 Alright, here we are live on the middle voice. I hope everybody's okay today. Just give us a brief summary there, Perron. What are we going to be talking about today and I adjust to do all the adjustments on my side? Sure. So last night at the fabulous Bell Center in downtown Montreal, Canada was night number three of the North American tour for the Scorpions, Not White Snake, and Thunder Mother. So I attended with a group of family and friends and Jimmy attended with Orlando Moshpit from the middle. You see my shirt? You see my shirt? Did I throw you off? Did I throw you off? I thought I was going to see a Scorpion That's right. So night number three was last night. The US tour starts on Tuesday in Detroit. So for all of our American friends who are yet to see the show or thinking about should I go to the show, or for our Canadian friends in Toronto, Quebec City and here in Montreal who saw it, Jimmy and I are going to share our thoughts on the Scorpions, Thunder Mother, and Absence of White Snake. There's my notes. I'm both going to post them, but you know what? Maybe I won't. All right. So Montreal, Canada, this is the show. The first stop on the tour was Toronto and then Quebec City and then Montreal and now they're going into the United States, correct? Correct. All right. On the first show, there were some visa problems with Thunder Mother. Again, plugging Thunder Mother. I hope they enjoy this. There were some visa issues with Thunder Mother. It happens. That's rock and roll. And in a spinal tap way, this other band played, I can't remember what the name was. Yeah. JJ Wilde, who's a local Ontario artist who actually has played at the Scorpions before in Europe, filled in for Thunder Mother in Toronto last Sunday because like you said, Thunder Mother encountered some visa issues, but luckily they were good to go for show number two in Quebec City a few nights later and last night in Montreal and most likely for the US tour, which starts on Tuesday. But hey, they're probably crossing the border today and I'm sure we'll hear on social media how that goes or doesn't go. All right. So the agenda is this, Thunder Mother. How did they do? Number two, the White Snake rant. And number three, we're going to talk about the Scorpions. What were they like? And as we compare to years prior, right? Other tours. I mean, are they still holding up? Are they still playing to the best of their abilities? And what was a song selection and set list? All right. Let's start things off with Thunder Mother. All right. Your first impressions. First impression is, you know, like anyone else, and we'll get to White Snake in a second. I was a little bit disappointed that White Snake wasn't going to be there, but it afforded the opportunity for Thunder Mother to play a little bit later. Like the show was going to start at 6.45 and instead it started a little bit after seven. So it meant that they played to a bigger audience and they got to play for about 45 minutes instead of maybe doing half an hour if there were three bands. So big opportunity for Thunder Mother, you know, other than a song here and there recently, I had never heard them. So I didn't want to be too influenced before seeing them live. So I kind of, other than listening to one or two songs, I kind of let the live show do the talking. And I'll say this, you know, I came away impressed. I actually wound up downloading their three last albums today because I enjoyed the show enough to make me want to, you know, take more than just a passing interest in their music. And, you know, for people who haven't heard Thunder Mother, they're an all-girl band from Sweden. They've been around Europe for quite a while now, but they've never come to North America. And, you know, I guess if I was going to compare them to anything, they're a little bit like the Donnas, an all-girl band who got some press and some play here in North America in the late 90s and the 2000s. I would say maybe a female version of Airborne, kind of like, you know, ACDC four-on-the-floor, very straight-ahead kind of rock and roll. I think that'd be a very good description, an airborne-ish. Yeah, female, female airborne. So that's, you know, and if you need to compare it to something, that's what I'd compare it to. But, you know, I was impressed. You know, it's not easy to play in front of people, a lot of people, who don't know your music, have never seen you before, don't know what to expect. And, you know, I thought they were treated respectfully. Nobody booed, nobody threw anything. They, you know, polite applause after every song. And I think throughout the show, they want people over. You know, the chops were definitely there. Singer has a great, great voice. Again, the material is a little bit simple, but nothing wrong with that. So I enjoyed it. You know, they announced like a club tour of North America, and they were going to come here. Based on what I saw last night, I would buy a ticket and go see Thunder Mother in a smaller setting and support them. I think good band worthy of support. Yeah, you know, I would agree with you that chops were definitely there individually. Like as the singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer, they were all very well versed, let's say, in their sort of instruments, right? The guitarist, there was no two guitarists. So when you have one guitar situation, you need a great guitarist to fill in that void. And yes, she did. The singer was, you could just tell from the first note, wow, this is, this is quite an impressive voice. And the bassist and the drummer, they were just not only were they spot on, but they were energetic. And they really, you know, looked like they looked like, and it seemed like they felt like they were really having a good time playing in front of an arena crowd. And that's a big arena, the Bell Center. So yeah, that's number one. Number two is the songs were good, because even if you never heard them before, like you