UFO  

 ULI JON ROTH 

Ydrogeios Club,Thessaloniki,Greece

February 29 2004

live review by Dimitris "Heartcollector83" Theodoropoulos

INTRO          

           The truth is that here in Greece we don’t have the chance to witness live many classic rock bands. The announcement of UFO’s concert brought a smile in all of us Classic Rock fans and when the support band was announced the excitement grew bigger because Uli Jon Roth is a huge artist. UFO were touring Europe to promote their brand new studio album ‘You Are Here’ and in the year 2004 they consist from the following members : Vinnie Moore on the guitar, Phil Mogg on vocals, Pete Way on the bass, Paul Raymond on the guitar and keyboards (depends on the song) and behind the drum kit was the son of John Bonham, the legendary drummer of Led Zeppelin, Jason.

            There was enormous traffic in the city center due to the speech of a politician (we had elections in Greece that period..) and the main road that would take me to the venue was closed for a serious amount of time, enough to make me lose the support act who also started his set earlier than it was planned. It was not meant for me to see Mr Roth live. When I arrived at the venue it was ten minutes before UFO were going to hit the stage. From my friend I learned that Uli Jon Roth was unbelievable and he played some medleys with Scorpions songs and some songs from his latest album,’Metamorphosis’. Everyone I asked about Roth had the best comments to make about his performance, some even said that he was better than UFO after the gig. But let’s see how UFO did that night…

UFO

            I must say that it was the first time I saw this venue so filled with people and the coolest thing was that there were people from all ages, from kids that just started listening to rock music to people who were teenagers when UFO were at their ‘highs’. The band started the show with Midnight Train followed by Mother Mary and then a song off their new album. Pure Hard Rock was at its peak that night, there’s nothing best than seeing a true 70’s rock band live, this feeling can be recreated by few bands. The band was on top form and Phil’s vocals did a good impression on me. Let It Roll cheered up the crowd even more and I’m A Loser and This Kids kept the show on high standards. Then we heard some songs from the band’s new album which I liked a lot and I can say that they are almost as good as their old ones. Surely they will never write again a song like Doctor, Doctor but this band continues to offer us good albums which honor their glorious past. Too Hot To Handle brought the old tunes back in the setlist and Lights Out and Love To Love following in great performances, created a great a pack of the best UFO songs live. Vinnie Moore is a brilliant guitar player, this man played incredible things and I really wish I had seen Uli Roth earlier so I could do some kind of comparison between them. Love To Love ended the first part of the show and then the encore followed with the song the crowd was asking for from the very beginning of the show. The song was the classic Rock Bottom. A great live version played for over ten minutes with Vinnie Moore playing some extraordinary solos. I will say it again, this guy is an outstanding player. The band left the stage and came back for another encore which was the all time classic Doctor Doctor where everyone sings every single lyric of this song. I thought that the show was going to end with that song but I was wrong. The band came out for one last time and did a song I didn’t expect they’d do, Shoot Shoot. It was a very pleasant surprise and the band left good impression for all this people who came to see them.

            In general it was a very nice concert, I had a really good time. All generations of rock music met and enjoyed this great band who had it’s glorious days years ago and now they just honour their past with high standard live performances and albums. Never hesitate to go and see an ‘old’ band live if they come to your city, believe me, many of these bands can still deliver killer shows.

Dimitris Theodoropoulos

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