Count’s Vamp’d Rock Bar & Grill Las Vegas presents Michael Schenker
Schenker brought his Temple of Rock tour to Vegas, promoting his new album and touring with three different singers before the tour ends. The Vegas show featured vocalist Robin McAuley, and Vamp’d was packed from front to back as the crowd eagerly awaited the ‘mad axeman’ to take the stage. The curtain dropped as the fans go wild and Schenker sports his classic black&white Dean signature V and rips into the classic MSG instrumental “Into the Arena”. The Temple show continued with songs spanning Schenker’s long multigroup career as “Arena” led into MSG classic “Armed and Ready”, before early Scorps hits “Love Drive” and “Another Piece of Meat” set the club on fire. Schenker touched on the new album Temple of Rock with “Lover’s Sinfony”, and then more MSG with “Save Yourself”, “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” and “Rock My Nights Away” as he really rocked the night away to a packed room. McAuley and bandmates Dean Rubinson (bass), Wayne Findley (Guitar/keys) and Pete Holmes (drums) provided the backbone for showing off Schenker’s amazing guitar prowess, and McAuley was in great form as he commanded center stage and belted out the MSG hits. The second half of the show was a down and dirty UFO powerset where Schenker really blew the roof off, with hit after hit and solo after solo on “Shoot Shoot”, “Love to Love”, “Too Hot to Handle”, “Let it Roll”, “Natural Thing” and “Lights Out” as the place went crazy. The band continued with an encore that showcased the classic “Rock Bottom” and “Doctor Doctor” before the show ended with bows and cheers, and Schenker taking his standard crowd photo with his point and shoot before closing out the night.
The Temple of Love album released in late 2011 features a recording band of Michael Schenker, vocalist Michael Voss, Pete Way (UFO) on bass, Wayne Findlay on Keyboards/Guitar and a great collaboration with Herman (ze German) Rarebell (Scorpions) on drums, who take the main recording duties but are joined by a host of other famous names who collaborated with Schenker on this venture, including brother Rudolf Schenker (Scorpions), William Shatner (yes THAT William Shatner), Leslie West (Mountain), Michael Amot, Robin McAuley (MSG), Paul Raymond (UFO), Carmine Appice, Chris Slade (AC/DC), Doogie White, Brian Tichy (Whitesnake), Dean Rubinson (Dean Guitars) and still more who added to the new mix. Schenker is back in his groove with smoking solos on single “Miss Claustrophobia” and “Speed”, and the variety of career talent backing on the album makes a great cast and some impressive strong songs.
Schenker plans on touring with all three singers featured on the record - McAuley, Voss and Doogie White before the tour is over. The first US leg is spent but April and May will have dates in Europe… You can check what scheduled dates are up now at michaelschenkerhimself.com.
