As Michael Schenker makes his way across the U.S. on his acclaimed My Years with UFO Tour, I can promise you that no city greater anticipated the Blonde Bomber’s arrival than Chicago. Last Thursday saw Schenker and his eponymous group roll into the Windy City for the first of three sold out evenings celebrating the catalog of the band that put him on the map, or perhaps vice versa. As it stands today, two of Schenker’s classic UFO bandmates are no longer with us (Pete Way and Paul Raymond), one is retired (Phil Mogg), and another only makes sporadic appearances with a UFO tribute band (Andy Parker). So for those in dire need of a UFO fix, Schenker’s ongoing run is the only opportunity one has to hear these songs performed by any one member in connection with the band’s classic lineup.
Of course, Schenker isn’t JUST “any one member” of UFO. He was, by and large, the architect behind their most creatively and commercially fruitful period, his gallop-heavy riffs and face-melting solos bridging the gap between metal’s earliest post-psych daze and the soon to be dominant NWOBHM. It’s those very riffs and solos that burst through the walls of the International Amphitheatre nearly half a century ago, permanently captured on Strangers in the Night, and still reverberates through the Chicago air to this day. This town is many things, the UFO capital of the world being near the top of the list, and it showed this past Thursday.
When the lights of the Des Plaines Theatre dimmed just before 9 PM, the largely boomer crowd leapt out of their seats, screaming and shouting before a single note had even played. Welcoming a band to the stage in this fashion is proper manners at a metal show, but at no point in the evening did this energy ever let up. In fact, at many points, the volume of the group singalongs and clapping eclipsed that onstage! Again, folks, only in Chicago will you witness a max capacity theatre singing along to songs like “I’m a Loser” and “Hot ‘n’ Ready” as if they’re hits of the classic rock era on the caliber of “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “Free Bird”.
Joining Herr Schenker for this latest trek are longtime bandmates Steve Mann (guitars, keyboards) and Bodo Schopf (drums), journeyman Barend Courbois (bassist), and newest addition, R.D. Liapakis (vocals), stepping in for former H.E.A.T frontman, Erik Gronwall. While the rest of Schenker’s band knows the UFO catalog like the back of their hand, it was Liapakis who I was skeptical about. After all, Phil Mogg boasts one of the most iconic voices in hard and heavy history. How would this singer, who admittedly I was unfamiliar with, handle it?
Being that Liapakis fronts such power metal acts as Mystic Prophecy and Steel Prophecy, his vocals do boast that euro metal firepower one would anticipate from a Wacken-esque act before UFO. At times, he sounded less like Mogg and more like Pretty Maids’ Ronnie Atkins. However, by and large, his rough and ready midrange delivery matched the energy of those classic songs, especially his performances on cuts like “Lights Out” and “Let It Roll”. While he might not have the natural soul and swagger of Mogg in his prime, Liapakis’ vocals pack that desperately needed punch that Mogg unfortunately lacked in his final years with UFO.
As for Schenker himself, what can be said that hasn’t been said already? At 70 years old, the “Mad Axeman” wields his signature flying V around the stage with the same prowess as that fresh faced teenager who joined UFO over half a century ago. His riffs are as explosive as ever, and his solos sing and scream their way off the fretboard with the same intense emotion as the late Gary Moore. During these aforementioned solos, Schenker closes his eyes and enters his own dimension: One in which we, the outside observers, can only stand and listen in awe of what comes out. It’s not uncommon to see Schenker’s peers adjust their playing style with age, to accommodate limited mobility. Schenker and his band, on the contrary, blazed through nearly all of Strangers in the Night at the same tempo and in the same key as the original recording.
By the time the lengthy “Rock Bottom” took charge, the audience ascended beyond the trance stage, as if having achieved a state of ’70s English metal nirvana. Indeed, no two “Rock Bottom” solos are ever the same, and despite my limited 26 years of life experience, I’d argue last Thursday’s rendition went toe to toe with the best in the arena. An encore of riff-rockers in “Shoot Shoot” and “Too Hot to Handle” followed, and just as quickly as the evening began, it was all over. Of course, those who were lucky enough to score tickets to multiple nights got to relive the magic all over again. For me, however, this was a once in a lifetime ordeal.
It took me back to 6th grade, when I had to write a paper on my “hero”, and chose Schenker…even though he declined my middle school request for an interview (The exact email read: “Mr. Schenker does not participate in elementary school assignments.”) Both he and I laughed about this years later, when I finally did interview him. And even though a lifetime has passed since then, I and my fellow UFO maniacs, much, much older than me, were taken back to a simpler, rockin’ time for 90 minutes. This, my friends, is the power of music, and more importantly, the power of UFO. Don’t be a stranger, Michael! Only you can rock us, rock us!
Setlist
- “Natural Thing”
- “Only You Can Rock Me”
- “Hot ‘n’ Ready”
- “Doctor Doctor”
- “Mother Mary”
- “I’m a Loser”
- “This Kid’s”
- “Lights Out”
- “Love to Love”
- “Let It Roll”
- “Can You Roll Her”
- “Reasons Love”
- “Rock Bottom”
Encore
- “Shoot Shoot”
- “Too Hot to Handle”
