Pictured Life

Uli Jon Roth
Vinnie's Bar & Grill, Concord, California
March 1, 2013

After another action packed work week I was really looking forward to this show, but I was not looking forward to going to Concord for it.  No offense to the far East Bay, but that drive can really suck on a Friday.  Thankfully I got a heads up about approximately when Uli would be going on and we left well after rush hour so the drive was not bad at all.  I can't remember the last time I was in downtown Concord, but I was impressed by how gloriously mall-like and polished it is here in the 21st Century.

As Uli later said from the stage, his 2013 Tour celebrates the 40th Anniversary of his time with the Scorpions.  To celebrate he is playing a set of all vintage Scorps songs, a good number of which the band never performed live.  Holy.  Shit.  A lot of old timers came out of the woodwork for this show and Vinnie's was sold out in advance with many turned away at the door.   The Uli-era of the Scorpions were a key part of my salad days and the albums from that time are sacred to me.  I can still recite the between song banter on Tokyo Tapes... "I hope we get a good feeling together.."

When I saw Michael Schenker last year his band bummed me out because, despite his great playing, they came across as very cover band-ish.  I was afraid Uli's latest touring troupe would have that same vibe, especially since the rhythm guitarist is evidently only 16 (SIXTEEN) years old!  However, I could not have been more wrong.  Uli's current band is really great and included original Electric Sun bassist Ule Ritgen, which was a nice surprise. It wasn't Tokyo 1978 but Uli played like it was; he was absolutely flawless.  His vintage solos are seared into my psyche and tonight they were all as fluid and breathtaking as on the original Scorps albums.  To be honest, it was pretty emotional as my Inner Teenage Metalhead witnessed a performance he thought he'd never see.

Thankfully the performance made me forget that I was watching one of the greatest guitarists of all time inside a suburban sports bar.  However, Vinnie's didn't make it easy since they left the half dozen flat screen t.v.'s on during the show!  So, as Uli and his band played a scorching version of 'We'll Burn The Sky' into a fantastic version of 'In Trance', they were accompanied by golf highlights on some screens and UFC highlights on others!  Also, a good bit of the stage lighting came from a large Bud Light neon sign at stage left.  What. The. Fuck.  It was so disrespectful. Anyway, old school Scorps fans, here is the mind blowing setlist:

1. All Night Long
2. Longing for Fire
3. Crying Days
4. They Need a Million
5. Life's Like a River
6. The Sails of Charon
7. Your Light
8. Virgin Killer
9. Evening Wind
10. We'll Burn the Sky
11. In Trance
12. Yellow Raven
13. I've Got To Be Free / Band Jam
14. Fly to the Rainbow
15. Polar Nights
16. Dark Lady
17. Pictured Life
18. Catch Your Train
19. Speedy's Coming
20. Little Wing (Hendrix cover)

Holy shit, right?!  Nineteen vintage Scorpions song  and the obligatory Hendrix cover to close.  Amazing.  My mind is still reeling as I type this days after the show.  It was the set that I had always dreamed of seeing Uli play dating back to my teenage years. Time travel does exist.

There were a noticeable number of drunk middle aged women in the house and during 'Yellow Raven' I moved towards the back to get a break from their sloppy 45-going-on-17 antics down front.  It was funny how the noticeably drunk people were female while the vast majority of the guys were completely geeked out watching Uli.  Right before 'Fly To The Rainbow' started I moved to the bar and the guy next to me asked "Are you Brian?" and it was Tom S., an original S.F. Metalhead from the very, very beginning.  I hadn't seen him in years (decades!) so I spent most of the rest of the set sitting on the bar (yes, ON the bar) with Tom watching Uli and his band work their time machine magic. Surprisingly, the bartenders were cool with us sitting up there.  Thanks, dudes.

That being said, as great as Uli played I couldn't help but feel sad at the same time.   Yes, the show was sold out at its 300 person capacity, but Uli should be playing a real music venue and not a sports bar filled with loud neon and flat screen t.v.'s.  Although I will give kudos to Vinnie's for having a surprisingly good sound system. However, at approximately 1:15am, as Uli and band launched into 'Dark Lady', the bar turned on the houselights to announce last call!  What. The. Fuck.   It was incredibly disrespectful but Uli didn't seem to notice.  He made up for it by slamming my face into a wall of heavy nostalgia by then playing 'Pictured Life' into 'Catch Your Train' into 'Speedy's Coming'.  My head was spinning at this point.  Incredible.  "Speedy's coming.. you live in his heart.."

Now it was almost 2:00am and, as Uli and band started the obligatory Hendrix cover to end the night, we headed back out into the East Bay night for long the drive back.  It had been over 2 hours of vintage Scorpions played by one of my earliest Rock Star heroes. Unbelievable.  Uli über alles!

