate Dance (Instrumental)
Always Somewhere / Eye of the Storm / Send Me an Angel (acoustic medley)
Wind of Change
Rock ‘n’ Roll Band
Dynamite
In the Line of Fire (Instrumental)
Kottak Attack (Drum Solo including Rock and Roll -Led Zeppeilin snippet)
Blackout
No One Like You
Big City Nights
Encore:
Still Loving You Rock You Like a Hurricane
Queensrÿche setlist:
Anarchy-X
The Needle Lies
Walk In The Shadows
Jet City Woman
Silent Lucidity
Arrow Of Time
Eyes Of A Stranger
Empire
Queen Of The Reich
We would like to thank Kim Estlund from B|W|R PR for the credentials to review the show.