said, they're catchy and hooky. And like you said, they got that sort of three to four minute airborne, you're in, you're out, let's have a good time songs. And they work, right? It works. It was catchy. And number three is relatability, like most female bands, not all of them. And I want everybody, I don't want to get out of control here. Most sort of female fronted bands or female bands, not all cases. In a lot of cases, the woman representing is sort of like this model, right? This classic definition of this thin, perfect model, right? And not to say that these women weren't perfect in their own way. I'm just saying they're more relatable to the rest of the women of the world, right? And especially to the scorpions crowd, which was, you know, 30, 40, 50 year old women who love the scorpions in their career. And this is the exact same demographics. And it's like they're seeing themselves on stage. So I'm trying to say they can, they're more relatable. They're, they're every woman, right? Yeah, they're every woman. There was, there were no Barbie dolls up on the stage. And that's a right word. It could have been a lot of, you know, of the women who were in the crowd up there on the stage. So, you know, and, and the other outfits were a little bit, you know, choreographed or whatever, you know, they're black and gold and they had black and gold kind of on their outfits, that kind of thing. But nah, they were, they were pretty, again, pretty simple down to earth stripped down in a lot of different ways. You know, I'm glad people didn't punish them for not being white snake, right? Because we'll get to that in a second. There was a lot of anger over white snake, you know, not being on the tour. But it's not Thunder Mother's fault. White Snake's not on the tour. They went out, they rocked, they won people over. And you know what? They're playing in front of 15,000 people. If today, 10% of the people in attendance download a Thunder Mother album, buy a Thunder Mother album, bought a t-shirt like you did, or say I'll go see them if they do a headline show in my town. They, you know, right now what they're trying to do in North America is build brand awareness. And I think they did a good job of that last night. So, congrats to them. You know, hopefully they'll, this'll really connect with more people and they could expand their audience. And I think it will definitely the right choice. I would, I'd be willing to bet this was not a pay-to-play situation for Thunder Mother. I would think that, you know, this is basically, the Scorpions have been known to sort of get a great opener and take care of these openers. Now, I can't tell you for sure, but I would guess this is not a pay-to-play situation for Thunder Mother. Yeah. I mean, look, they've been around a long time in Europe and they have a reputation. It's just North America's new to them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, here we go. White Snake Grant. All right. First of all, as we, as everybody knows, they're on the bill, a co-headlining tour in a sense, right? Not a co-headlining tour. Very special guests. Oh, yeah. Very special guests. Some of the words, the contract is very special guests. The contract is under Scorpions and they pay the special guests and they pay the openers with the money that they get, right? Yeah. They were never gonna play the same amount of time. They were never gonna have the same amount of space on stage. It was, you know, because some people are saying, I should have got a refund because one of the headliners canceled and that's not true. So, that's a good point. That's a good point. So, those people are saying that go read your ticket stub. Go read the fine print. All right. So, White Snake does not come on the tour and, you know, it is what it is. I mean, if the guy is sick and he can't do it anymore, he can't do it anymore and it's understandable and the fans understand this. The question becomes this and I'll ask this question out to everybody. Should people get their money back or at least a percentage of what they thought they were getting? You go to an ice cream store and you go, I want two scoops please and you pay five dollars and they give you one scoop and you still take your five dollars. Hang on a second. I asked for two scoops. They didn't ask for one scoop. What's the situation here, Perrin? Look, the opening act changed. I mean, look, in the States, people were able to get refunds. Consumer Protection Law in the States kind of says, and I think it was a condition of Ticketmaster getting a bailout during the pandemic, was people had to be given refunds when the bill changed. For the three Canadian shows, refunds were not possible, right? It's just, you know, again, we're subjected to different laws here. But look, when I was younger, I saw Ozzy. It was supposed to be with Motorhead and Ugly Kid Joe and the tour was delayed. And instead of Motorhead and Ugly Kid Joe, I got White Line and Vixen. I didn't scream that I wanted a refund and not see Ozzy anymore, because it was White Line and Vixen instead of Motorhead. I mean, look, opening acts change. I mean, in the fine print of all of these tickets, you know, as long as the headliner doesn't change, you're not necessarily offered a refund. So look, would it be a good business practice for Ticketmaster to offer refunds to satisfy customers? What about, okay, there's refund and then there's a partial refund? That's never happened, Jimmy. Well, I mean, I got two scoops and I paid for two scoops, but I want one scoop. But never in the history of concerts have I seen a situation where a portion of your ticket price gets refunded because the bill changed. Either you want to go and you go, or you don't want to go and you get a refund, which in the States, people had one week from the date of the announcement to get a refund. Again, not what you were able to do. All right, hold on a second here. Darcy, okay, she's saying, Toronto, sadly I missed