Michael Schenker's Temple Of Rock, Fury UK Live @ FUZZ Club, 20/04/2012

Michael Schenker's Temple Of Rock, Fury UK Live @ FUZZ Club, 20/04/2012

Michael Schenker is one of those legendary guitarists that you don’t get to see very often and one of my favorites of all time. The last time he visited Greece was in 2009 as a guest for Scorpions and with MSG back in 2004 (I was at both gigs).

                I arrived just in time to see the support act. FURY UK are a very prominent new band and they managed to get the crowd warmed up in a very short time. They’ve visited Greece before as a support act for BLAZE and Iced Earth. The band sounds very tight and well-rehearsed and their songs are a very nice blend of good old classic heavy metal and hard rock. They are definitely on my watch list for their next show here.

                After a break it was time for Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock to hit the stage. The crowd cheered and one by one the band walked in. “Into The Arena” was the first song followed by “Armed And Ready”. Doogie White was giving his best but the sound had major problems. The band played some classic stuff from the Scorpions era (Ok you had 3 ex-Scorpions members there so it goes naturally). During the middle of the show the sound started having problems again and the bass and drums sounded a little louder covering the vocals. Some UFO and M.S. followed and that was the perfect time to enjoy Schenker’s guitar talent. The guy’s playing is beyond words, I could watch him play for hours. I wasn’t as happy though a bit later when they played more Scorpions stuff, especially from the era when Michael wasn’t in the band. The rhythm section was more than great, I’ve seen Herman play with the Scorpions back in 2009 and Francis with Uli Jon Roth, but Michael simply tried to be –who else?- his brother. I mean ok, don’t get me wrong here I love Scorpions and Rudolf is a great guitar player, but Michael is much better and the last thing I wanted to see is Michael mimicking Rudolf’s moves.

                The show was coming to an end and it was with a heavy heart that I realized that I wasn’t going to see any songs from the A.O.R. era of M.S.G. again. The encore had some more Scorpions (mercy!) with Doogie forgetting some of the lyrics, but saving the day with his on stage play with Michael, and the gig finally ended with probably the most classic song that Michael’s ever written, Doctor Doctor.

                What more can I say? I left the venue with a bittersweet taste. This was not the Michael Schenker I wanted to see. Maybe he was tired, maybe his new band was under-rehearsed, maybe… whatever. One can make all sorts of assumptions for this gig. But at least from what I saw, I wasn’t the only one who made a weird face when the band started to play “Rock You Like a Hurricane”.

Setlist:

Into The Arena

Armed And Ready

Lovedrive

Another Piece Of Meat

Cry For The Nations

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Coast To Coast

Assault Attack

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead

Lights Out

On And On

Let It Roll

Shoot Shoot

Rock You Like A Hurricane

Rock Bottom

Encore:

Holiday

Blackout

Doctor Doctor


Also on Burst.gr - http://www.burst.gr/live/reports/item/1121-live-report-michael-schenker-fury-uk-20/4/2012-fuzz