Author: Urban Bolta
Venue: Arena Stožice / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: June 8, 2018
Attendance: 9000
Ticket price: €50
When I last went to see the German rock legends Scorpions six years ago (that time in Munich), I was convinced it would be the last time our paths crossed. After the release of »Sting in the Tail« (2010), the band themselves announced a farewell tour that would run for several years, after which they’d hang up their instruments for good. But like countless of their contemporaries, they ended up eating their words and are still charging ahead at full speed. In recent years they’ve played several times within reach of Slovenian fans, but it took more than fifty years of career for them to finally play here, too! And with a bit of luck, no less: their show at Ljubljana’s Stožice was already announced for the end of last year, but singer Klaus Meine’s illness got in the way. This time, though, they did make it to our neck of the woods.
They put out their latest album, »Return to Forever«, three years ago, and they’ve been touring hard around the world ever since. Europe is up this summer, followed by a tour of the land of kangaroos. To see for themselves that the gears haven’t rusted yet, thousands of fans, mostly middle-aged but with a fair share of younger music fanatics, flocked to the Stožice hall on the first Friday evening of June.
The night was kicked off by local heavyweights Stay Train, a young band of seasoned musicians who have been quickly opening doors to ever more prestigious stages. Just a few weeks ago they played the gigantic stadiums of Russia as openers for Nickelback – a reference not many Slovenian bands can boast. But let’s get back to Stožice! Stay Train are the strongest local answer to the blues rock revivalism that has been around on the wider music scene for almost a decade now. The title of their current album, »Blues from Hell«, describes them down to the last detail! In a good half hour on stage, this strong-willed five-piece served up an irresistible mix of hard rock punch and bluesy grit, all of it flawlessly executed. With Stay Train there are no accidents – every note is in its place, every move is thought out, and their professional approach puts them way above the Slovenian average, so we’ll be hearing about this quintet more and more often.
A few minutes past nine, it was on! By then the hall, which still looked pretty sorry at eight, had filled up nicely, so close to ten thousand throats were ready to sail back to the eighties on the wings of evergreen hits.
The curtain dropped, and with powerful audiovisual support on the big stage screen, the five-piece ran out onto the stage and opened the show with Going Out With a Bang, a song from their newer material. Scorpions are synonymous with plenty of classics that have become household names in the rock world, so they could serve them up at a steady pace for the whole length of the show. Right from the start the Germans had the stands on their feet with the immortal Make It Real and The Zoo. Two of the band’s regular members aren’t German, by the way: bassist Pawel Mąciwoda is Polish, and the latest addition, drummer Mikkey Dee, is of Swedish-Greek descent.
In the longer instrumental jams, such as the whole of Coast to Coast, Scorpions made good use of the extended stage, the so-called »cat walk«, which cut the front of the floor in two. The guitar duo of Rudolf Schenekr / Matthias Jabs racked up plenty of stage mileage, playing now on one side, now on the other. Despite the years and the wrinkled faces they carefully hid under caps and behind sunglasses, they haven’t lost their sense of humor! Schenker happily flung guitar picks around and sought contact with the crowd in the front rows with his facial expressions – the playful antics of the experienced and revered guitarist play an important part in Scorpions’ stage presence.
After a quick run through a few seventies tracks – sadly, Scorpions too have been into playing a mash-up of motifs from several songs (a so-called »medley«) merged into one, instead of picking a song or two and playing them in full – came the emotionally most intense part of the concert. The mere presence of acoustic guitars pulled thousands of phones out of people’s pockets like a magnet, recording every following second of the show. On Follow Your Heart, Eye of teh Storm and Send me an Angel, Klaus Meine got strong vocal backing from the entire crowd, before it was time for what was (for many) the highlight of the concert, the ballad Wind of Change, marked by its historical theme. Meine’s voice is no longer as clear and high as it used to be, but judging by what we saw and heard, you wouldn’t guess the old-timer is already a venerable seventy. In fact, given his history – doctors told him decades ago to find another profession because of his vocal problems – you can only shake the man’s hand with respect.
Before the final stretch, the »man in the background« stepped into the spotlight: drummer Mikkey Dee, longtime member of the legendary outlaw trio Motörhead. Before Dee, the band’s drummer for a long time was the egocentric James Kottak, whose willful behavior didn’t go over well with the boss of the group, so he got the boot, and the gap was filled by the charismatic and popular Dee, whose hair flew in a semicircle above the drum kit all night long. The solo turned into the heavy metal Blackout, the title track of the album of the same name from way back in 1980, before Scorpions brought the kinetics of the Stožice Arena to a boil with a march of mega-hits: Big City Nights, Still Loving You and Rock You Like a Hurricane. To be honest, with a German, American or British crowd in front of them they’d have hung around for another song or two, but never mind – for a first encounter with Slovenian soil, the German old-timers delivered a great night.
Even in their golden years, Scorpions remain a treat, and their punchy rock comes alive most intensely on stage. The announced retirement went down the drain, because playing live runs in these guys’ blood. Even if good old cash-chasing is still a solid motive, as the packed arenas around the world show, nobody can claim that behind all those years of experience there isn’t still a bit of childlike playfulness, which they’ll keep thrilling fans with until their last breath. One thing is clear, though: rock’n’roll will never die this way…
Photos: Boštjan Gašparič
Setlist
1. Going Out With a Bang
2. Make It Real
3. Is There Anybody There?
4. The Zoo
5. Coast to Coast
6. Top of the Bill / Steamrock Fever / Speedy’s Coming / Catch Your Train
7. We Built This House
8. Delicate Dance
9. Follow Your Heart / Eye of the Storm / Send Me an Angel
10. Wind of Change
11. Tease Me Please Me
12. Rock ‘n’ Roll Band
13. drum solo (Mikkey Dee)
14. Blackout
15. Big City Nights
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16. Still Loving You
17. Rock You Like a Hurricane
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