BY JOSE MARTINEZ

Call it hard rock, heavy metal or even hair metal, Saturday night's retro concert paired German rockers The Scorpions and glam metal stars Cinderella for a good night down memory lane. Of course The Scorpions, desperate to remain relevant, kept playing new material from its latest release Sting in the Tail that just kept bringing the concert to a screeching halt.

The great thing about these shows it the people watching (no comment how I look to everyone else involved). From the haggard women who were babes back in the day to the beleaguered drunk guys pestering any woman within reach, to the buzzed and wobbly to those simply passed out in their seat missing the concert entirely. The line to buy booze was never-ending and the aroma of weed was overpowering, yes, indeed the old rock crowd never really learned when to say when.

Cinderella took the stage first and delivered a solid blues-soaked rock show. Playing on a bare stage, the trappings of being an opening act, the band that released its Night Songs debut back in 1986 has managed to stay fit all these years. Gone is bassist Eric Brittingham's big poofy blonde hair as well as guitarist Jeff LaBar's spin-the-guitar-around-his-neck antics. Singer Tom Keifer, who has suffered with throat problems for years, still sounded in top rock form. His Joplin-soaked vocals were a precursor to Axl Rose's wailing bluesy approach years later.

Delivering a greatest hits set, the band tore through versions of "Push Push," "Shake Me," "Night Songs," "Nobody's Fool," "Somebody Save Me," "Gypsy Road," "The More Things Change" and "Shelter Me" among other favorites. Perhaps oblivious to his opening-act status, Keifer asked the crowd mid-set if they were ready to go home, this before the headliner even stepped onstage. But the sign of any good performer is the audacity to think he's the main attraction and not shy away from the spotlight. A band I hadn't thought about in years, it was good to revisit with Cinderella.

While The Scorpions have continued releasing new music everyone knows it's the hits that makes fans buy tickets. And with an impressive stage show behind them, these Germans know how to put on a big, arena-style production even in front of a sold out theater crowd of 7,100. Lights, flashes and lasers bombarded the senses and punctuated the band's rocking sound.

But with weak newer material, the show suffered from poor pacing and didn't really deliver on a blast from the past night out, which probably isn't what the band was after anyway. When the hits did come, including "Dynamite," "Blackout," "Big City Nights," "Rock You Like A Hurricane," "The Zoo," "Holiday," "Loving You Sunday Morning," "Bad Boys Running Wild" and "Still Loving You" the crowd was definitely satiated. Luckily we were spared the cheesy "Winds Of Change" but not "Tease Me Please Me." A dedication to the late great Ronnie James Dio even gave way to a boisterous "Dio!" chant.

While American drummer James Kottak, not an original member, is a bigger ham than Lars Ulrich, desperate for attention, it's diminutive singer Klaus Meine and guitarists Mattias Jabs and Rudolf Schenker, with Flying V guitar in hand, that really are the main attraction. With the clichés and shtick to a minimum, it's all smiles with these guys. And while trying to relive the past can sometimes disappoint, Saturday night at least proved to be a good night out.

Scorpions on tour: http://www.myspace.com/officialscorpions

[Photo Credit: Marc Theiss]