Scorpions
10 November 2005
InterContinental Hotel, Doha, Qatar
Unfortunately this won`t turn out to be a gig review, but just a report of a surprising day.
I was on a work trip to Doha in Qatar. On the flight in on Qatar Airways I discovered in the in-flight magazine that the Scorpions were in town as part of there Peace For All Acoustica tour. I wondered where the gig was going to be, but I knew I couldn't make it as I was flying back at 11pm that night. Anyway, I checked in my hotel, the InterContinental, went to my room and looked out of the window to check out the view. There to my surprise, right below, was the stage being set up for the Scorpions gig.
That afternoon, sat at my hotel window with a beer in my hand, I watched the full band soundcheck / rehearsal from 5-6pm. The Scorpions were playing with 3 female back up singers, a cellist, a keyboard player and a percussionist.
Over that hour they played Dust In The Wind (including a cello solo), Under The Same Sun, When Love Kills Love, You & I, Rhythm Of Love (with a drum & percussion solo), Tease Me Please Me (with additional dancing girls at the front of the stage!) and Life Is too Short. The band sounded tight and against the backdrop of a setting sun the more laid back material worked a treat.
Later that evening I was holding out hopes of catching at least a couple of songs before leaving for the airport, but it wasn`t to be. Now I would have got to see some of the gig if it had started on time at 9pm but it was running late. I guess they were giving time for more people to arrive as we past quite a lot of cars on the way to airport.
The crowd was filling slowly and not the usual Scorpions crowd either. There was hardly any rock / metal shirts, but quite a lot of ex-pats in 'smart casual' clothes and one or two locals in traditonal Arab dress. The ticketing was price banded according to distance from stage and most people seemed to have bought mid-price, as when I left the middle section looked really busy but the front quite quiet. I didn't think the pumping house DJ that preceded the Scorpions was very fitting, especially when he played Crazy Frog!
I was gutted I couldn't stay for the whole gig, which was against the backdrop of the sea and the lights of Doha city centre. However it was an excellent unexpected treat to watch the soundcheck.
Soundcheck set list:
Dust In The Wind / Under The Same Sun / When Love Kills Love / You & I / Rhythm Of Love / Tease Me Please Me / Life Is Too Short
LINKS:
Scorpions
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