Scorpions - Live At Wacken Open Air 2006
Performance
Production
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Scorpions - Live At Wacken Open Air 2006
Performance
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If there was ever a time to see the Scorpions live in concert it was on their Love At First Sting tour of 1984. That was the first time I saw them in concert, along with a little known opening band called Bon Jovi (whom I believe has gone on to a modicum of success since then). It was one of the greatest arena rock concerts I have seen to this day. If I were to pick a more recent Scorpions concert to give that incredible show a run for its money, it would have to be this landmark performance at the Wacken Open Air Festival in 2006. It is quite amazing to think that the Scorpions were also celebrating their 35 year anniversary at the Wacken show. For this special occasion, the band invited their two famous former guitarists, Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker, to play at the show, along with Herman Rarebell, their drummer during most of the glory years. Leading up to the festival, the band also posted a list of 50 songs on their website, and allowed fans to vote for the ones they most wanted to see on the setlist. This DVD captures the Scorpions incredible headlining show at the Wacken Open Air Festival, on August 3rd, 2006, performing in front of an estimated 60,000 die hard metalheads. The festival, located in northern Germany, near the border with Denmark, began in 1990 as a small event for local German bands, and now attracts many of the world's biggest metal acts each year. The fans certainly did their due diligence when they helped to put this amazing, career-spanning, setlist together. You've got most of the big 80's hits covered, but you are also treated to a few of the more obscure, early-70's, gems that are sure to please the legion of old school Scorpions fans. The concert takes off running with two Love At First Sting rockers, "Coming Home" and "Bad Boys Running Wild", and the energy created is immediate and intense. The Scorpions are the home town boys who made it big, and this mostly German crowd really shows their appreciation. After a couple of Animal Magnetism classics, Uli Jon Roth is invited out to put his unique stamp on a few of the mid-70's era songs he originally played on, going as far back as "Speedy's Coming" from 1974's Fly To The Rainbow album. Roth stays out for three songs, and then the Scorps turn full circle to their most recent song of the night, "Love 'Em Or Leave 'Em" from 2004's Unbreakable. Things really heat up midway through the show, when Klaus Meine welcomes Rudy Schenker's baby brother Michael to the stage to help perform four songs in a row from their seminal 1979 album, Lovedrive. Six of that album's eight songs would be played this night, and for good reason - it is arguably their best album. Things only got better from there, as the band tears through some killer performances of a few of their biggest hits including "No One Like You", "Big City Nights", and "Still Loving You". The highlight of the night had to be the first set closing finale, where Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth lent their guitar skills to some epic performances of "In Trance" and "Bolero". Roth laid down some amazing guitar solos during both songs, and since Rudy Schenker could not really compete with him in that category, he entertained the crowd with some crazy wardrobe changes, as well as the most impressive hand stand I have ever seen performed on stage at a heavy metal concert. I meant no slight towards Rudy in the guitar skills compartment, it's just that Roth and his brother Michael are in a league of their own, and his partner Matthias Jabs is also one of the more underrated metal guitarists in the business. I didn't even realized that the "Still Loving You" guitar solo was Rudy's, and it is certainly one of the Scorpion's best. OK, so we have this incredible and historic concert performance from the Scorpions captured on this video, so it should have easily been one of the best concert DVDs of the year right? Well, not so fast. The producer and video editor for this project certainly saw to it that this would not be the case. This DVD may have some of the worst camera work and video editing for a big budget concert DVD I have ever seen. I'm talking Iron Maiden bad my friends. You'd think that when Uli Jon Roth is on stage soloing over a song he hasn't played with the Scorpions in decades, that a camera would actually focus on him for more than two seconds every two minutes. Michael Schenker soloing over his big bother's power chords during one of their Lovedrive classics? Think anybody'd want to see that? NAAAHHH! Show some more shots of the audience or the drum kit during all the famous guitar solos. It was almost laughable. Make that cryable - if there was such a word. Although not at the same level, I was also disappointed with the overall audio and video quality of this disk. Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and PCM stereo tracks are provided, but things never really get beyond the point of sounding too compressed and muddled. All of the instruments kind of blended together into one big wall of sound, and each guitar was non-distinct in the mix. What a shame for such a tremendous guitar showcase. The picture was just average. A little grainy, and not particularly sharp. Oh, and did I forget to mention that there was ZERO bonus material included. Could there have been a more opportune time to get some interviews with each of these current and future members of the Scorpions to shed some light on the amazing history of this great German band? Some behind-the-scenes footage of all that went into arranging such a momentous event would have been pretty fascinating too. Don't let my last few paragraphs completely discourage you from picking up this DVD. It is just very frustrating to get something so flawed, when your expectations are so high. The Scorpions performance certainly wasn't flawed though. This guys are still rockin' better and harder than the first time I saw them more than twenty years ago. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - May 2008 |
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Running Time: 139 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - February 2008 |