date: Thursday, Sept 10, 2009 venue: De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Holland
Went to see Michael Schenker Group on thursday-evening September 10th 2009 in Zoetermeer. This living legend lost a great deal of his fame after almost losing his fight against temptations by alcohol and drugs. I am surprised the man is still alive. Michael Schenker (54 years old now, but looks a lot older) has played in well-known hardrock bands, such as UFO and ofcourse the Scorpions, in which his brother Rudolf still swings the axe. Schenker has participated in a couple of projects, among which Contraband (they released a pretty good album). Because I wanted to make sure he would show up sober, I've first checked the internet before purchasing tickets. Although he's still a bit odd looking fellow, his destructive lifestyle didn't effect his guitar-playing at all. He sometimes looks like an albino or mummy and during the one-and-a-half hour show he stood there staring at the ceiling or looking at the neck of his guitar. For those who care: Michael plays Dean Guitars now and he brought along 4 very beautiful Flying V's, with sublime sound and astonishing looks. This night the mid-sized club was filled pretty good, just like at previous shows of Tesla and Y&T. This means the old generation is still popular! The band performed solid as a rock, but there was a lack of enjoyment. Michael Schenker wrote a lot of classic rock songs, back in the day, and most of 'em were played tonite: On and On, the Attack of the Mad Axe Man, Into the Arena, Are you Ready, Doctor Doctor, Rock Bottom and Cry for the Nations. Small minor comment: at the start of the show both lead-vocals and Schenker's guitar were too soft in the mix.. Later on, the sound-engineer opened his ears and adjusted the volume to the perfect sound, so everyone in the crowd could enjoy the excellent leads of Michael Schenker.
Oh, by the way: yes, there was a support-act.... A three-piece southern rockband by the name of Diggeth. Heavily influenced by Zakk Wylde, but unfortunately the singer/guitarplayer couldn't come close the high quality songwriting, guitar-playing and singing of the beerdrinking blond Viking. The songs of Diggeth were pretty boring; most songs don't have a climax, and that's all that there is to say about this band.
