Concert Report by Sylvie and Alain MSG at Markthalle, Hamburg, Germany April 26, 2012 Added on 04/27/2012
Hi Ritchie,
Second gig of the German "Temple of rock" Tour in Hamburg. Less people than the day before but a pleasant venue (MarktHalle) in the center of town. Weather was excellent and doors open at time. Again, we managed to be in front of the Marshall amplifiers. We have the time to discuss with a huge fan of Joe Bonamassa and she have seen Michael back in 1974.
The support act was again Fury UK and they delivered the same set as wednesday, they play a new song called "Taste of blood" that reminds me a lot a Dio one, musically, I found FuryUK a good mix between The Almighty, Virgin Steele with the energy of Motorhead for the trio side.
MS starts on time with the classic "Into the arena" rapidly followed by the "Howler" intro of "Armed and ready" (done with a piece of metal attached on the guitar that Michael rub against the strings, pushing them onto the mike). Doogie said "Hello Bremen", which was sort of funny because we were in Hamburg ! And they jumped into the Scorp's tracks before returning on the continuity of the first MSG album with "Cry for the nations".
Michael was at the top, playing even better than at Krefeld if it was possible. Doogie was a bit lost in the words of "Let sleeping dogs lie" but seems more confortable with his movements on stage. The rythm section of SCorpions brought action to "Coast to coast" and it's always a pleasure to see Francis and Herman sharing big smiles during the song. No time lose between the instrumental and "Assault attack" that gave Wayne space for the keyboards, the sound was better than Krefeld (less loud and much clearer on the other instruments). The only song of "Temple of rock" was rapidly played, showing the talents of Doogie and we came into the "UFO" part of the show with some classics including "Shoot Shoot", a song that Michael had leave in his set-list for a long time and that we rediscover with great pleasure. The set terminate with the classical Scorpions song "Rock you like a hurricane" with Herman making the audience screams, and "Rock bottom", played perfectly.
The encore begins wih the soft "Holiday", showing the talents of Doogie and they played a modified version than in Krefeld, adding some energy before going on "Blackout" which was a killer. Michael followed with the soft intro of "Doctor doctor" but stopped after three notes, time to tune the guitar, he did not touch the hands of the public (we were behind barriers too far from the stage) but gave big smiles and woinks during all the songe. We waited patiently after the show to get some autographs but Michael was long gone.
Time for us to go in Sarstedt, hometown of the Schenker family...
We will keep you informed on the next gig in Erfurt. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures...
