Pop Music : Scorpions Bring Enthusiasm to Irvine Meadows

The Scorpions, Germany’s most successful rock export, go into a concert with two strikes against them. The band’s pop-metal repertoire is at best superficial, and on stage they embrace just about every performance cliche in the arena-rock prompt book.

But these 20-year veterans fended off strike three and managed to bring some joy to Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Friday. What the Scorpions (who sold out their two weekend shows at Irvine and move to the San Diego Sports Arena tonight) lacked in meaning, passion and originality, they made up in assured competence, punchy, tuneful material and, most important, a sense of enjoyment and enthusiasm.

The nearly two-hour show moved briskly, with no between-songs filler except for the occasional banal bellow of “We love you, California.”

The Scorpions occasionally went flaccid (a bland version of the Who’s “I Can’t Explain,” a few ballads that plodded). But they would always come back with muscular rockers like “Blackout” and “Dynamite,” which were paired together in a late-set run that brought the energy level to a peak.

The Scorpions sustained that peak through a half-hour encore that included sharp renditions of the band’s catchiest storm-and-thunder numbers, “No One Like You” and “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” plus a spirited “Long Tall Sally” with guest turns from Jon Bon Jovi and Scorpions alumnus Michael Schenker.

The opening act, Trixter, was strictly for kids. The band from Paramus, N.J., could serve as a transition band for preteens getting over their New Kids fixation but not yet ready for the hard stuff.

Trixter played 40 minutes of candy fluff that lacked the power of real metal or the zest of real pop.