Scorpions live in Athens October 2010

Back in 2010 Scorpions announced that they were finally disbanding (yeah, right) and that they would come to Athens for one final concert. I had already seen them back in 2006 but some friends wanted to go and I was hoping that this time they would play some songs from their early years, so I went along with them. To my disappointment they did not play anything from the Uli Jon Roth era.

It was raining cats and dogs while we were waiting in line to get in the venue, and that's when I was handed a flyer announcing that Uli Jon Roth was coming with his own band, so I went to that one as well and finally got to hear those older songs.

The Scorpions concert was originally scheduled for the 6th of October of 2010 but it was postponed because singer Klaus Meine was suffering from pharyngitis. It was rescheduled for the 24th of the same month. When we did manage to get in, we were just in time to see the second support act, Firewind, whose guitarist is Gus G, who is also the Greek guitarist of Ozzy whom we had seen a month before at Terra Vibe. We were positively surprised by the cover of Michael Sembello's Maniac which was originally featured in the soundtrack of Flashdance back in the 80's!  

 

At around 21:45 Scorpions were on stage! We heard everything that we expected to hear (such as Wind Of Change, Rock You Like A Hurricane, Still Loving You, Holiday, Blackout, Big City Nights), but, as I have already mentioned, nothing from the Uli Roth era, that is before 1978 such as In Trance and Pictured Life. We heard some of the new - at that time - songs. I had had a chance to listen to what was then their current album and, in my opinion, the best song was "The Best Is Yet To Come". They played it and it was the one song from that album that was best received by the audience. So maybe their fans agreed with me.

 

We were, however, treated to a rather long drum solo from James Kottak who was their drummer at that time...

We all know what happened next. They decided not to disband and they came for 3(!) MTV Unplugged dates (And all 3 were sold out). And, as this time they were "acoustic" I decided to go and see them again. And that's when they finally played "Pictured Life" and "In Trance" in my presence...

 

SETLISTS:

 

FIREWIND
01. Head Up High
02. Destination Forever
03. Angels Forgive Me
04. World On Fire
05. Guitar Solo
06. The Fire And The Fury
07. Till The End Of Time
08. My Loneliness
09. Mercenary Man
10. Maniac
11. I Am The Anger
12. Falling To Pieces

 

SCORPIONS

01. Sting In The Tail
02. Make It Real
03. Bad Boys Running Wild
04. The Zoo
05. Coast To Coast
06. Loving You Sunday Morning
07. The Best Is Yet to Come
08. Send Me An Angel
09. Holiday
10. Wind Of Change
11. Raised On Rock
12. Tease Me Please Me
13. Dynamite
14. Kottak Attack (Drum Solo)
15. Blackout
16. Six String Sting (Guitar Solo)
17. Big City Nights
Encore:
18. Still Loving You
19. Rock You Like A Hurricane