under mother and crushed about White Snake. So there's people like that. We had great tickets. How come I'm the only one who was not crushed about White Snake? I was crossed about White Snake at first. We had great tickets. It would have been nice to see David Coverdale and Red Beach and Tommy Aldridge close up, but it is what it is. You know, they can't be there. You make the best of it. I'm not gonna not go see the Scorpions on a Saturday night with great tickets because White Snake's not there. I was disappointed. I said to people yesterday, man, what a great night. It would have been even better if White Snake were there. But at the end of the day, White Snake aren't there. It is what it is, guys. What can we say? Scorpions were great. When you think about it, okay, White Snake, and here's a point here. Terry says White Snake are crap, so you're not missing anything. I mean, in one sense, I mean, they're on their last leg. I mean, is anybody, maybe it's the best that people didn't see them in their final sort of grasping at straws kind of thing. White Snake are arranged in such a way right now that other guys in the band are there who sing very well. So for what David can't do in terms of hitting high notes, the two keyboard players, Dino and Michael, can hit those high notes and they do. They can sing. So there's people have helping. I fall in the other category, parent. Like I wasn't even signing up to go see White Snake to begin with. I just said, oh, Scorpions are coming down. How much? Oh, that's that much? Great. And I go, oh, the White Snake is going to be there, too? That's cool. You know what I mean? It was more like a, yeah, that's cool. It was an added bonus for you. It was an added bonus. And I got to tell you something. So White Snake was not there, which is a bonus for me, because I didn't even care if they were there or not. And it's not like I hate White Snake. I don't mind White Snake. It's just my evening was shorter. I got to go home earlier. It was great. So I kind of like was happy to get home from the show early. It didn't bother me one bit, but I can see how it would, like Alan, for example, Alan really wanted to see White Snake. And speaking on his behalf, I get it. He was upset. He really wanted to see White Snake. And you know what? He felt like he was being ripped off. And a lot of people said somebody should have been put in the middle slot to replace them. But we did a show about this of Giles when the announcement was made that White Snake couldn't be there. If this had happened two or three months before the tour, you can find yourself a White Snake level band to add to the tour who are rehearsed, who can book tour buses and book crew and do everything that needs to be done. But with the announcement happening less than two weeks before the tour starting, because I saw so many suggestions. Get UFO, get Tesla, get Skid Row. Like guys, it's not that easy. Skid Row was willing to go, by the way. Skid Row, the phone just wasn't ringing, but they were ready to go. They should have called. Yeah. I think the tour was selling well enough that the performers and the Scorpions kind of said, hey, did they not? Let's do it like this. And again, I'm just talking here and I love the show. Did they not sort of take the money that should have been for another band and sort of saying, you know what? Hey, bonus for us, right? Yeah. I guess. But like I said, all of the shows, except for these three in Canada, at all the US shows, people were able to get a refund. So I guess we'll find out starting Tuesday. All right. Are the shows half full? Are the shows still full? Or half empty? Yeah. Or half empty. Aaron's saying we could not get a refund for a Florida date next month when White Snake canceled, gotcha. Marcy says she is there. If White Snake needs a replacement for the Scorpions, gotcha. Marcy is available. Go pick up her new one. Misty vision. There you go. There's some more comments. Michael's saying yes, you get what you pay for. Please elaborate. Barbsey, love my girls from Thunder Mother. Barbsey, Barbara Hall is saying love my girls from Thunder Mother. Look at this. I go parent. I got a shirt. You're going to love which one I guessed. Hey, I'm good for you, Jimmy. Jimmy bought a shirt and I am saying, if they come on a headline show to the city, I will buy a ticket. All right. Alain, it's a welcome. I am French. Okay, hello. Alain, how are you this evening? Everyone is welcome. And maybe for the Saint-Jean, we're going to make a show in French with Rick Hughes and the gang of Voivode and all our friends from Quebec. So maybe from time to time, we're going to make a show in French, but it's a show today. So yeah, not today because we have an English audience in the rest of the world. So we need to do this in English, but not a push. Yeah, Dino can sing. Ben saying he jumped in for Glenn Hughes when he missed the Dead Daisy's gig, supporting Judas Priest. Dino's not a marvelous singer, but one hell of a friend man. Okay, but wait a second. I mean, now we're getting off course. I mean, if you get rid of David Carradale, are we talking about a tribute band here? Jimmy, the rumor was that this wasn't a farewell tour for Whitesnake. Like what's Tommy Thayer doing? Can he like fill in? So everyone knows the rumor with Whitesnake in the industry is that this tour would be David Carradale's last tour, and then the Whitesnake name and brand would continue without David Carradale, and Dino would be the singer. So hey, look, we have foreigner with zero to one original members, depending on the night, and we've seen lots of these things before. Pretty soon, we're going to have a Leonard Skinnerd. Actually, right now, Leonard Skinnerd, Gary Rosenthal isn't well. Damon Johnson is taking his place. So there's no originals in Leonard Skinnerd right now. So that's just where the industry is going. Names will live on, but the players will change. But we got to get to the Scorpions, Jimmy, because