“Dude!  It’s Biff!”

It’s not everyday that you meet a bonafide rock star, but Thursday night was our lucky night.  My brother got tickets for us to see UFO and Saxon at Bogarts and I was quite jazzed to go, being a long time Saxon fan since waaaaaay back in the early 80s and never having seen fellow Brit metal stalwarts UFO.  So as the evening came and we headed to the gig, we grabbed a convenient parking spot a few blocks from the venue and made our way down to the show.  We were still a few blocks away when I took notice of a new restaurant on the first floor of the complex we had parked behind.  As I was admiring the airy, open window format I saw two leather jacketed long hairs seated at a table wrapping up their dinner.  Thinking it was some fellow metal fans coming to the show, it wasn’t until I looked again that I realized it was none other than Saxon frontman Biff Byford and guitarist Doug Scarratt.

“Rock star” isn’t quite fitting for Biff Byford considering Saxon’s more cult level status here in the States, but being that the band is in that upper echelon of my all time favorites his impact on my music fandom is quite high.  Once I made the recognition my brother agreed that we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet the man, so we made our way into the restaurant and to their table.  I don’t remember the first words out of my mouth (I think I apologized for disrupting their dinner, although he had just received the check), but I mentioned that we were big fans and thanked them for their music.  As I shook Biff’s and Doug’s hands, I made some goofy comment about the restaurant being fairly new and it being ironic that they were in an English style pub.  Biff replied that the fish and chips were really good!  We didn’t stay too long, but made some small talk that I’d last seen them at the venue back in 1988 and we talked about who was in the band at that time (pre-Doug Scarratt).  I didn’t ask for an autograph or a picture but just wanted to say hello and thank them for their work.  Both guys couldn’t have been nicer and as we made our way out, Biff said “we go on around 8:20”.

Wow!  How cool was that!  Steve and I couldn’t believe our luck and we talked about it the next few blocks down to the show.  We were a little bummed that they’d be on so early as we hoped that they would close the show, but UFO’s popularity in the States was a bit more than their fellow countrymen.  Still, we knew that we’d be seeing a great show and we were extra excited as we got to meet the one and only Biff Byford and Doug Scarratt too!  Fortunately the line to get in wasn’t too long, so we grabbed a couple of drinks and as we were making our way down to the floor the first act of the evening was starting to come on.

Oddly enough, I had become familiar with the name Jared James Nichols only a few days before courtesy of a recent Classic Rock magazine CD sampler.  The song on the sampler, “Last Chance”, was a pretty good blues rock tune so I had a good idea what to expect and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.  Looking like a cross between Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent, Nichols and his trio trotted out a handful of originals to those fans that had already gathered up front.  Nichols’ fingerpicked style is pretty cool to witness, getting a bit of a fatter tone in the process during his tasty blues licks.  His short but sweet set was a mix of simmering yet weighty blues and some uptempo cuts akin to Humble Pie and other similar rock artists of the 70s, and his vocal style was quite strong and soulful.  He quickly had the crowd in the palm of his hand and when he kicked in with a cover of the aforementioned Nugent’s “Stranglehold”, the excitement was upped another notch.  After one final original, Nichols and band were done for the evening (kicking myself for not buying their CD!).

After a brief changeover, the house lights dimmed and the band we really came to see charged out of the gates with the title cut from their most recent CD Battering Ram and did not let up.  Next up we had oldie “This Town Rocks”, the first in a blinding array of classics that had Steve and I roaring our approval as we sang along and banged our heads in the process.  The band tossed in a couple more newer numbers from the past few years (which were fantastic), but the setlist was mostly made up of dead on classics from the early 80s.  Personal favorite “Power And The Glory” was rolled out early, as were killer renditions of “Strong Arm Of The Law” and “Heavy Metal Thunder”, Biff in excellent singing voice and the Paul Quinn/Doug Scarratt guitar tag team in fine form.  As a frontman, Biff does a top notch job interacting with the crowd and even made the comment “I heard that that last time I was here was 1988” much to the delight of me and my brother!

Can’t remember the last time I saw a metal show WITHOUT a mosh pit, which certainly was a welcome sight and made the evening much more enjoyable as I didn’t have to worry about getting a boot to the head or shot to the knee.  Hell, I didn’t even mention top ten fave drummer Nigel Glockler’s rock solid performance or Nibbs Carter holding down the bottom end!  As final cut “Wheels Of Steel” faded out after a good hour and a half or so, the band said their goodbyes to an absolutely raucous crowd that realized they certainly would be a hard act to follow.  The setlist had been fantastic and we got to hear a good chunk of our favorite songs, plus the band performance and energy were off the charts.  A damn good showing from these veterans of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM, for you newbies!)

After a bathroom break and beer run, we settled in for the next act.  I’m a fairweather UFO fan and I will fully admit paying most attention to the Michael Schenker years, but having an opportunity to catch Phil Mogg, Andy Parker, and Paul Raymond from the glory days was going to be good to see.  Kicking off with an oldie in “We Belong To The Night”, the band did a fine job keeping the crowd’s attention and spirit alive in mixing some of their newer material with those Strangers In The Night-era chestnuts that I was most interested in hearing.  “Lights Out” and “Only You Can Rock Me” were up early and the band were tight, Mogg in fine voice all night and the rest of band holding their own.  I will admit the newer stuff is pretty good but I’m not quite as familiar with it compared to the classics, but the overall show was good.  Not near as good as Saxon, but getting a chance to see these legends in action was certainly well worth the money.

Oh yeah…  saving the “other” two guys for a separate paragraph.  Rob DeLuca filled in admirably for Pete Way, who has been out of the band for the past couple of years after health issues have sidelined him.  Thought it was interesting that he was playing a Thunderbird bass, which may have been in honor of the man he was replacing.  And finally, the OTHER “other” guy…  Vinnie Moore has some of the biggest shoes to fill in the hard rock world as the replacement for the aforementioned Michael Schenker, but I must admit I thought he did a really good job performing the old school classics. Moore has always been a huge musical talent in his own right and is arguably better than his predecessors in the band post-Schenker.  He has the right melodic touch on those familiar Schenker melodies but adds enough of his own twist to not sound like a dead on copycat.  Hearing him handle the Schenker staples like “Rock Bottom” and “Doctor Doctor” was a treat; however, I must admit that I would have preferred to see the Mad Axeman up there with the boys.  Still, kudos to Vinnie and his excellent performance, one which has encouraged me to dig into more of the recent UFO material that he has co-written.

After final UFO song “Shoot Shoot” ended we made our way to the exit, chatting animatedly about the entire night:  meeting Biff and Doug, the explosive performance of Saxon, and our thoughts on UFO and Jared James Nichols.  Ever since that night (which was only five days ago), I’ve dug into my old Saxon CDs and DVDs in an attempt to loosely relive the experience from the evening.  I told you it was that good of a show!  Looking forward to their new Thunderbolt CD coming in January and hope to catch them again in the near future.