At Wacken 2006 Germany’s hardrock outfit The Scorpions decided to give a special show to celebrate their 40th anniversary together. Dubbed as ‘A Night to Remember’, it was really a thrill for long-time fans. The setlist was compiled by requests through the Scorps website. You wanted the best; we will give you even more they must have thought. Cause ex-members such as Uli John Roth and Michael Schenker also gave their act de presence. 

 

At that time I didn’t know many songs of these veterans, just the ones everybody knows like ‘Wind of Change’. But big surprise, that tune wasn’t performed. What astonished me the most was not the choice of some of the songs, but how well they still sounded. Some tracks like 'Speedy’s Coming' from 1974 felt like they were just released a few years ago. It really sounded fresh. The choice of the songs was in hindsight not really that different from their regular sets. Great pumping metal tracks 'The Zoo’ from their Animal Magnetism album. And of course many songs from their Love At First Sting album, including perpetual tracks ‘Still Loving You’ and ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’.

 

Now picture yourself Jimi Hendrix as a white dude in his 50’s and you got Uli John Roth.

Performing on tracks like ‘We’ll Burn the Sky’ it shows the late guitargod’s influence on The Scorpions. It was a real delight to have actually been there. Seeing former members like Rudolf’s brother Michael Schenker and his own son on guitar it really felt like a big family reunion. It genuinely deserved the title ‘A Night to Remember’.

 

Seeing this DVD from that particular night, it felt a bit like a cold shower. Ok, the sound has been pumped up to the modern 5.1 surround standards so nothing wrong in that section. Four tracks have been left out and I really regret that ‘Dynamite’ didn’t make it. For hardcore fans the search for the omitted songs has just begun.
 

And I’m just disappointed with the quick editing. Many times the images do not follow the same pace as the music. So you hear a guitar solo while you see the drummer and so on. I think this one was edited by someone who didn’t even bother to listen to the music but just started pushing buttons. For me it makes this DVD unpleasant to watch. You can’t miss this if you’re a real fan, but for the general public a CD-version would be better. Because the performance and the choice of songs are superb.