Posts Tagged ‘scorpions’
Uli Roth and Black Knights Rising Concert Review, Houston, TX, February, 13, 2015
When I saw that the Extreme Guitar Tour was coming through Houston, on a weekend night no less, I had to make arrangements to go. It was a tough drive since the Alice Cooper after party from the night before gave me a bad case of rock and roll pneumonia. haha
Opening the show was a Canadian band called Old James.I couldn’t quite get a bead on them. While I could tell that they were all proficient musicians, nothing sounded congruent. No hooks. They covered Thin Lizzy’s Cold Sweat but I couldn’t tell what it was until the chorus. I heard a few other folks say the same thing.
Black Knights Rising (BKR) is a bit of a supergroup featuring Tim “Ripper” Owens (Winter’s Bane, Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio Disciples and many more), Craig Goldy (DIO, Giuffria, Rough Cutt), Vinny Appice (Black Sabbath, DIO, Rick Derringer), Elliott Rubison (Uli Roth, MSG, CEO of Dean Guitars) and sometimes John West (Uli Roth, Royal Hunt, Artension). Based on the BKR Facebook page, Bobby Rondinelli was slated to take over drums after February 9th. That didn’t happen. Either way, both Bobby and Vinny are both in The Book, so I was set either way. The band comes out and opens with Death Alley Driver by Rainbow and they sound great. This show was the final night of he tour. Everything played was either by Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath or DIO. John West came out and went back and forth vocally with Owens on Burn. They both sounded great! Highlight for me, though, was Stand Up and Shout. Vinny’s insane snare work always blew me away in that song and watching him that close live gave me a new appreciation for his playing. He’s still a beast. Goldy’s playing was spot on as well. Effortless player and I’m glad I finally got to see him live. Last time I saw Ripper live was on the Jugulator tour in Norfolk, VA.
Half of the crowd left after BKR. Seriously. Uli was up next and half of those folks left. I’m still shaking my head over that. His band is made up of John West, Elliott Rubison, Kofi Baker (son of Ginger Baker), David Klosinski (guitarist from one of the Sky Academy classes) and Allesandro Bertoni on keys. Uli opens with All Night Long then in to Sails of Charon. Holy crap. To finally see him playing these Scorpions classics live was a dream come true. His playing style is so fluid and relaxed. He almost looks bored up there. But even watching the old vids of Scorpions, he always has that look. Klosinski played rhythm guitar and did some harmony soloing with Uli and was spot on with it. How cool it must be to have Uli as a mentor. John West sounded great. There’s only one Klaus, and West wasn’t trying to imitate him. He was a great fit. Kofi’s drumming was great and you could tell that he and the band followed Uli’s every move. He directed some jams with the wave of a hand, a nod or just some quick eye contact. Seeing them play We’ll Burn the Sky and In Trance gave me goosebumps. Maybe even a little verklempt during Burn the Sky. I absolutely love that song. The final 3 songs were all Hendrix covers, which is not surprising. I’m not a Hendrix fan but respect his influence. He’s obviously very important to Uli. It was a great show.
After the show I got to meet Vinny and Goldy. They were both very inquisitive about the book. They signed on the DIO group photo that features both of them, so it was great that Vinny was there. I also broke my own “no selfie 2015” rule. Uli was available, too, but I had met him in 2000 and he signed the book back then. It was also getting late and I was dog tired. Great seeing some friends there as well.
Scorpions/Tesla Concert Review, San Antonio, TX 6/26/12
I had just seen the Scorpions in San Antonio 2 years ago and it will forever be one of the best concerts I have ever seen. You can read about that experience here. And if you care to see which Scorpions shows I have attended, click here.
Last night marked the 5th time since 1991 that I have seen them and per usual, they never disappoint. This show was a continuation of their Final Sting tour and it’s pretty cool that they decided to hit San Antonio twice. A lot of bands owe a great deal of thanks to that City for giving them a break way back when and Scorpions are no exception.
I was less than pleased to see that Tesla was the opener. I never got into them besides Modern Day Cowboy, which is an awesome song.
Thanks to the Internet, I was able to see what the setlists for both bands were going to be as they’ve been pretty consistent for the recent leg of this tour.
Last night, I met up with my friends Don, Burney and Vanessa at the Illusions Theater at the Alamodome. They basically take one end of the Alamodome and convert it to a smaller venue. When Scorps were here 2 years ago, they damn near
Vanessa and Burney
sold out the AT&T center, but I still saw some vacant seats last night. After some brief conversations in the parking lot and a beer (heavy metal parking lot 2012?), we headed inside. The shirts were pretty ugly and quite expensive. I’ll pay that $35 a shirt for Maiden’s Texas only shirts, but not for the Scorps. The bootleg shirts were ok, but I passed on those too.
