Awesome UFO Video

Disregard the age lines on the keyboard players' face. This video from 2005 will melt ALL of our faces. (Thanks to my colorfield bud Pat for sending it to me)

This is the version of UFO (minus the orchestra) that my wife and I saw in 2005 at the Hard Rock in Chicago. Jason Bonham was still the bands' drummer and rocks it in this vid.

UFO just made it through Portland a couple of Thursdays ago. I missed it but Pat said they were killer. Original drummer Andy Parker was back. Pat said he looked like he was in pain all night but played great. We've all seen musicians like that. Classic!

BTW, I love videos that show bands recording (not miming) live in the studio. And man can Phil Mogg still sing! En-joy.

Hard Rock Royalty on Tour - Maiden, UFO, Ace Frehley

Between the quiet noodlings of The Swell Season and Mark Knopfler, the Northwest will greet some hard rockers who are doing rare tours this year. Check it:

Iron Maiden
I have seen them seven times. Why not eight? Especially as this tour is called the "Somewhere Back In Time" tour, as the band is dusting off their huge stage set from the 1984-85 Powerslave tour and are only playing songs from the first six albums. This will indeed be a step back 22 years in time for me. I saw them at Ozzfest a couple of years ago and they were still as great as I remembered from the 80s.

They followed Ozzfest with a concept album called A Matter of Life and Death and on that tour, did the whole 75 minute album end-to-end, pissing off many fans that wanted to hear the old hits. Good for Maiden! Oh, and to offset the cost of trucking all that gear around this year, the band had an airplane outfitted to carry band AND gear and guess who is flying it? Lead singer/pilot Bruce Dickinson. The band plays June 2 at the White River Amphitheater, outside of Seattle. It is their only Northwest stop. I will be there.

Ace Frehley
Hot off of his Dunkin Donuts TV campaign, Ace has been working hard at finishing his CD and staying sober. Ah, Ace's CD. I have been hearing about this so long, I am not sure which one has been longer in the making - Ace's album or Chinese Democracy. Ace doesn't even have his own Web site but I have been hearing "it's almost done" for years now.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Ace is back on the road, after very successful Halloween and New Years Eve gigs in the New York/Jersey area. This tour is not just a few gigs on the road - it's a full on club tour that kicked off last Wednesday. I have always been a big Ace fan and when he left KISS (I was 12), my interest in that band was over. I have a soft spot for the guy, as he is the reason I took up the guitar way back when. And the set list for this tour is smoking. The closest he gets to Portland, however, is Spokane or Vancouver BC. (Typically weird for Ace. Why Spokane?) Anyway, I may miss this due to the six to seven hour drive I would have to endure each way.

UFO
I don't have a lot to say about this one except that my wife and I saw UFO a few years ago at the Hard Rock in Chicago and they were fantastic. On that tour, they had Jason Bonham on drums and a different bass player, as Pete Way was not able to get into the country. Looks like that is close to getting smoothed out for this tour, and they are again with original drummer Andy Parker. So with the exception of Michael Schenker, they are touring with the classic lineup: Phil Mogg, Vinnie Moore, Paul Raymond, Pete Way, Andy Parker. The show I saw in Chicago was notable because I had no idea how many truly great songs UFO put out. It was one after the other and we had a blast. This show comes May 8 to the Aladdin Theater in Portland, which dramatically increases the odds that I will go.