I know. All right. So Pat Frost is standing by there saying, I missed the show since 1984. Pat was saying on Facebook today that he hasn't missed a Scorpions show since Love at Firsting in 84, and he had to miss the show last night. So Pat Frost, our buddy, was a little bit bummed that he had to miss this tour. Well, here's a point, Michael Van Allen saying, if I bought tickets to see Megadeth, and Megadeth couldn't open, I'd want my money back. I would agree with that too. There's if it's like, I guess it's, White Snake is not one of my top 10 bands, right? I like them as a radio like, you know, like it's on the line though. So if you go to Osfest and the 18th band, yeah, but Osfest is not the same thing because you're going to a festival, you know, there's so many bands. So let's say, let's say there's four bands on the bill, three bands on the bill, and one of them cancels. Is that, I don't know about that. I don't think it's the same thing. Guys, look, you're blurring the line as we speak. What was said is the law here in Canada anyway, is if the headliner cancels, you have the right to a refund. This show was a Scorpions show with special guest White Snake and Thunder Mother opening. So if it was Scorpions slash White Snake co-headline and White Snake canceled, people would be eligible for refunds. Because White Snake contractually was an opening act, special guest, refunds were not available in Canada and maybe even some states. And you know what, I would agree with that. That makes sense. It makes, you know, I mean, how else can you run things? Yeah. How often in this business does the opening act change for whatever reason? And if you had to offer refunds every time that happened, it'd be a lot of work and a lot of money going back and forth. I guess you have to position it like this. You're going to go see, I don't know, Rush as just an example. And let's say Dawkins opening up. And then Dawkins can't make it. You're not going to cancel the whole tour. I mean, you can't ask for your money back because the sort of the headliner or the guy on the contract is Jimmy Rush. I'm going to give you the best example. There's no reason I say Rush because you're wearing a rush shirt. But Jimmy, I'm going to give you the best example because this would affect you. Two scoops are one. So listen, in 2000, when I was living in San Francisco, I got to see Dio on the Magica tour. And do you know who was supposed to open the first leg of the Dio Magica tour? You do know you've done a documentary on this. Riot. Riot were supposed to open for Dio in San Francisco, the show I had tickets to, on the Sons of Society tour. And two weeks before the show, Riot can't tour. And Riot were replaced by, I don't remember, the unbanned. That's what they were called. They basically unknown band. They were called the unbanned. They are kind of rock band. I hated them. I know there's some people who like them. So Jimmy, how would you have felt if you were holding tickets to Dio? I think that's happened to me too in the past. There were no refunds available. It was a Dio show. I guess what I guess why people are pissed is because White Snake is not an opener in a sense. They can headline a big theaters. But they can headline arenas in North America. But they can headline big theaters and they're a bigger draw than your regular Thunder Mother or Skid Row. They're a bigger draw. They're a bigger name. They have a larger legacy in history. Therefore people were going. There was a substantial amount of people going just for White Snake. Jimmy, let me say I've never been more disappointed in my concert going life than when Riot canceled that Dio tour. That's like literally my biggest disappointment was that. Just so you know. Okay. I got you. I got you. All right. So let's go. Let's talk scorpions. Let me get my notes out here. Okay. So last time I saw the scorpions was in 1984. 38 years later, less hair, more gray hair. I'm going to go see the scorpions again. Okay. Strange enough, my wife was at the same show that I was in 1984, but we didn't know each other. But this time we went together. I know you went with your wife. We went with all our friends. That was really fun and cool. Jimmy, on the opposite, I have seen every scorpions tour since I didn't see love at first. I'm very selective how I do it from savage amusement to the last tour they just did of Megadeth, the last big tour I have seen every scorpions tour since. All right. So okay. Maybe we'll do it this way. Overall. Overall, I would say that those 38 years, there's been a change in sort of the stage presence. Back in 84, I mean, Klaus was running and jumping and falling and Rudy was, Rudolph was, he was doing the sort of the who thing and he was running around the stage. Matias was doing the same thing. The whole band was just going nuts all over the stage. This time you could tell they're in their 70s and we're talking about slow motion. Not to say good energy for guys in their 70s. Good energy at 74 to still do what he's doing is quite incredible. The chops were there though. Yeah. The chops were there even though the movement wasn't. And so this is the big contrast of 38 years later, right? Yeah. So that's the performance. I have the benefit of seeing them gradually age because I've seen every tour whereas you 38 years ago and now. So that's like obviously going to be a very big difference. But how did you think they sounded? I think they sounded great. And probably because Mickey D is in the band and I think we talked about this already. Mickey D really brought a certain energy to the band. I talked about that on my Facebook page like guys. So Mickey D joined them for the last tour. But I think at that point he wasn't permanent and he was just kind of filling in and he was maybe just doing the songs the way other people thought they should be played. But now I think Mickey has been with the band a while and he's kind of brought its own flavor to the songs. And