Even though another guitar titan had played his soul out about 3 weeks ago - and of course we are talking about the one and mighty Steve Vai - another ancient guitar wizard testified his inner world in front of our lucky eyes and ears.
There were about 600 people inside the venue (Club 22) that night waiting for the appearance of the master of the sky of Avalon! There was no support scheduled, just a few songs for the warm up - but this was not particularly bad since the majority of the audience was actually there for Uli of course! When Yngwie Malmsteen's "Black Star" was being played from the speakers and everybody knew that it was time for the magician Ulrich to come out, everybody started screaming Uli out loud, over and over again!
The band consisted of Uli Jon Roth handling both the guitar and the vocals, Francis Bucholz (ex - Scorpions) on bass, the talented Olaf Senkbiel on vocals plus Ferdy Doernberg on keyboards, guitar and of course Michael Eree playing the drums. It was a really nice surprise to watch such a relatively huge crowd attend this grandmaster appearance in Athens.
As usual and as it was generally expected, Uli testified his inner soul in his own unique style with passion and personal interpretation of the gift of music. Uli Jon Roth's performance remained on a high plateau throughout the night. The crowd went semi ecstatic or even totally nuts at certain points. Uli chose to play many Scorpions songs especially from albums such as "In Trance" and "Taken By Force". Amongst others he played "Your Light", "Why", "I Have Got To Be Free", "Enola Gay", "Sails Of Charon" and of course many more.
Uli stood like a real master on stage, perfectly handling his Blue Sky Guitar and giving all the songs his own voice and breath. It is absolutely certain that all of the songs were possessed by Uli's internal intensive inwardness and charisma! On the other hand Francis Bucholz provided Uli not only with style but also with a firm and tight rhythm section! Uli's band also played solos with each instrument and I was really amazed by the result! Of course they were all excellent players but especially Ferdy Doernberg's slide blues guitar solo was really awesome!
It is really needless to say that there was a constant veil of mystery and inwardness spread all over the concert at all times during the entire concert! I think that he also performed 2 encore appearances, something which really satisfied his devoted and loyal fans! He chose to end the show with a couple of Scorpions songs plus also performing excerpt off Deep Purple's "Black Night".
There were many who found themselves to be in tears - or having wet eyes - throughout the concert due to the fact that they could not easily handle the emotional burden that Uli gave us so richly that night. What more can I say? Mr. Roth, we really do hope to see you participating again on the next G3 tour soon enough along with Joe and Steve! Thank you for the uncompromised inspiration you provided us with once again!
