The Michael Schenker Group - World Wide Live 2004
Performance
Production
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The Michael Schenker Group - World Wide Live 2004
Performance
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I missed out on the whole UFO invasion during their 1970's heyday, and didn't really become a Michael Schenker fan until after picking up my first MSG album, Rock Will Never Die (Live), sometime during the mid-80's. Both of these bands certainly reflected the style of hard rock and heavy metal music that I was into at the time, but Schenker and UFO remained relatively unknown in the United States when compared to their popularity in Europe and Japan. I actually bought that first Schenker album while in Japan. World Wide Live 2004 was recorded at the Metalmania Festival in Spodek, Katowice (Poland), in March of 2004. The set list features an even split of UFO and Michael Schenker Group (MSG) classics, along with two new songs from the 2003 MSG album Arachnophobiac. I caught the MSG at a small club in Virginia during this same tour, and the performance on this DVD went over exactly like the concert I attended - which is not exactly a good thing. For this tour, Schenker was fronted by lead vocalist Chris Logan, who has been with him since 2001's Beware Of Scorpions and was especially good on the album that sparked this tour, Arachnophobiac. Logan is a rather generic rock/metal vocalist whose style reminds me of a cross between Axl Rose and Bruce Dickinson. His range is somewhat limited and often sounds strained, but he does a pretty good job covering the contrasting styles of past Schenker singers Mogg, Barden, and Bonnet. He certainly tries his best here to pump up the rather lethargic Polish crowd this night, but his not so charismatic style usually falls flat. Schenker opens the show with "Ready To Rock" and uses the first few riffs for a call and response with the audience, who barely manage a few "yeahs" in response. Kicking off the third song, Logan greets the crowd with "How are you doing Poland? Are you ready for "Assault Attack"?!" - only to be answered with the sound of crickets. It didn't help that the audience sounds were buried way down in the mix. It was kind of pathetic, but to be fair, there was the same mood at the show I saw. You just didn't feel the usual level of excitement in the air that you typically experience when seeing a major act like Schenker. Schenker himself is mostly to blame. Throughout the entire set he basically stands in the same spot and never really engages the crowd or his bandmates. His guitar playing was mostly stale and uninspired, and his stage presence lacked any charisma. Does he have to play every solo hunched over his Flying V with his face two feet from the frets, as he strains to concentrate on every note? That is how I'D have to play the damn song. He should be able to fire off those old solos standing on his head while someone pours water up his nostrils. That might also help with all of the sniffing and nose rubbing he was doing during the interview too. "If your thing is gone and you wanna ride on..." - ahh never mind. Bassist James Jones makes up for the charisma that Schenker and Logan lack, but the guy couldn't be any more annoying. He's got these five or six long dreadlocks hanging from the top of an otherwise bald head, which he constantly twirls around in circles as he struts around the stage sticking his tongue out and looking for a new spot to pose. If you can manage to suffer through that, Jones is an otherwise killer bass player, ability-wise - he just sticks out like a sore thumb amongst these old school rock dudes. Schenker certainly has one fine arsenal of songs at his disposal and he includes most of the best ones in this set. This alone makes the DVD worth watching. After an impressive run through of the UFO anthem "Lights Out" they introduced two new songs from the Arachnophobiac album, "Rock n Roll Believer" and the title track. Surprisingly, these were two of the best performances of the night since Logan's vocals were much better suited to these songs that he helped write. Schenker also seemed much more enthusiastic about these new ones than most of the old stuff, which is understandable. The show eventually heats up more around the time they get to "Armed And Ready", the third to the last song of the set. The light show was really ramped up a notch at this point in the show, and the extra heat must have warmed up the band too. The music seemed to come alive more to finally engaged myself and the audience in the performance. "Doctor Doctor" and "Rock Bottom", two scorching fan favorites from Schenker's UFO debut album, Phenomenon, were saved for last and provided some much needed energy to the show. Too bad it wasn't until the end. The concert is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround as well as DD stereo. The surround mix was very compressed and anemic sounding. I had to turn my amp WAY up to get a decent sound. The bass was mixed too high and the guitar too low. Didn't the sound engineers know that the MS in MSG stands for Michael Schenker - the Guitarist! The widescreen picture did not provide the sharpest detail on some of the longer shots but generally looked excellent. The camera work suffered some of the typical problems - changing angles too quickly, and cutting away from a good solo to show something insignificant, but the sweeping craned shots and numerous camera angles looked excellent overall. Extra features include a 21-minute interview with Schenker, a biography, discography, photo gallery, and desktop images. The interview is your standard career overview, but Schenker reveals some interesting tidbits about his UFO days. My favorite part is when he was asked about why he left UFO: "Phil Mogg, the singer of UFO, was a fighter. He was fighting people all the time, and I said to him if he would ever do that to me, I would leave the band. And I guess he wanted to find out if I would, so he punched me in the stomach, and I left." He said it so seriously too - like he was still scarred from the experience. What a hooligan that Phil Mogg was. Normally, with a concert DVD that leaves me kind of stale, like this one, I would think "maybe it was much more exciting at the actual show." Since I actually saw a show during the U.S. leg of this same tour, I can attest that it wasn't. If you are a Schenker fan, this is certainly worth checking out - I just don't see it leaving my DVD rack again any time soon. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - October 2006 |
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Running Time: 77 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - October 2004 |