\u201cNever change.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a comment that\u2019s usually delivered with a fair dose of snark, as in, the person saying it knows the object of their comment never will, despite the fact that maybe they need to.<\/p>\n
But if they don\u2019t need to? Well, then.<\/p>\n
Back in my head-banging days, the Scorpions were a major constellation in my personal night sky. Between home and car, their 1979 album Lovedrive<\/i> earned a couple of hundred spins over its first two years in play, simply one of the era\u2019s best examples of melodic hard rock, featuring dynamic guitar riffage, thunderous rhythm sections and one singalong chorus after another, from driving rockers to sprawling power ballads.<\/p>\n
Fast forward 30-odd years to 2012 and the boys\u2014still anchored by founder Rudolf Schenker (rhythm\/lead guitar), frontman Klaus Meine (vocals) and ace guitar-slinger Matthias Jabs (lead\/rhythm guitar), along with Pawel Maciwoda (bass) and James Kottak (drums)\u2014have a road case full of radio hits and a lot of mileage under their belts, but seemingly haven\u2019t lost a step. The 2012 tour was in fact originally announced as a farewell tour, and who could blame them\u2014hard rock is a young man\u2019s game, and the aforementioned big three aren\u2019t wearing hats these days to keep the sun out of their eyes\u2014but they had so much fun, and sold so many tickets, that they\u2019ve continued to tour and record sporadically beyond their announced end date.<\/p>\n
Said end date was in fact the show captured here\u2014Munich 2012, the last date of their \u201cfarewell\u201d tour, back at home in their native Germany. The band is in fine form, playing out in a huge arena on a massive stage featuring a telescoping drum riser, metallic finishes, and enough vertical flame jets to make a pyromaniac drool.<\/p>\n
The setlist for this energetic evening offers everything you would expect\u2014a handful of newer tunes, opening with the raucous title track of their supposedly final album Sting In The Tail<\/i>, mixed in with 35 years\u2019 worth of hits and a handful of deeper tracks. Early highlights include a ringing, energetic \u201cLoving You Sunday Morning\u201d and a stellar, fiery \u201cCoast To Coast\u201d (featuring Schenker taking a rare solo), two of the best cuts from the aforementioned Lovedrive<\/i><\/a>. <\/p>\n It\u2019s inevitable fun watching these middle-aged veterans of the scene ignite arena-wide singalongs, whether on well-loved early tunes like \u201cWe\u2019ll Burn The Sky\u201d or newer cuts like \u201cThe Best Is Yet To Come.\u201d This is a band that\u2019s never lost its songwriting touch; they\u2019ve always had a disciplined approach to building songs around sturdy hooks, fiery solos, and choruses that stick in your head. Their ballads are, if anything, even more craftsmanlike; \u201cSend Me An Angel\u201d and \u201cHoliday\u201d (both featuring gorgeous dueling acoustic guitars) are virtual prototypes for what a hard-rocking band\u2019s ballads should sound like\u2014billowy, emotional, and inescapably melodic.<\/p>\n The second half of the show delivers hit after hit, working backwards from newer tune \u201cRaised On Rock\u201d through \u201cTease Me, Please Me,\u201d \u201cBlackout,\u201d \u201cBig City Nights,\u201d \u201cStill Loving You,\u201d the moving \u201cWind Of Change\u201d (with footage of the Berlin Wall\u2019s fall playing above them as the crowd sings along), a stomping \u201cNo One Like You,\u201d and the inevitable \u201cRock You Like A Hurricane.\u201d It\u2019s a genuinely impressive catalog of melodic hard rock, and the Scorps deliver it with the energy and enthusiasm of men half their age, Schenker doing spins while churning out the core riffs powering each song as Jabs fires off solo after deliciously nimble solo. Amazingly, the 64-year-old Meine\u2019s distinctive, keening voice sounds better than ever. (Side note: Kottak also delivers an absurdly long and utterly pointless drum solo \/ bathroom break, that hoariest and most unnecessary of hard rock clich\u00e9s.)<\/p>\n The direction and cinematography of this concert film is solid throughout\u2014much like the band itself, there\u2019s nothing terribly unusual or creative, just sharp HD footage from multiple cameras that\u2019s been professionally edited and brims with fun shots capturing the band\u2019s, and the crowd\u2019s, enthusiasm for the moment. Live In Munich 2012<\/i> might not win any awards, but it skillfully documents one of radio metal\u2019s original \u201970s champions still going strong, bringing their internationally recognizable sound back home to an adoring crowd that eats up every slashing riff and sings along to every infectious chorus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":32882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6173],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44655","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-scorpions","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44655"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}