my god, if the drummer is the engine to make a band go, he really toughened up the band. He really made the arrangement sound heavier. I mean, Mickey's the youngest guy in the band at 58. But he really brought the energy. Outstanding. Outstanding. It's like, you know, he's bringing his king diamond and motorhead chops to scorpions, right? Now when you look at Matias, again, a lot less movement, but his fingers are still going. You know, he played pretty much the notes from the album, right? He's a spectacular guitarist. Rudolph, you know, he's a rhythm guitarist, played great. My buddy Ron Satsing decided Friday, Jimmy, get your death metal, get your regala out. He's throwing me off. The rest now Klaus. Klaus, Klaus, Klaus. I did not. And did they tune down? This is I was trying to figure this out as they were playing. So people who don't know what tuned down is that you're transposing the songs to a lower key so the singer could, you know, sing the song because originally when he sang it, you know, some decades ago it was a lot higher. And as we get older, you know, it's a lot harder to hit those notes. So did they tune down? Very difficult to tell. If they did, it was done well and it worked well with the songs. Klaus was singing the songs that were not the higher ones in their career. So that was part of the set list. So you could tell right away. Yeah. And let's also say the set list is paced in such a way to give his voice rest. So like a quarter of the way through, they do coast to coast. So Klaus can rest his voice halfway through. There's the dueling guitar solo. So Klaus can rest his voice and three quarters of the way through how old the bassist and mostly Mickey D does his drum solo. So again, like a quarter, half, three quarter point, Klaus gets to rest his voice. And one thing people should know about this tour and it's smart if you can afford to do it. They played in Toronto Sunday. They played in Quebec Wednesday. They're playing in Montreal Saturday. They're playing in Detroit Tuesday. There's not just one day off between every show. It's a show. Two days off, show. Two days off. So I think they realize that Klaus at 74, Rudy at 73, but especially Klaus because of his voice. You can do three shows a week. You can't do four or five shows a week. So it's good because it's going to make sure they get to the end of the tour. And for people saying, oh, the scorpions didn't even play any extra time because whites, they canceled. Guys, get that out of your minds. Klaus cannot do two hour sets every night and they're not simply going to pull these obscure songs out of the woodwork because whites may cancel. It's not going to happen. Well, I mean, in terms of Klaus's voice, I mean, a little less power, but people have noticed that throughout the years. But it's clean. He's on pitch. He doesn't. He sounds great. I don't know. I think he still sounds great. I mean, he's always had a beautiful voice. And every one of the audience knows the words to every song and everybody's singing along. So it's not like he's doing a Vince Neil, making them sing half of it. But at any given point, like everyone is going to helping out and singing, you know? All right, let's go through the set list here. Okay. So they started off with a new song, Gas and the Tank, which I thought was a cool opener. It's good to start off with, you know, sort of a sort of a nod. Scorpions always open with an up tempo song, often the first song from a new album. They always do it. Yeah. Now, here I had little problems with make it real, you know, which is off of animal magnetism. I don't know, man. This has been on their set list. I don't know how many years back in 84 was. It's a staple, but it's not a song even when they've played it back then to today or I've seen it on videos. It was never like a big draw of a song. I don't know. It's a good song. I do like it, but I just find that you could have replaced this maybe with Love Drive. You could have replaced this with no one like you. You could replace it with that. Can't, can't live without you. I just think they could have chosen someone else there. I think they're keeping it pretty familiar. I think they're keeping it pretty. Look, I'll get I'll say this right away, because I again, Jimmy and I will probably differ on opinions about the set list. For North American audiences, the Scorpions, by and large, did not exist before Love Drive. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, because they obviously did, but as far as North American audiences are concerned, or even audiences in general. So the entire set list was from Love Drive, Animal Magnetism, Blackout, Love It for Sting, so the big four in North America, Crazy World, which was a big hit, and the new album. That is it. They only played songs from those six albums. New album, which was well represented. But they could have picked another song from those albums. That's my point. But I just don't, they're not going to do, they're going to... Give it up, pair and give it up. Make it real, it's got to get out of the set. Come on. Honestly, I've seen them every tour. I think they've done it most of the time. That's what I'm saying. It's just a song to keep playing. Sometimes bands just like a song and... But it was a whole hum song. It was like everybody's sitting there and they're clapping. Oh, because the scorpions are playing. I see it as the opposite. I think a lot of people in the audience didn't know gas in the tank, and then when they played, make it real, a lot of fans kind of stood up. Yeah, it was okay. I mean, with the exception of some people who are dancing like the whole time, from start to finish, I don't even think they knew what song it was, but... They're happy to be there. Now the arena explodes because the zoo, right? The zoo. Now everybody knows this song, like every generation. It's sort of like a massive hit for them and it's a great tune. It's the originator Chug Chug song. You know what