Michael Schenker
By: Ray Anton | Photo: Chris Schmitt
The Scorpions debut album ‘Lonesome Crow’ came out in 1972. The band had brothers Rudolph and Michael Schenker both playing guitar. The 17-year-old younger brother Michael would leave a year later to join the band UFO. His tenure with UFO lasted six records through the mid 70s and to some, was the best years of UFO. Michael released his first solo album in 1980 called the Michael Schenker Group. MSG featured a varying lineup of popular rock and metal musicians.
Michael has continued his solo career while returning to UFO several times over the last few decades. He is most known for his Flying V guitar, switching brands from Gibson to Dean, now back to Gibson. His combination of classical phrasing, hard rock intensity, and blues feel have made him a cornerstone of guitar driven rock. A style that has influenced the rock genre from the likes of Kirk Hammett to Randy Rhodes.
Michael Schenker has decided to do a solo tour of strictly UFO songs, called ‘My years with UFO’. The United States leg of the tour started in Orlando on Friday, September 5th. South Florida got the second show Saturday night, September 6 at Fort Lauderdale’s Culture Room. The show started promptly at 8 PM with blues guitar wiz Jared James Nichols opening the festivities. Nichols delighted the crowd with his blues tunes. He grew up down the street from the Alpine Valley Resort in Wisconsin, where Stevie Ray Vaughan played his last gig, as the helicopter he left the area in crashed soon after. There seemed to be some channeling going on. Nichols played a strong half hour set of original blues tunes and ended his show with Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ that got the packed house fired up!
At about a quarter past 9, after the stage had been reset, the PA system started playing Led Zeppelin‘s ‘Immigrant Song.’ Many in the full house were aware that this is the song the band takes the stage to, and the crowd really came alive! The current members of the Michael Schenker Band took to their spots on the stage and awaited as Schenker himself appeared with his fur bucket hat and white Flying V as the quintet blasted into ‘Natural Thing.’ A few songs later, after ‘Doctor Doctor’, bassist Barend Courbois and drummer Bobo Schopf jammed for a little bit before the entire band came back in for ‘Mother Mary.’
There were several instances over the evening where keyboard player/rhythm guitarist Steve Mann would trade guitar solos with Michael, it was definitely ear candy for the multitude of guitar players in the audience. One thing that made me leery was the fact that Michael does not clip the end of his strings, nor does he even loop them. There were six pointy edges sticking out at the end of his headstock, and I winced every time he got near someone thinking an eye might get taken out. For the drummers in the crowd, there was a drum solo after the song ‘Lights Out’. Singer and frontman Robert Liapakis did a fine job with the vocals as well as interacting with the crowd. There seemed to be some technical difficulties after the song ‘Reasons Love’, so we were treated to a band jam while the situation with Michael’s guitar was resolved. Luckily, the difficulties only lasted a couple minutes and all the guys were back in for the final song ‘Rock Bottom’. As they were taking their bows, Michael grabbed a camera and took several selfies with the crowd behind him. The guys never really left the stage so I’m not sure if it was technically an encore, but they then started playing ‘Shoot Shoot’ and finished the night with ‘Too hot to Handle.’
The sold-out crowd was treated to a great 90 minute high energy show. And while I would’ve liked to have heard a few songs from his solo career like ‘Captain Nemo’ and ‘Anytime,’ it seems the rest of the audience was fine with the, all UFO, set list. Shows like this make it easy to see why Michael Schenker is high up on the list of guitar heroes.
