Arriving at the ULU, we’re greeted by the sight of an artist who seems to exist in a parallel universe where Mark Bolan and a young Peter Gabriel are the fashion icons of the day. With a helium voice somewhere between David Bowie, the aforementioned Peter Gabriel and a more-restrained Jeff Buckley, Kaleb McKane, with a four-piece band in tow, deals in epic solos and latter-day Floydisms over the course of a varied set that is, unfortunately, cut short at the conclusion. With a set-list that includes cuts from an as-yet unreleased album, Kaleb flirts with genre conventions, taking the listener from dense, Muse-esque riffage through jazz piano breakdowns to pop-rock and back, always tied together with his impressive prowess on the guitar. The set highlight is new track the great anti-climax and if rock and roll story is a touch inchoate, it’s made up for with some blistering lead work – much of which earns whoops of approval from a clearly-impressed crowd. With a band that is clearly passionate about their art and with Kaleb demonstrating a fluid grace upon the guitar, there is much to love – a thrilling showing all round and a great warm-up act for the incomparable Uli Jon Roth. You can find out more about Kaleb here, and we strongly recommend that you do.
Celebrating 50 years since he first set foot on stage, Uli Jon Roth is in an eloquent mood. For those who caught the G3 tour earlier in the year, he was the absolute highlight of the night, his fluid and emotive playing sticking long in the mind. Of course, the nature of the G3 tour necessarily meant that his set was quite short, which meant that the interesting narrative presented tonight was almost entirely absent and deep cuts were also off the menu. This epic-length set is an opportunity to make up for that, and the audience are treated to a show that covers the whole of Uli’s career, with plenty of exposition and unexpected digressions. Uli is an engaging host, obviously still very much in love with the art of playing music, and as he talks the audience through each piece, it’s easy to feel his connection to the music to which he has dedicated his life.
One of the great aspects of tonight’s set is that Uli takes the opportunity to re-examine material from Electric Sun (not played since 1986). Uli’s comment on the dense, hypnotic blasts from that period: “it’s a little more taxing – we had to practice!” is no understatement. The title track, with Uli on vocals, is both of its time and yet timeless, with its keyboard washes, Hendrix flourishes and jazzy interludes. It leaves much of the audience floored at that under-appreciated work, as does the monstrous Ice breaker (“it’s a little weird!” Uli says), which is just insane. Also from beyond the astral skies, we get I’m a river, which slows the pace and offers a queen-esque vibe before Uli pays tribute to his late brother, Zeno, with don’t tell the wind. A beautiful tribute to a great talent lost before his time, you can feel the emotion that Uli pours into each note as he conjures the spirit of Zeno for the audience. There’s more – a track from the Ian Gillan album, a day late and a dollar short, provides a sucker punch of blues rock, whilst the epic Enola Gay (Hiroshima Today?) is mind- blowing in its complexity and ferocity, the latter-stages set to suitably apocalyptic imagery as explosive riffs detonate across the venue.
Uli has other surprises in mind too. At one point during the set he brings out the first guitar he ever played to deliver a cheery cover of the Shadows classic, apache; at another, he plays a nylon-strung eight string guitar (a passage to India) which such heart-breaking sensitivity, the audience can do nothing but look on in awe at the way his fingers lightly sweep the strings. At the other end of the spectrum, blistering takes on Scorpions classics such as river runs dry get heads nodding, but it’s as nothing compared to a show-stopping sails of Charon (a track which also astonished at G3), which remains an unassailable masterpiece in Uli’s canon. It’s all part of the amazing ebb and flow that makes up Uli’s career, and it’s notable that both Uli and band play each piece as if it’s just been written, their excitement translating perfectly to the appreciative audience.
A personable and humble musician, Uli takes the listener on a guided tour of a remarkable career, and there are few artists in whose company I’d rather spend two hours. The music flows and, a few technical quirks notwithstanding, the band sound amazing. Uli Jon Roth is one of the world’s great guitarists and his fiftieth anniversary show is an intimate and engaging experience that allows the audience to enjoy the full breadth of a remarkable career spent in the service of music.
Leave a Reply