I mean? They brought that Chug Chug to a metal, you know what I mean in a sense, right? It's dooming. It's got a great beat. It's got a great pace and it's got a great course. Did they tune that down a bit? Perhaps, perhaps, but great job. Great job on the zoo. Always a great job on the zoo. Did you like the zoo? Love it. I love the set list. I was very happy with the set list. All right. So good news, John Vernault says, Jimmy, I agree with make it real. Get rid of it. All right. Coast to coast. Now, why are they playing it? Why do they keep playing the song? I think they played it on the World Wide Live. They're playing it. No, no, I know why, but just find another song. I mean, enough. I mean... It's the quarter point, more or less, fourth song. Klaus rests his voice. He does the three songs to open, rests his voice. And look, they do it really well. It's really powerful the way they do it. Oh my God, they've been playing this song. How many years have they been playing? Even Michael Shanker is playing this song. I mean, because, you know, he claims he wrote it, right? I'll never get tired of it. Coast to coast. I'll never get tired of it. I'm just saying like just get rid of it. Just, okay, then just get rid of that song and just let's go home earlier. I mean, there's so many people. Guys, the Scorpions are never going to do a set of obscure songs and rarities. That's an obscure. They may be going down into holiday or something. You're never going to hear in trance again. You're not going to hear them, you know, ever, ever. In Greece, you will. In Greece, you will. In Greece, you will. And by the way, let's just show this thunder mother shirt here. They are thunder mothers. What if they're really mothers? Yeah, maybe we'll interview them and find out. Maybe we can get a mid-tour interview with them and we'll find out if any of the thunder mothers. I wonder if they're mothers. Maybe. I wonder if they're just by name mother, but if they better be mothers, if you ask me. Okay. Here, Tom saying if they're going to play something from Love Drive they could play, can't get enough. That might be a little too high. Yeah. I don't know if they've done that since the Love It's Firsting Tour. I think they would, I think they ended the shows on the Love It's Firsting Tour of that or at least around the Encore, right before the Encore maybe. All right. We're going to have to like go through this because I got five minutes left here. All right. Seventh Son. You know, it's kind of like The Zoo in a sense. It's a new song. I kind of thought, you know what, even though I do like that song, I don't find it went over with the crowd that well. People are kind of like, okay, maybe it's time to go to the bathroom now. Maybe I could go buy a shirt. Here's the problem. I think the new album is great. I love the new album. I think it's the top 10 album of the year. I just think a lot of people don't know it, right? Unfortunately, a lot of people don't invest in new music from old bands because of the nature of our show. We do that and I would listen to a New Scorpions album anyway. So I don't think it's that people didn't like Seventh Son. I think it's that they weren't familiar with it because I like what they did. They kind of brought the lights down. They filled the stage of smoke and had a very China-like kind of feel to it, you know. Yeah. It's a China-white The Zoo. I mean, that that's fine. I really like the way they did Seventh Son. Hey, I like the song. Don't get me wrong. I just found, I was looking around and I found, you know, it's time to take a pee break. That's what I said. People don't know it. You know, people don't know it. All right. Peace maker. Peace maker. Brand new song. They had a video on this or two videos. And it's uptempo. Great. It really did well. People will dug it. It's catch melodic. Maybe I found that the back vocals were not as strong. It's really weird because Klaus comes out strong in the mix. But the back vocals are like barely audible, which kills the whole chorus. Let me say it's brave. Three of the first six songs were new songs. That's a brave thing to do. But like I said, I don't really think it affected the pacing of the show too much. All right. Because I got to run. Bad boys running wild. Of course, everybody went nuts. Send me an angel. And then wind of change of two slow songs. Let me say, like, I have to say, I was dreading that like acoustic portion when they go out to the ramp and do send me an angel winds of change. They pulled it off well, but I kind of generally hate that sort of thing. So if there was a low point of the show for me, even though the audience loved it, I hate when they do the ballad on the ramp thing. I just don't like that. And so everyone knows they're doing the political thing a little bit. They're changing the words of winds of change to kind of show support of the Ukraine for Ukraine. And they had kind of a peace sign up on the screen and Ukrainian colors. So, yeah. Which is cool. Which is cool. Interesting. And just to say, I got two minutes left. Orlando saying a seven sign is probably the best song on the new album. I agree. But he just didn't feel like it went down that well. Now we got tease me, please me. Of course, you know, another staple. And it also brings the crowd back up after the ballads. