Legendary 1970s rock band “Scorpions” rocked a good 10,000 strong Mumbai crowd with a dynamo of a performance on 14 December at the MMRDA grounds in Bandra.
The energy with which the concert exploded, compensated for the hour-long delay in start, and made the audience shake their already aching legs to the pulsating beats.
With James Kottak (47) and his exuberant, acrobatic moves on the drums; Rudolf Schenker (59) prancing like a cheetah, with his bulging biceps, on the rhythm and lead V guitars; Matthias Jabs (52) and his million-dollar Gildroy Lockhart smile, on the lead guitars; Pawel Maciwoda (41) and his sheer talent and ability, on the bass guitar; and finally the legend Klaus Meine (59) and his brilliant vocals accompanied with the 70s moves; the German band left Mumbai roaring, struck by their brilliance.
With hits like “Rock You like a Hurricane”, “Still Loving You”, “Always Somewhere”, “Humanity”, “Holiday” and “Send Me an Angel”, the concert was an amazing combination of switching between making every single person jump on their feet with high pumping beats on a constant base pattern. Making them sway to melodic and intricately composed songs of sheer brilliance with acoustic performances, interspaced with a bizarre and awesome beer guzzling drum-solo by James, followed by a fascinating bass solo by Maciwoda – it left the audience completely awestruck.
The concert did have its share of goof-ups, when there were some wrong chords and notes hit on the guitar, when James couldn’t catch the drumstick he flipped in the air, in style, while playing, when Schenker’s guitar went mute, etc. But that’s the charm of a live performance, isn’t it?
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Klaus Meine’s charm had the crowd singing with him as if it had been orchestrated. Also, the band had the audience on its toes, waiting to jump around, not just because of the music, but also for the drum-sticks and the plectrums being thrown in the crowd.
All in all, the pyro-techniques by the bassist, the shirt-removing and beer-can-throwing antics by the drummer, and the brilliance of the compositions rendered by the three legends, just proved that wine just gets better with time. All we’ve got to say to the masters of Hard Rock is that Mumbai is “Still Loving You”!