If you bought one of every Uli merch item you would have paid around $115.  On the way back to the car, some pimply-faced teenagers called us fags.  It's not often that you have a childhood dream fulfilled, but that's exactly what Uli's set felt like.  When I was in high school I wrote Uli a letter... and amazingly he wrote me a letter in return and sent me some autographed items.  In 1982, Uli was my friend:

"Pictured life from yesterday.."

Random Rock Star Moment #13: Uli John Roth

" That crazy Rock 'N Roll band is spinning in your head.."

When most people think of the German band Scorpions, it's their Arena Rock incarnation of the 1980's and 90's that comes to mind. However, the Old School knows that the Scorps were a different and superior band in the 70's when Uli John Roth was their lead guitarist.

The original incarnation of the Scorpions was defined by Uli, who (like Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple / Rainbow) was profoundly influenced by Classical music. Also, the band's lyrics at that time tended to be more introspective and intelligent compared to the Arena Rock hits of later years:

Scorpions 1976: "Sweet are the days..Intoxication. Crow-black the nights caging my mind behind the wall..." (from 'Pictured Life')

Scorpions 1984: "Out in the street... The dogs are on the run, the cats are all in heat..." (from 'Bad Boys Running Wild')

Listen to any of the Uli Roth-era albums (1974-78) and the band you'll hear is nothing like the 'Rock You Like A Hurricane' Scorpions. Uli brought a Hendrix-style virtuosity to the Scorpions lineup. He was a complete Hendrix disciple and even lived with Hendrix's girlfriend Monika Dannemann for many years. After Uli left the Scorpions, they morphed into the Arena Rock act that conquered America (and the world) in the 80's. Although Umlaut did follow the band during its rise to popularity, the Arena Rock Scorps eventually lost me.

The defining moment of my disinterest in the Scorps came in 1985 when they played a huge outdoor show at Oakland Stadium (the day was highlighted by Metallica's first U.S. stadium appearance..). The Scorps had just put out the World Wide Live album and dammit if singer Klaus Meine didn't say the EXACT between-song banter before the EXACT same songs as he did on the live album!! Can you believe that?! I couldn't. We ended up leaving early and I've never seen the Scorps again.

Click HERE for the Scorpions' tourist guide to Alcatraz, San Francisco.

Anyway, back to Uli John Roth: Long story short, Uli put out a couple of solo albums in the early-80's. Uli's solo material can be politely described as, uhh, eclectic... and... ambitious. A friend of mine traveled to England in 1982 and managed to meet and stay with Uli. This inspired me to write Uli a fanboy letter since his version of the Scorpions were profoundly important to me.

Some months passed and then a package from England arrived in my mailbox. When I saw the return address I almost screamed like a little school girl. It was from ULI!

Besides a handwritten letter he also sent an autographed promo photo, an autographed promo sticker for his latest album, an autographed guitar pic, AND a broken guitar string. How Guitar God is that?!

I misplaced the guitar string over the years, but everything else has remained treasured memorabilia in the Umlaut Archives.


After that Music Geek moment, Uli didn't make his first visit to San Francisco until almost 3 years later. Unfortunately, he played a dubious show at Wolfgang's on Columbus Avenue. Uli's solo material can be politely described as, uhh, eclectic... and... ambitious.

At his S.F. debut, Uli's musicianship was great, but also derailed by his backing band. The band included a nightmarish troupe of singers, led by Nicky Moore (Trivia: In 1982, Moore replaced Bruce Dickenson in the band Samson when Dickenson left to join Iron Maiden..). It was sort of like that scene in This Is Spinal Tap when they resurrect 'Jazz Odyssey'.. Still, when Uli slammed through a couple of old Scorpions classics (I forget which ones right now) it made up for the lame backing band.

Umlaut's old friend Ian was also an Uli Geek. Click HERE for his memories.

For the record, Umlaut's favorite Uli-era Scorpions album is Taken By Force and my fave song is 'We'll Burn The Sky'. Uli's discography with the Scorpions is:

• Fly to the Rainbow (1974)
• In Trance (1975)
• Virgin Killer (1976)
• Taken by Force (1977)
• Tokyo Tapes (1978)

When I listen to those old Scorpions albums now I get a profound sense of going back in time. I guess they remind me of those innocent salad days when the songs seemed almost alien because they were so different. Those Uli John Roth-era Scorps albums opened my mind to Classical music in the same subversive way that Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple / Rainbow) did. Subconsciously the seed was planted in my head that other types of music could be just as mind-blowing as METAL. Of course, I didn't embrace that open-mindedness until years later, but it all makes sense to me now.

"Into the rock through walls of red dreams.. Pictured life from yesterday.."

On Sept. 10, 2005 Uli performed with the Scorpions for the first time in 27 years (!) in Colmar, France as part of their encore. The setlist: 'In Trance', 'Pictured Life', 'Kojo No Tsuki', 'We'll Burn The Sky', and 'He's A Woman, She's A Man'. Pretty amazing IMO.