It would be easy to poke fun at the ’80s rock revival that took place at the Everett Events Center on Thursday night.
The fans, the tunes, the half-empty arena.
Scorpions and Tesla were in town, kicking off a 30-date tour of the United States to promote new albums.
There was denim and leather, there was cleavage, and there was lots of hair.
But the leather and denim fit a little tighter, the cleavage was a little lower, and the hair was a little thinner.
The crowd was older and wiser.
As concertgoers approached the arena, a guy outside advertised drink specials after the show at a nearby bar.
The long-haired, mustachioed rocker next to me replied, “Nah, I got wasted last night.”
You’ve got to think that 20 years ago he’d have gotten wasted both nights … and then some.
But the night recalled a simpler time when you could convey everlasting love for someone through a song and blow the roof off an arena at the same time.
Sacramento’s Tesla supplied an hourlong 10-song set that spanned the band’s five-year height and featured some tracks off “Into the Now,” which was released in March.
The band featured all five original members, singer Jeff Keith, guitarists Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch (returning after a stint in rehab), bassist Brian Wheat and drummer Troy Luccketta.
The lighters came out for the first time of the night as Tesla launched into its famous Five Man Electrical Band cover, “Signs,” and again for the mega-hit, “Love Song.”
The seats may have only been half-occupied, but Scorpions flooded every inch of space with roaring guitars that once filled the air inside the world’s largest stadiums.
Lead singer Klaus Meine promised there would be plenty of the classics, and Scorpions delivered. Meine, guitarists Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs, and relative newcomers bassist Pawel Maciwoda and drummer James Kottak showed off a list of tracks that might have surprised the passing rock music fan with their familiarity.
An occasional new song interrupted an otherwise unbreakable string of hits like “Bad Boys Running Wild,” “Tease Me, Please Me,” “Big City Nights” and “Still Loving You.”
But the night wouldn’t have been complete – and everyone including the five guys on stage knew it – without the band’s three biggest songs.
“Wind of Change,” the self-proclaimed anthem of the fall of the Berlin Wall, again had the Bics and Zippos blazing in the middle of the set.
The band bid “Seattle” farewell with the raucous “No One Like You” and “Rock You Like a Hurricane.”
Some 25 years after Scorpions first descended on the American music scene, the venue may have been smaller, but the sound was as big as ever.
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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