UFO – House of Blues, Chicago 10/16/09

UFO and Chicago have a long standing relationship. Ever since they paid homage to Chi-town by recording most of Strangers In The Night at the International Amphitheatre, this great city has always had a soft spot for UFO. Now that Mad Michael has been replaced with Vinnie Moore, the UFO of 2009 is a more stable and consistent band. Tours have not been cancelled and the band is still churning out quality music. Just grab a listen to their latest The Visitor for proof that these guys still have plenty of life in them.

I think it speaks volumes that the band no longer relies on older classics to start the show and get the crowd going. On this tour, the set opened with new track, Save Me, and was followed quickly by Daylight Goes To Town from You Are Here. It showed that they are not only a classic rock band but that they can still produce some quality material. That does not mean that UFO forgot their back catalogue. On the contrary, the show was filled with crowd favorites like “Mother Mary”, Let It Roll, and Lights Out to name a few. They have such a large amount of music to choose from that it must have been difficult to pull together a set list for everyone but the band sure tries. For us hardcore fans, the guys even pulled out some lesser played tunes and delivered Cherry and Ain’t No Baby. Now, if you are like me and thought that the Paul Chapman-era of UFO was great, then you should be happy to know that UFO have started to play a track from that 4 year period. Last time out they played Long Gone but on this tour, they went even deeper and performed Mystery Train from No Place To Run. That is truly a deep cut and to see that one performed again was pure heaven. My only two complaints for the show would be a) not enough songs performed from the new album and b) it is time to drop Rock Bottom from the set list. My reasons for both are that The Visitor is such a strong release and more could be played from that record instead of Rock Bottom. Now I know that they will probably never omit that song from the set but it is a show piece for Michael Schenker. Vinnie Moore does a great job on it but he has a whole host of new tracks (great track too!) to play that he had a hand in writing.

Those two minor quibbles aside, the show was great on all levels. Phil Mogg treated us to not only a great vocal performance but also to a bit of his dry British humor. He truly is a great and often overlooked frontman. Andy Parker, who returned on the last tour, pounded on his drum kit so hard, I don’t think they needed to mike it at all. Vinnie Moore has been getting better with each tour and record and he fits in perfectly with the rest of the original members. Paul Raymond is also often overlooked but his playing adds so much to the UFO sound. He adds all the subtle nuances that make the songs special. Which leaves us with Rob DeLuca on bass. He is a great player (technically better than Pete Way) but I have to say that I miss Pete. He was such a visual part of the band that I do miss him. No disrespect to Rob because as I’ve said, he is a great player and he doesn’t seem to have any demons like poor Pete. For those of you out there that are still crying over the fact that Michael Schenker is not in UFO, you need to suck it up and check out this version. I think you will be happily surprised at how good they still are.

Greg Olma