Review & photos by Junkman
Autumn is the start of the traditional “Oktoberfest” in Germany, and on the first night of October, the legendary German rock band Scorpions cranked out a bit of a ROCKtoberfest for a sold-out crowd in San Diego at Viejas Arena, a cozy indoor arena located on the University of California San Diego campus. What was supposed to be a co-headlining 24 date U.S. tour with Whitesnake was dashed when Whitesnake dropped off the bill in early August due to their lead singer David Coverdale’s ongoing health issues.
This turned out to benefit opening act Thundermother, the all-girl Swedish quartet that were supposed to be the tour’s designated openers. Without Whitesnake, Thundermother was granted an extended opening set. In this case, an 11-song, high- energy show that spotlighted their new release, Black And Gold. To say this band will be a headliner someday soon is anyone’s guess, considering how rock fans, especially in the States, can be fickle in their response to upstart bands these days.
But Thundermother rocked the house like the professionals they are. They were the perfect band to open for the Scorpions, as far as I am concerned. Busting out of the gates running, with the rocker “Whatever,” they opened many eyes in the crowd right off the bat. Singer Guernica Mancini, sporting a black and gold hot pants ensemble, showed off her strong vocal command all set long, with songs like “Dog From Hell” as well as the newer material, such as “Try With Love” and “I Don’t Know You” and the title track from Black And Gold.
Guitarist Filippa Nassil, bassist Majsan Lindberg, and drummer Emlee Johansson, round out the band. They know all the best “rock star moves” onstage and are a very tight unit. They have lots of loud guitars and heavy drums. Their songs, much like Scorpions, are crunchy, fast paced, and at times, very anthem-like. Titles like “Loud And Free” and the set closing “Driving In Style” turned the normally laid-back San Diego crowd into fist-pumping, sing-along to the chorus, European style rock fan, and gave these ladies lots of love and thunderous applause at shows end. It was a very enjoyable way to start an evening, and I look forward to seeing Thundermother again in the future.
It’s hard for me to believe that Scorpions were on the verge of retiring a few years ago. Considering the material they have released since then has been as good as just about anything they have released previously, and this year’s aptly titled Rock Believer album gave them some fresh new tunes to present to their longtime fans. The band wasted no time at all getting to it in San Diego.
As the Scorpions logo adorned curtain dropped, revealing a large, ever changing video wall behind them, the band opened the show with the first track “Gas In The Tank” from Rock Believer. It’s frantic pace set the tone for what was to come. Metaphorically, the songs title says a lot for the state of this band. They have plenty of gas left in the tank. 74-year-old vocalist Klaus Meine has slowed down on his trademark running around onstage, but his wonderful tenor has not seemed to age much at all.
Traditional Scorpions onstage mainstays from the past kept the crowd happy. During “The Zoo,” Meine still uses and throws about a hundred drumsticks to the audience after hitting one strike of his cowbell. Guitarist Rudolf Schenker still sports wrap-around sunglasses, and a Gibson “Flying V” guitar, and his wide, open-mouth smile is a constant throughout the set. Lead guitarist Mattias Jabs shreds a striped Gibson Explorer for a large portion of the set, and seems to have a constant interaction with the audience. This, as well as so many favorite songs from the past, such as the rockers “Bad Boys Running Wild” and “Tease Me Please Me” kept the older fans in the audience content.
A large extended “Ego Ramp” kept the band literally face-to-face with a vast majority of the Viejas Arena. It was especially true during a point in the show when Schenker and Jabs strapped on acoustic guitars for a pair of lovely ballads. “Light up your iPhones,” pleaded Meine, as the crowd turned the arena into a Christmas pageant. 1990’s lovely “Send Me An Angel” and the classic, fall-of-the-Berlin-Wall-inspired “Wind Of Change” emphasized Meine’s wonderful voice, as well as gave the crowd a chance to sing their hearts out, much to the delight of the band members. A large projection of birds flying over a crumbling, barbed wire topped wall, set the background tone, and as always, the lighting for Scorpions was spectacular.
Four songs from Rock Believer were incorporated into the set, and after the fourth one, the title track, it was time to spotlight the bands newest members. First it was the steady rumble of bassist Pawel Maciwoda who has been the bands bassist since 2004, who shook the PA systems sub-woofers. This led into a magnificent drum solo from former Motörhead and King Diamond basher, Mikkey Dee, who joined the band in 2016. Perched atop a five-tier lighted drum riser, he attacked his kit with a fervor that I believe has reignited this finely tuned German driving machine known as Scorpions to a level that they had not been to throughout most of the late 1990s into the millennium. Dee truly is one of rock’s great drummers and, judging from the huge smile on his face, is evidently enjoying his time with the band.
As the Scorps downshifted toward the end of their set, they pulled out more crowd favorites. “Blackout,” the title track to their huge 1982 LP, made their fans erupt, as Rudolf Schenker played a guitar that spewed smoke and it seemed that the lighting crew was using every piece that that was on the lighting rig at once. The Scorpions ended their set with “Big City Nights” from 1984’s “Love At First Sting” and the FM radio favorite was accompanied by a large backdrop of a neon-lit, Las Vegas style-city. Guitarist Jabs even used a guitar adorned with Las Vegas graphics.
After leaving the stage, the crowd roared for more. The band returned with the mega-hit “No One Like You” and their signature “Rock You Like A Hurricane,” which, even though it was just days after the devastation of Hurricane Ian, lifted the energy in the building to a new level.
Again, I must stress that this band seems re-energized, and can still pull off a masterful, rocking performance, in an age when many bands from their era cannot even come close to accomplishing. The twinkle in the eye of Klaus Meine as the band stood center stage and took their bows before their screaming fans, reflected plenty for the enthusiasm he and the other members project. The Scorpions, as well as their audience, are indeed “Rock Believers.”
