Concert Review by Jigal Beez
MSG at Hirsch, Nürnberg, Germany
November 1, 2004

Added on 11/02/2004


On November 1st 2004 (but my ticket says it was 2005!) MSG played in Nürnberg, Germany, in a club called "Hirsch" (meaning "deer"). In March this year some of Schenker's old acquaintances hit the stage of the same venue: UFO with Uli Jon Roth as opening act. Therefore Schenker's appearance had the flavour of an old family meeting, as most of the audience had already been there half a year ago.

The opener this night were Pure Inc from Switzerland (http://www.pureinc.net/). They were quite young. I guess none of the members were born when the first MSG album was recorded. For a four piece band (dr, voc, git, bs) they had quite a solid sound. They obviously had lots of fun on stage, and enjoyed opening for one of their child time heroes. After playing around forty minutes the material from their CD they ended with a "perfect strangers" cover from Deep Purple. During their show I spotted Wayne Findlay and Rev Jones in the audience. They seem to like Pure Inc. when they prefer their show to the backstage buffet. I think it is cool that they give them this kind of support. By the way the drummers even used the same drum kit and Pure Inc was given the same space on stage as MSG.

Then it was time for Michael's show. Light's out in Nürnberg! In the dark he entered the stage with his dark sunglasses, so that one roadie show him the way with a torch while his guitar technician was waiting for him holding his guitar like a soldier on parade, finally hanging it over maestro's shoulders and plugging in the jack - things too profane for a guitar god to be done by himself. Michael also carried a small leather bag on stage and put it next to the amp. He never used it. I wonder what it was good for. After two songs Michael handed his glasses to the technician, while undressing his fleece vest a bit later (By the way does anyone know the meaning of Michael's Tattoos? Why a Mercedes Star, What is the meaning of the Chinese, Japanese (??) signs on his arms). Michael played his new DEAN guitar, a second one was also displayed on stage, but just as standby, as it was not used. There was no Gibson to be seen anywhere. Also the Marshall Logos on the cabinets were covered with black tape.

The setlist was as follows (when I remember right):

Ready to rock
Assault Attack
Let it Roll
Fat City
Lights out
Because I can
Rock and Roll believer
Arachnophobiac
Into the arena
Only you can rock me
On and On
Too hot to handle
Attack of the Mad Axeman
Doctor Doctor (encore).

Unfortunately I could not get the original to see whether they had more songs planned. I missed especially Rock Bottom and was a bit disappointed that the only encore was Dr. Dr. and they left without Rock Bottom.

I stood in front of Michael and got full blast of his Marshalls from the stage. This is what I came for. I could also hear the drums and Chris voice. From Wayne I heard only occasionally some keyboards and nearly no bass. But to watch REV doing his show with Wayne was impressing even without their sound! I guess for a well balanced sound I should have been somewhere in the middle of the hall, not in front of the stage. But Michael seemed not to be satisfied with his sound. After every song he was shouting to his technician, after Rock and Roll Believer he even complained to Chris about it. During the drum and bass solos of "into the arena" he was still angry with his technician and gesticulated wildly behind the amplifiers. But I did not realize that the sound problems affected his playing. The only mistake I noticed was when he messed up the bottleneck part of "Mad Axeman". He stopped playing bottleneck in the quieter part of the song too early and started too early with the main riff, while the rest of the band was finishing the quieter part. Maybe Schenker lost concentration because of the bad sound or maybe he has not yet fully recovered from his flue. These also might be the reasons why MSG did not play Rock Bottom. Either sound or health problems.. The rest of the band was is good mood and good shape. I never heard Chris before live and think that he is very good in interpreting the material from different stages of Michael's career. REV Jones is pure entertainment. I think I could watch him the whole day jumping around stage without getting board. Wayne, well he looks twice the size of Paul Raymond.

After "Doctor Doctor" Michael ended the show by shaking the hands of the people in the front row. Although he was sick the last week he still spent quite some time for his aftershow signing-sales promotion, giving out smiles and handshakes. Though Michael was not satisfied with his stage sound, which might have caused him to spoil the "mad axeman" he creates his unique sound every time he plays the guitar. He has such a great technique and feeling for the sound, that most of the time, instead of headbanging I could only stare at him with ears, eyes, and mouth wide open in astonishment. The way Schenker is bent and clamps the V between his legs with half closed eyes, dressed in black and a crucifix dangling from his neck he reminds me of blind prophet. Somehow his soul enters the strings with his virtuoso vibrato, hovers through the mahogany of his guitar and finally screams to us through the amplifier the gospel of rock'n roll. I had a great night. Thanks MSG.

Jigal BEEZ, M.A.



Concert Review by Bernhard
MSG at Hirsch, Nürnberg, Germany
November 1, 2004

Added on 11/03/2004


Not much to add from my side to the review of Jigal. The band was in great mood, the audiance was ready to rock and Michael seems to be recovering from his flu. The sound was very good, no comparison with Ingolstadt. I can not complain with Michaels guitar sound, from the middle of the venue I was able to hear his playing perfectly and I liked the sound of the new guitar. Again he spent a lot of time with tuning the strings.

The show was absolutely worth the driving!

Correction on Jigal's set list: the same as in Ingolstadt, with Dr. Dr. as encore.

Set list:
Ready to Rock
Mother Mary
Assault Attack
Let It Roll
Fat City
Lights Out
Because I Can
Rock'n'roll Believer
Arachnophobiac
Fatal Strike
Into the Arena
Only You Can Rock Me
On and On
Too Hot to Handle
Attack of the Mad Axeman
Encore:
Doctor Doctor

His review of the 10/31 show is here.


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