Tesla hit the stage promptly at 7:30PM and went relatively seamlessly through their set. They stuck to their classics and played them well, but again, I am not a fan. I sat through their entire set. They did Cowboy which was certainly the highlight for me and it was cool hearing Edison’s Medicine again. Not a bad song. Love Song made me want to puke. I’ve always
awful picture
hated that song. I once got kicked out of a band because I refused to play it. Haha. Jeff Keith sounded fine and the band’s backing vocals were top notch. The drums in the mix were awful though. I don’t know what the hell the soundman was doing, but it was awful. They finished up their set and it was time to stretch my legs.
Scorpions came on Right at 9PM at opened with Sting In The Tail. Everyone was standing and the Scorps rocked like they always do. There were no real surprises in the setlist. Recent Euro shows actually got In Trance, but none of the American shows. I would have lost my shit if they had pulled that one out. That setlist was almost exact to 2 years ago with only a few changes. My only complaint about seeing them is the drum solo. While Kottak is a competent player, his drum solo just isn’t my thing even with the comedic video attached to it. But…Klaus, Rudy and Matthias are in their 60s, so I am sure the break does them a world of good.
They played Wind of Change which wasn’t in the set 2 years ago. I could have done without it for sure, only because I’ve heard it way too many times since it came out. But it’s a crowd pleaser and surely has some deep meaning for those guys.
Klaus’ voice seemed a little rough in the first song or two, but it quickly got right and he sounded great for the rest of the night. The whole band sounded great. As always they put on a great show and I really think it’ll be the last chance I’ll have to see them, which is unfortunate.
It was a fun time with good friends and that always makes a show more enjoyable.
This show also got me back on course. You see, I saw the Arch/Matheos show in May 2012 and since then I have had trouble enjoying other live bands. It’s really difficult to explain. That show was so powerful and was the best live music experience I think I have ever had. While it will likely never be topped, I needed a show to get me out of my rut and back into enjoying bands that I like. The Scorpions provided that for me last night. Thankfully.
boom
goodbye San Antonioooooo!
Scorpions/Ratt Videos – San Antonio, TX – 7/23/10
Ratt – Back For More
Ratt – The Morning After
Scorpions – Make It Real
Scorpions – Send Me An Angel
Scorpions – Holiday
Scorpions – Still Loving You
Scorpions/Ratt – Concert Review – San Antonio, Tx – July 23, 2010
SCORPIONS – RATT
San Antonio, TX July 23, 2010
Amazing. In a word that’s the best way to describe this show. But as always, I will go into more detail.
The day starts out with me picking up Christine and Charlotte, piling their pretty selves in my car and heading 75 miles south to San Antonio to the AT&T Center. Since it’s a Friday we allowed some extra time to
Christine, Charlotte, Yours Truly
get through Austin and SA’s traffic. Good idea. The doors opened at 6:30 and we arrived at about 5:45. Hung out in the parking lot, had a beer, talked music and talked a lot of BS. Good times.
We hop in line and 15 minutes later we were in the door. Of course we head to the merch booth to check out the shirts. Both Ratt’s and the Scorpion’s shirts were pretty fugly so I didn’t pick one up. That’s a rarity, me no picking up a concert shirt. We’re inside, grab a beer and go find out seats. I of course looked at the seating chart as I was buying the tickets but didn’t really realize how good they were. My photographer friend, Jinger, was behind us when she wasn’t in the photo pit shooting both bands.
The place was filling in pretty well and I believe it was sold out by the end of the night. San Antonio is a legendary town for metal. So many bands from around the world got their first US break there. Scorpions and Ratt were 2 of those bands. Sure Ratt was popular in the LA scene on the early 80s, but SA radio really pumped them and got them out of California. The SA crowds are great too. They love metal there. It’s pretty awesome.
Warren, Carlos and Robbie
The lights go down and on comes Ratt. Thanks to the interwebz I had seen the setlist that they have been running for this tour and was pretty stoked for it. Morning After! Alright! Stephen Pearcy was never known for being a great singer and he’s still not, but he did a pretty good job last night. The band consisted of Pearcy, Warren DeMartini, Bobby Blotzer, Robbie Crane and Carlos Cavazo(!). Carlos! I’ve always been a huge fan of the first 3 Quiet Riot albums that Carlos was on. Was fortunate enough to meet and hang out with him in 98. Nice guy, fine guitarist. Ratt sounded great overall. Warren is definitely a hotshot player. Robbie’s been in the band for a long time now and did a fine job. He’s got strong backing vocal skills too. Seeing Ratt was a bit special for me as I had never seen them before. “Back in the day” they came to town with Poison and Bon Jovi and I refused to pay to see either of those bands. Blech! So this was a perfect bill for me to see them on, even if it was 20+ years after their heyday. The only song I didn’t care for in their setlist was Way Cool Jr. That song sucked then and it still sucks now.
