Scorpions, the German titans of heavy metal led by Rudolf Schenker have been spreading hard rock around the world for over 50 years now. With twenty albums released, band started back in 1965, and have had many changes in their lineup. Beside the founder, Rudolf Schenker, stable point of the Scorpions who is definitely voice of the band, Klaus Meine and guitarist Matthias Jabb are the ones who have been there the longest. They joined the band in the end of 70’s following the departure of Uli Jon Roth. Since 2016 band gained another strong asset in the lineup – the place behind the drum set was filled in by Mikkey Dee of the Motorhead.
Over the years, the band wrote many classic heavy tracks, but till now the biggest hit of the band was the ballad ‘Wind of Change’. It’s an anthem about the collapsing of the Berlin Wall and communist regime in the eastern part of the Europe. Scorpions returned to Denmark after very successful performance at Copenhell in 2016, to present their music in Royal Arena with the help of other veterans of heavy music – Pretty Maids.
Pretty Maids originates in Horsens, Denmark and has been present on hard rock scene since beginning of the 1980’s. They have received worldwide recognition after release their classic and most known album ‘Future World’ in 1987. That allowed band to travel worldwide and share the stage with such bands as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple or Metallica. Pretty Maids is still very active, something that was proven with their latest release – ‘Kingmaker’ from 2016. This time, they were called to open to another classic band.
They started the show with an intro containing the famous Bill Clinton testimony. That went smoothly to the full on guitar riffs for ‘Mother of all Lies’, followed with the title track from last album ‘Kingmaker. After that short introduction to newer material and the warm welcome by the audience, Pretty Maids went straight to the classics. The track ‘Red Hot and Heavy’ was then followed by ‘Rodeo’. Next song in the set list was presented with a nice introduction of band, while performing the chorus of ‘Another Brick in The Wall’ what was very warmly welcomed by the crowd. After that, it was time to slow down and play the cover of Phill Lynott and John Sykes ‘Please Don’t Leave Me’. Set was finished with ‘Future World’ and ‘Tusind Tak’ to thank the public for their support.
After the well received performance by the local rock veterans, it was the time for the main part of the evening – the Scorpions. Plenty of screens, a long stage extension to the middle of the crowd, and a special drum stand above the band, was a preview of the great show about to start.
The show begun with a rotor sound, followed by the visuals presentation of an helicopter flying through the city with plenty of Scorpions songs references, arriving to the destination with ‘Crazy World Tour’ logo. Then a loud bang announced their entrance, and maybe that’s why the band started the show with ‘Going Out With a Bang’. The first huge cheer from the audience arrived just before the third song of the night, just after Klaus announced ‘the song about New York which we call ‘The Zoo’’. Rock and roll mood was on! ‘The Zoo’ was followed by ‘Coast to Coast’ , and then they continued with medley of their 70’s hits. Scorpions proved that they’re still in good shape and are not planning to play it nice and easy. ‘We built this house’ was followed by a presentation of Matthias Jabs skills in ‘Delicate Dance’. Next it was time to slow down the pace. A combination of few acoustic ballads suite such as ‘Always Somewhere’, ‘Eye of the Storm’ and ‘Send Me an Angel”, were presented to the public in more intimate way. The band positioned itself in a walk part of the stage, where a small drum set was quickly prepared for Mikkey Dee and acoustic guitars were provided for rest of them.
Next up came the most anticipated song of the evening. Fans were prepared for this moment and in many parts of the arena cellphone lights and the lighters were raised when the first chords of ‘Wind of Change’ filled in the place. The crowed cheered and accompanied the band singing in unison. As a Motorhead tribute for this tour, Scorpions prepared one of the biggest and fastest songs of these metal legends. ‘Overkill’ echoed the stage with crazy fast drum beat, wild guitar riffs and tones of stage high Lemmy pictures. Scorpions did their best to pay tribute to metal stage hero. The drum set along with Mikkey was raised way up, in order to present the skills of the man behind the kit. After the drum solo, the audience received two final songs before the band said ‘goodbye’ and left the stage.
However, not long after a loud cheer, they returned for the encore. An extra mini set started with the ballad ‘Still Loving You’ to finish the evening as it was started – with the bang. As a last song, Scorpions played one of their classic anthems ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’, closing the night on a high note. After fifty years on the metal scene Scorpions definitely can still present the great show. We safely can say that no one present in the arena that evening was disappointed with the performance.
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