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A very good point. Rock believer, another new song that people did like. Then of course, blackout, you know, knocking it out of the park. Big city nights. Everyone's going crazy. High point for sure. And I think actually the audience was louder than the actual band at the Encore point. And that's kind of when I chose to skedaddle. Yeah. So I'll do the Encore's really quick. So everyone knows, because there's some complaints about this. So far on the three North American dates, the first Encore changes. So in Toronto, it was no one like you. In Quebec and Montreal, it was still loving you. So they seem to be alternating back and forth that you get no one like you or still loving you. You don't get both. Now I was about my disappointment was I think no one like you needs to be played every Scorpion show. So I was disappointed it wasn't in the set, but still loving you as the first Encore. It clearly worked really well with the crowd. All right. I have a few more minutes. I just noticed that because I got to go pick up my son, but he's okay. He's running a little late. So it's good. And then and then the big, the big finish, of course, the big finish, the song that ends every Scorpion show since it was released brought you like a hurricane, which, you know, brought those down. Yeah, yeah, I brought those. I was actually in my car by then. Yeah. No, I was, I stayed for the full show. Well, so, but so yeah. For the and I did the same thing in 1984. Yeah. Right, right at the end of the Encore. Again, they know how to ask Orlando, I took off. They know how to pace a set list. Ballads, tease me, please me to bring everyone back up. And then at the end of the show, they go for the throat, right? Blackout, big city nights, stop Encore is still loving you and rock you like a hurricane. So they left people on a total, total high. And folks, let me just say this was a big crowd. One of the things that was amazing to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Last time, Scorpions came through this town with Megadeth. They played our smaller arena. It's still a big arena, but they played in front of about 8000 people. They had 15000 people there last night. It was just packed. This might be the most well-attended Scorpions show I've ever been to. So for a band that's been around this long to be still drawing 15000 people in a North American arena is an incredible thing. It really is. And you can see that they kept saying, OK, this is our farewell tour six years ago, where they're still going because they just keep getting more popular over the years. Jimmy, if it's one thing I've learned, right, the world is a world of supply and demand. So bands will say it's their farewell tour and sometimes it's disingenuous and sometimes they mean it. But then if the next year promoter makes them an offer and says, we'll give you this many million for 40 shows and people are willing to buy tickets and go to those shows, then why would you say no? You know what I think for the Scorpions, it's a little more than that. When you really think about 50 years of playing, this is what you do. This is how you breathe. This is how you drink water. This is who you are. And by stopping who you are, it's. Yeah, but I don't see it like a kiss or some other bands where you knew kisses farewell tour in 2000 wasn't a farewell tour. You know, you knew it was farewell to Ace and Peter, but it wasn't a farewell tour. I got the sense that when the when the Scorpions kind of did their final sting tour, that they thought that was going to be the end. Yeah, I think so too. But I think the tour went well and they love doing what they do and they got other offers. So they went with it, you know. And you know, I think the best way to approach farewell tours is the audience will tell you when it's time to say goodbye. When you're playing to 4,000 people in a 15,000 arena and you're selling almost no merch, you know, that's probably when it's time to farewell. But when you're selling 15,000 tickets and the merch lines were insane yesterday. So 15,000 people. Oh, my Lord. It was like Disneyland. So obviously there's demand for the band on various levels. So, hey, why, why say farewell if people are willing to come see you every night? You know, those merch lines were like worse than Disneyland lines. Were they not? Yeah. And the and the merch wasn't even that great. And yeah, I would think for a band like the Scorpions who has an opportunity to sell a lot of merch. Look at this. These graphics, right? Look at these graphics. And you would think they could come up with some better looking shirts. That's my only complaint, I think. Not to say that I wouldn't buy a shirt. You know, the merch thing really well. And Iron Maiden, Kiss, whoever. And some bands don't really do the merch thing very well. And Scorpions are one of those bands that like, you know, why would you only have four T-shirt designs and you could have 10, you know? And okay, have some new designs. But yeah, have some retro designs. People love, people what really sells well for a lot of bands these days is the retro front, but the new dates on the back. So like, you know, the blackout cover but with the dates on the back, you know? Yeah, I never cared about the dates on the back because I can't read my back. Yeah, it just kind of says you're there at that tour. So I like dates generally. Guys, this is a really good question, your parent. And this is probably the last question of the day. Would the Scorpions have sold 15,000 if it was just originally promoted as a Scorpion show? So in other words, this tour was booked as a Scorpions with Thunder Mother, of course. Would they still have had that many people there? Yeah, it's a good question that I've actually thought about and I guess my answer will be no. But there were 15,000 there. I'd say they would have sold 12,000 tickets and maybe White Snake sold 3,000 tickets, you know? And because people would get... I would put it to about an 80, 20 a mix. I take, it's hard for me to take myself out of my shoes because I only bought the tickets for Scorpions. And when they announced White Snake wasn't playing, like I said, I'm still, I'm okay. I get to go home early, you know? And then I bought tickets for the package and if I could have got a refund, I would not have. It's a Saturday night. It's a night out with the wife and friends. But you know what? If it was like a Tuesday night and I had to work the next day and not that many people were, my friends were going, like maybe I would think about it. But like, I think they sell 