scorpions & whitesnake
Rod Laver Arena - Melbourne - 19/2/2019
When the announcement was made last year that SCORPIONS and WHITESNAKE were heading our way to tour TOGETHER, I must admit that the 80’s headbanger in me got just a tad excited!
These two bands are incredible and have been renowned for their brilliant live performances for decades! I last saw Whitesnake back in 1994 at Festival Hall and this would be the first chance I’ve ever had to see the Scorps play live. Rod Laver Arena wasn’t full to capacity (Queen was playing just across the road!), but it damn well felt and sounded like it was!
WHITESNAKE
David Coverdale’s Whitesnake opened the night with a blistering version of Bad Boys. A line-up consisting of hard rock legends including Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra (guitars) and the irrepressible Tommy Aldridge (drums) looked and sounded incredible.
Coverdale’s vocals were serviceable (the man is 68 years old) but his performance was faultless. The Coverdale strut, the mic stand spins, the cheeky looks and banter… it was all there! He even managed to catch a lacey black bra that was thrown at him by an eager fan. Coverdale delighted in the fact that the item of underwear was “still warm”! Ahh, some things never change!
The band were flawless, as you’d expect. Guitar solos traded between Hoekstra and Beach were mesmerising to watch and transported me back to a time before grunge came along and ruined the momentum of the hair metal movement. The guitar duel even including a metal rendition of Waltzing Matilda to give a local feel to the performance.
But it was Tommy Aldridge who stole the show for me. His relentless drumming and his mind-blowing solo was purely astonishing! How on earth do you play an extended drum solo using your hands? No sticks! Just hands! Even cymbal crashes… JUST HIS HANDS! The man is incredible!
The set was rounded out with a string of classic Whitesnake hits, including Is This Love, Fool For Your Loving, Give Me All Your Love, Here I Go Again and the Zeppelin-like classic Still of the Night.
If this was the opening act, the Scorps would have to pull out all stops with their set!
SCORPIONS
For a band that has been around since 1965, the German quintet has definitely not lost any of its oomph!
The Scorps were forced to cancel their show in Melbourne in 2018 due to a throat infection that sidelined singer Klaus Meine. Tonight’s performance more than made up for the disappointment that was, and Klaus was extremely fervent in his apologies for the miss. But this is 2020 and Scorpions were back, and they are here to ROCK!
Highlights were in abundance. The band was ON, the sound was crisp and clear, albeit a bit heavy in the bass department. Classics such as The Zoo, Wind of Change, Big City Nights, Still Loving You were a joy to watch live.
An acoustic version of Send Me An Angel was a fitting tribute to the fire-fighters, who have given their all to battle the destructive bushfires that have ravaged our continent in recent months. This was a beautiful version of a Scorps classic!
Mikkey Dee’s blistering drum solo saw him pounding the skins relentlessly on a drum platform raised about 10 metres above the stage, suspended by steel chains. Given that Mikkey has been the skinsman for bands like King Diamond and Motorhead in previous years it was no surprise to watch him belt out such a hard-hitting solo. The man is a pocket rocket!
The encore of Rock You Like a Hurricane topped off the set and left the crowd hungry and wanting for more.
Given the reaction from the crowd tonight I think it’s likely that Scorpions will be back to rock Australia once again in the not too distant future.
This was without doubt the biggest hard rock show of the year. Two of the genre’s biggest bands over the last 40 years proved beyond doubt that hard rock is alive and kicking… HARD!
