Concertologist

UFO THE CANYON CLUB 11/24/2012

It was pretty packed at the Canyon with wall-to-wall UFO fans and several rock stars in attendance.

They started in with Lights Out, did Mother Mary, Fight Night, a few other new tunes and then did a great string of classics like Only You Can Rock Me, Love to Love, Too Hot To Handle, Rock Bottom, Doctor Doctor and encored with Shoot Shoot. Great sound, great crowd, just an all-around incredible night of live music for the post-Turkey Day weekend. Excellent playing by the entire band. And, as expected, Vinnie Moore was ON FIRE!!

UFO fans enjoying the show:

This is definitely one of the best live heavy rock/ metal performances out there! See this band if you get a chance!!

And bring some money for some cool stuff after the show! What a great selection of merchandise. You can buy autographed gear used on their tour. Here’s Mark shelling out the cash for some merch!

Check out this great sign at their merch booth- awesome!! :

Best hairstyle EVER at The Canyon Club

Current members

Phil Mogg – vocals (1969–1983, 1984–1989, 1992–present)
Andy Parker – drums (1969–1983, 1988–1989, 1993–1995, 2005–present)
Paul Raymond – keyboards, guitar (1976–1980, 1984–1986, 1993–1999, 2003–present)
Vinnie Moore – guitar (2004–present)

Touring

Rob De Luca – bass (2008–present)

UFO Setlist The Canyon Club, Agoura Hills, CA, USA 2012

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JON ANDERSON at THE GRAMMY MUSEUM CLIVE DAVIS THEATER 11/5/2012

I was at the Grammy Museum box office last week getting ready to see Foreigner in their intimate Clive Davis Theater performance and remembered that Jon Anderson had an upcoming appearance.

Jon Anderson has some great stories- he’s really seen and done a lifetime of cool stuff. He was so engaging with his conversation between songs when he played earlier this year at the Canyon Club, that it was a no-brainer to go see a Q&A with him followed by some tunes.

Not even knowing the date (thinking it was later this month of December), I went ahead and bought the ticket. A little planning and six days later and I’m at the event.

I’m glad I bought an advance seat- it was sold out before the day of the show. It was very crowded inside the little theater. Richard Chamberlain sat a few seats down from me, which was kind of cool.

Jon came out and played a few tunes to get started, which is different from the normal format. He said if he just got up there and talked, he probably couldn’t sing later on. Like on his current tour, he had great stories about Joe Cocker, Robert Plant and tons of other musicians. Bob Santelli did an excellent job interviewing Jon and keeping the conversation going. Jon’s stories were great and his songs were wonderful.

Jon’s set list for the evening:

HOLLYWOOD BLVD.

Heavy Mellow Rocking the Heavy Metal Classics Flamenco-style at the Hard Rock Café in Hollywood 11/1/2012

Heavy Mellow is an incredibly cool musical concept. Luis Villegas and Benjamin Woods are both marvelous guitar players. These two flamenco guitar masters were accompanied by monster percussionist Mike Bennett as they proceeded to play flamenco renditions of familiar heavy metal tunes. And what a great show it was…

Over the course of an hour, they tore through nine heavy metal classics.

They covered songs from Ozzy, Motley Crue, Dio, Kiss, Judas Priest, Metallica, Iron Maiden, along with a great rendition of "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol.

People upstairs in the bar area were playing name that tune as the songs started out. It was quite amusing to see an older couple get excited and start filming on their cell phones when “Wasted Years” started playing.

The music is very relaxing (it’s fun to hum along to the melodies of the songs), yet it’s very complex in nature. It’s definitely a good exercise in listening to good tunes. You don’t necessarily have to be a fan of heavy metal to enjoy and appreciate this music. But, being a metal head is a huge bonus and makes these songs even more special and meaningful.

Every song was incredible and the highlights were “Over The Mountain”, “Rainbow In The Dark”, “Wasted Years”, and “Rebel Yell”.

After the show, one of the employees from the kitchen came out and told the band they were really enjoying the music from the back and they heard some of their favorite metal tunes during the performance.

The only bummer was seeing the set list and realizing that the song they were planning for their encore (“Bark At The Moon”) was the one song they didn’t play.

That’s Richie Kotzen next to Ben: