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.