Here’s the setlist as I recall it:
- You’re In Love
- Lay It Down
- Lack Of Communication
- Loving You’s A Dirty Job
- I Want A Woman
- Best Of Me
- Slip Of The Lip
- Nobody Rides For Free
- Back For More
- Way Cool Jr.
- Wanted Man
- The Morning After
- Round And Round
Damn fine setlist.
RATT says goodbye
After the Ratt set, the girls and I go out and grab a drink and they run into some friends of theirs who ended up joining us for the Scorpions set.
The music on the PA at rock concerts has always been an interesting subject of discussion. Before the Scorps came on, they were paying all Nickelback. It was pretty annoying. Then Back In Black comes on (very
Klaus and Rudy...Sting of the Tail!
loudly) and of course people start cheering. I never cared for that song but it’s fun seeing how amped people get anytime it gets played in an arena. 20 seconds into it, the lights go down, the songs ends and here comes Rudy Schenker walking on the stage to open the show. The crowd goes apeshit…including me. Rudy! RUDY! The rest of the band quickly follows and they open up with Sting In The Tail from the new album.
The band sounded great all night. Klaus’ voice was clean and powerful even though you can tell that they were playing everything tuned down. But for a dude that’s 62, he did a fine job. They all did. They have some Polish bass player named Pawel Maciwoda and James Kottak on drums. Kottak is a maniac. One of those showy type drummers, but solid as a rock and did a great job. He did a drum solo and had a rather humorous synchronized video of him in a bunch of different live recreations of Scorpions albums. For me the video was more interesting than the solo, but the guy obviously has a great sense of humor.
I’ve seen the Scorpions twice before. Once in 1991 on the Crazy World Tour and the other in 2002 with DIO and Deep Purple. This show was probably better than the 98 show but hard to top the 91 show. I was a little
Matthias
letdown that they played nothing from the Uli Roth era as in recent years. They had been doing either In Trance or We’ll Burn the Sky, but nothing on this tour…their final tour. In general it didn’t matter. They were great. They did Send Me An Angel and dedicated it ti Ronnie James Dio. For Angel and Holiday, Rudy and Matthias had a Flying V and Explorer electric/acoustics! It made me giggle a bit but it was pretty cool.
One great surprise was at the beginning of their encore. Klaus talked about how special San Antonio was to helping the Scorpions then they went right into Still Loving You. This is the only show on the tour, as I can tell, that this song was played. We freaked out. They dropped Winds of Change (thank God). That song always annoyed me. The finished up with No One Like You and Rock You Like A Hurricane. I would have stayed for another 2 hours of music had then been able to do it. The energy from the crowd and from the band were pretty amazing. In recent years the only show that rivaled this one was Iron Maiden in 2008.
The setlist:
- Sting Of The Tail
- Make It Real
- Bad Boys Running Wild
- The Zoo
- Coast To Coast
- Loving You Sunday Morning
- The Best Is Yet To Come
- Send Me An Angel
- Holiday
- Raised On Rock
- Tease Me Please Me
- Dynamite
- Kottack Attack (Drum Solo)
- Blackout
- Six String Sting (Matthias rocks out)
- Big City Nights
- Still Loving You (encore)
- No One Like You (encore)
- Rock You Like A Hurricane (encore)
The drive home was long and both of the girls fell asleep. It was an incredible night for a lot of reasons.
Upon returning home to downtown Austin, I walked across the street and caught the last 2 songs from Jason McMaster’s Killa Maul Metallica tribute. Awesome as always. Slipped across the street from there and ate a slice of pizza, drank half a beer, came home and went to bed.
Wonderful night with wonderful people.
Long live the Scorpions!
Scorpions
The Zoo
Holiday
Upcoming shows
Sorry, haven’t posted much lately. Busy with bands and work and such.
Here’s what’s coming up on my concert calendar:
Iron Maiden/Dream Theater – tonight!
Concrete Blonde – 6/19
Scorpions/Ratt – 7/23 (never seen Ratt, so this is going to be cool even though I am not that big of a fan.)
Asia – 8/22, original lineup!
Black Crowes – 9/25
Saw Helstar last week, review pending. Dee Snider was in town last night but I couldn’t make it. :(
The Metal Files 
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