In a recent interview with “Pollstar Live! Digital Session”, guitarist Matthias Jabs ruled out the possibility of SCORPIONS playing drive-in concerts in the future.
“The SCORPIONS aren’t [interested in playing] those — how do you call it? The car, movie-theater type of shows,” he said (see video below). “It doesn’t have any atmosphere, I don’t think, for the audience, and especially not for the bands. You need to be able to communicate with the audience, and that’s the same thing if you do, like, livestreamed shows in someone’s studio without an audience. It gives people something to watch, but for the artist, especially for a band like the SCORPIONS [which] loves to communicate with the audience. What are you gonna do? You can maybe hold that energy level for the first two, three songs, but what will you do after one hour? There’s nobody to play to, nobody to talk to and nobody who can sing along with you, and I don’t think that feels right. I think it’s not really an option for us.”
According to Jabs, there are no plans for the SCORPIONS to perform live again before next spring at the earliest.
“We know that Plan A might be that we play our [Las] Vegas residency, which was planned for July of this year, next year in May. But who knows if it’s gonna happen. So we don’t have a Plan B. Let’s say it takes even more time to find a vaccination, because that’s basically the key to go back to a normal life and have the entertainment business start again. And that’s the only way. Because who wants to go to a show — I saw pictures the other day where the musicians had a bubble around their head and so did the audience, a few people. I mean, that is crap. It’s not what we wanna do. So we’d rather wait it out and then start it the proper way again.”
Doro Pesch played her first two drive-in concert in Germany in June while complying with the country’s social distancing regulations amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino recently told investors on a quarterly earnings call that the company would experiment with drive-in shows this summer.
The first Live Nation drive-in concert was held in May in Denmark, with 600 cars in attendance.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten said the crowds were respectful of distancing regulations and there were no notable incidents at the event, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Last week, a new U.K. pop-up venue, the Virgin Money Unity Arena, was launched, with some 2,500 fans gathering at the outdoor venue for what organizers described as the country’s first socially distanced concert.
Couldn’t agree more
— NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) August 15, 2020
