Lights Out In London

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I took a trip to Chicago to see my father's half of my family - they pretty rarely get together so I really didn't want to miss this one. Additionally, they might be the only people who genuinely laugh at my laboriously compiled list of awful jokes. I also got the chance to go see (with one Mr. Crabtree!) one of my favorite musicians ever, Michael Schenker.

Schenker is a guitarist - his first album was with The Scorpions when he was 16 - "Lonesome Crow." His older brother, Rudolph, was one of the founding members. From there he left to join UFO and then to form his own band, The Michael Schenker Group. He definitely counts as one of the mid 70's guitar gods - a very technically proficient player, but thankfully from before the era where technical skill became more important than musicianship.

I don't know where you get it - but it seems like somehow the ability to express the pain and pleasure of a lifetime pours forth from this man's fingertips. Everything it means to be human, in a flurry of notes and wordless power.

Thus it was with a great deal of joy that I got to see him play live while he was still doing so. He's had his share of problems with alcohol (unsurprising for the era and the genre in which he started playing) so there were some really disastrous tours in the 2000's and his issues with alcohol are the reason he parted ways with some of his former bands. This year he was touring with Gary Barden, who was one of the original singers of the Michael Schenker Group. He was also joined by Carmine Appice on drums for the concert I went to, who is pretty much a percussionist legend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Appice

It's sometimes disappointing getting to see people who you regard as 'legendary' in person, especially musicians. It can be a let down if they don't perform particularly well or sound as good as they do when being recorded. I am happy to say that Schenker sounded...amazing. Barden's voice wasn't exactly as searing as it used to be, and the mix wasn't great, but damn if Schenker wasn't pretty much flawless. The first time I ever heard "Into The Arena" my mind couldn't even process what...what he'd done. It's just a really fucking minty song. To hear it played live and impeccably is as close as to heaven as I think it comes. It was also good to see him enjoying himself. There's nothing worse than to see a musician who hates what they are playing - and nothing better to see one who is still in love with the musical legacy they've wrought.

It was also entertaining to be one of the two guys in the crowd who didn't have a tattoo, a mustache, or a denim jacket on (just as a note to myself - show date was July 27th at the Showcase). I'm pretty sure Will and I were two of the few people under 40 there. In case I failed to mention, Schenker is 55 - his heyday would have been in the early 80's, probably when most of the people in the crowd were in their early 20's.

I'm glad I got to see it - not sure how many of his kind are left, or for how long.

(if you're going to listen to something of his - try out the UFO album "Lights Out" or the self titled Michael Schenker Group cd - both pretty mind-blowing displays of how powerful a good guitarist can be)