12,000, not 15,000 if it's just Scorpions. But we're going to see the answer to this really soon. In most of the US shows, refunds were made available. So if they're playing to half empty houses in the States, then that means White Snake, the package, sold a lot of tickets. But if the shows are still pretty full in the US, then people are like, yeah, I bought the tickets. They were paid for six months ago. You know, I've been looking forward to the show. I'm going. So I think it's about 80, 20. So what would you rate this show out of 10? I'd call it a good eight. I'd call it a good eight, eight and a half out of 10. You know what? I enjoyed the opening act. Eight and a half out of 10. Me too. I enjoyed the set list. I thought the sound was great. I have to say whoever is doing front of house sounds. Yeah, whoever is doing front of house sound though for the Scorpions. It's not easy to sound good in an arena. Each instrument you heard really clearly. You know, sometimes you'll go to a show. Oh, I didn't hear the rhythm guitar. I didn't hear the bass. The drums were too loud. So I thought the sound, at least from where I was sitting, was really, really great. Yeah, so I'm a sound set list. The energy of a big crowd. Yeah, I thought it was a really, really good night. You know, the last time I saw the Scorpions, I was a little, and I gave them another shot here. And it was actually one of the better shows. See, that's why I waited 38 years. Yeah, because I go, it's a great show. And let's see what they've done now. So Darcy says eight or nine out of 10. I would agree between an eight and nine out of 10. Stadium shows, arena shows and tours are all about momentum. When the momentum starts, like the first few dates and things are on track, then everybody else in the rest of the continent, or at least in the United States, they kind of feel that momentum. And the people who ask for refunds, maybe there'll be some newer Scorpions fan who are going to actually go and buy those tickets. So definitely go watch the Scorpions. I do have a feeling this will probably be their last. Yeah. And that's the thing, I will just say, guys, the bands we love are coming to an end. Giles talks about this all the time, right? Klaus is 74, Rudy is 73. You know, Ian Gillan from Deep Purple turned 77 the other day. Our heroes are not going to be around that much longer. And even if they are around, which I hope they are, they're not going to be able to tour like the way they've toured in the past. You don't make everybody cry here. Yeah. No, but I mean, it's just reality. Stop it. Father time catches up. You know, maybe there's a Vegas... Maybe there's a vampire thing we can do. Why are they doing Vegas Residencies? Why are they doing Vegas Residencies? Why are lots of bands doing Vegas Residencies? Because it's easier on the body. Yeah, absolutely. The tour comes to you, you don't go on tour. So, but our heroes don't have much time left. So if you love the Scorpions, go see this tour. You're going to hear three quarter hits. You're going to hear one quarter of the new album. You're going to get all the energy they can bring you. And even though they're not calling it a farewell tour, I don't know if I see them doing this again in two or three years, well, 76, you know. You know, and Darson says a great point here. He goes like, look how Rush went out. The Rush went out, you know, at the top of their game. Scorpions, okay, they're a little lower than the top of their game, but still they're still up there, right? Yep. I want them to go out on a high note, and that's where they are. They're in the high note and one last note. I got to let everybody go now. I'm the drum solo. Even though I cannot stand drum solos, I hate drum solos. When drummers start playing the drum solo, it's like time to go to the bathroom. It's time to like buy a t-shirt. I got to say that Mickey D had a very entertaining and physical drum solo, and he, it was just incredible. It was just very enjoyable. I thought Mickey was the star of the band. I thought it's rare, I will say, that the drummer who's not Neil Perk or Tommy Lee like steals the show. Like, Mickey didn't steal the show, but man, talk about smashing down a door and making your place in a band. It's not easy to go from King Diamond and Motorhead to Winds of Change. But Mickey made all of these songs his own, and let me tell you, I put video of bad boys running wild on my Facebook page, so anyone who wants to check it out, check it out. Mickey D was like beating the shit out of the drums on that song in his solo as well, and he toughened up the band's sound. And I actually like James Kotak as a drummer, and he's had his problems over the years, but seeing Mickey D as part of Scorpions just takes it to another level as far as I'm concerned. I've got to get rid of his spammer. There we go. Band from Bage. Bad spammer. That was like a three seconds band right there. Band and spammer. All right, on that note, Mickey D did a phenomenal job. He's brought new life to the Scorpions. I mean, here's a guy who brought life to King Diamond and also brought new life into Motorhead back in the day and just an amazing drummer. And I was so impressed, and I even really enjoyed his drum solo. And my wife who's sitting next to me was not really like drum solos and stuff. She was so entertained by the visuals and sort of the coordination of his drums with the band. And his animation. His animation, yeah. On that note, the momentum is happening. Go check out the Scorpions with Thunder Mother and check them out on tour. Well worth the money, even though White Snake is not going to be there. Man, the Scorpions are still kicking some serious butt. That's it. Rock and roll people. Rock and roll. Milwaukee Tom is saying blasphemy, Perrin the drummer is the only one who matters. But seriously, Mickey saved this band and Milwaukee Tom, you are correct. We need more bands of two drummers. Doobie brothers, baby. Almond brothers.