Seville (EFE).- To begin with, Klaus Meine was alive. As alive as the opposite of the nail on a door that Dickens imagined to open his most universal novel, so alive that, with 75 years behind him, tonight he has turned Seville’s most iconic monument upside down: the Plaza de España, which must weigh yours
It is true (and it is obvious to explain it) that the one in Hannover is only 20% of the secret so that the band to which it gives voice fills the capacity wherever it goes half a century -58 years to be exact- after its creation, but it is that this band is called Scorpions, and with the other four members they dominate the stage as only a dozen groups on five continents can.
To put ourselves in context, Scorpions arrived tonight at the Icónica Sevilla Fest with the endorsement of an impeccable career, which has never had ups and downs, which has been based on a style that has been untouchable since they were called Nameless, in that 1965 in which the world looked askance how in the center of old Europe a country was divided with a wall between the initials of the FRG and the GDR.
Seville has put itself at the feet of Pawel Mąciwoda on bass and Rudolf Schenker and Mathias Jabs on guitars, with the Swedish Mikkey Dee on drums.
Yes, for those who are in Primero de Scorpions, it must be clarified that the group goes through life without keyboards or the need for them, and all the magic of filling in the staves is done with strings and percussion.
For this reason, only a select few arrive at Olympus in the treble clef.
With this premise, at 10:35 pm on the dot, the entire Plaza de España in Seville was flooded with the thousands of watts of light that announced what was coming: ‘Gas in the tank’ to begin with, like this, without anesthesia, with the three guitars on stage warming up an audience that was already boiling when Klaus Meine appeared in tight black clothes, dressed as a lifelong rocker, with the sunglasses that rockers wear every day to go buy bread even though the sky comes together with the land.
Okay, the glasses have lasted for three songs, just enough to bring out the little Spanish that the legendary vocalist manages: “Good night, Seville. How are you? ”, And receive from a fan on the same stage the gift of two paintings, which commemorate his visit to the capital of the South in 1992 and on this Iconic night of 2023.
When ‘Wind of change’ began to play, the matter was already more than on track.
Just a stop along the way to point out that Klaus’s voice isn’t what it was anymore (it would just be missing), and the notes in this song aren’t exactly to be sung lightly, so he’s left it up to the audience to take care of it. give cane with their vocal chords to the immortal chorus that speaks of children of tomorrow who dream of the wind of change.
Nothing is left to improvisation when something like a Scorpions concert starts up, and the peace sign with the colors of the Ukrainian flag has presided over the closing of the song, and Mikkey Dee has scored a drum solo from academy to open the final stretch of the concert, in which you still had to listen to ‘Blackout’ or ‘Big city nights’.
Yes, ‘Still loving you’ was missing, that song that marks a group forever, because it doesn’t matter if you get 50 gold records later, that the public claims it, chants it, accompanies it and makes it mythical, about to fulfill 40 years since Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine conceived it to be part of the album ‘Love at First Sting’, their ninth studio album.
On that same album was ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’, conceived by the tour promoters to close the concert.
“Ich will sterben”, shouted a German girl who looked as if she had never paid in marks at the end of the concert. Translated it would be the equivalent of “I want to die.” It may not be that bad, or actually yes, who knows.
All in all, if it’s true that great rockers never die, Scorpions will be eternal, like the Brandenburg Gate or Uli Stielike’s mustache.
Today they have placed in Seville one more stone on the indelible path of a full musical life and with all the rock ahead. Vielen Dank, Klaus and company.