German guitar hero Uli Jon Roth makes overdue return to Bay Area
German hard-rock guitar giant Uli Jon Roth brings his current band to the Bay Area for three shows, playing music from his solo band Electric Sun and classic tunes from his days with the Scorpions in Concord, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz.
Along with Deep Purple axman Ritchie Blackmore, Roth is credited for bringing elements of classical bombast into hard rock thanks to his blazing guitar work as principle songwriter for the Scorpions on such classic albums as In Trance, Virgin Killer and the 1978 in concert opus Tokyo Tapes, which documented the guitarist's final live performances as a member of the group. Mixing a healthy dose of Hendrix worship along with a melodic sophistication well beyond most rock guitarists -- how many '70s rockers could deftly sneak a Duke Ellington quote in the midst of a metal anthem like "Sails of Charon" the way Roth did? -- the six-string maestro firmly established himself as one of an elite group of guitar virtuosos during his time in the band.
While Roth's departure meant that he didn't reap the benefits of the Scorpions' 1980s explosion in popularity thanks to heavy rotation on MTV and the world's embrace of their power ballad "Winds of Change," the guitarist instead followed his own muse. Roth was founded his band Electric Sun and recorded a trio of albums between 1979 and 1985 that further explored his Hendrix-meets-European-classical.
Roth would move on to other interests after disbanding Electric Sun, focusing for a number of years on classical music by composing a number of symphonic works and performing live with orchestras. Roth also got into teaching music with his series of Sky Academy seminars and concerts as well as designing his custom seven-string, six-octave instrument the Sky Guitar.
The guitarist may have a bigger following in Europe, but his own U.S. headlining tours and jaunts pairing him with other virtuoso rock players like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Jennifer Batten consistently draw packed houses of disciples eager to hear Roth's inimitable guitar stylings. His more recent recordings and tours have focused almost exclusively on the body of songs he created with the Scorpions.
In 2015, Roth issued a double CD of studio recordings entitled Scorpions Revisited that offered up new versions of his classic tunes written during his tenure with the band. Late in 2016, Roth released the deluxe CD/DVD package Tokyo Tapes Revisited that similarly looked back on the standard-setting concert document while adding a couple of Hendrix covers that have become staples of Roth's live sets.
Roth last toured the States extensively in 2018 when he celebrated the 40th anniversary of the music he made with his post-Scorpions band Electric Sun. He was set to tour the U.S. last year, but was forced to put his live activity on hold when he had to have one of his kidneys removed. He returns to the Bay Area this weekend for a series of shows that will find the guitarist playing a set of his classically oriented solo work including excerpts from Metamorphosis of Vivaldi's Four Seasons Concerto before a second set featuring a mix of Electric Sun songs and Scorpions classics. He stops at Vinnie's in Concord on Saturday night before moving to the Vintage Space at the Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa Sunday, then heading south to Santa Cruz for a show at Moe's Alley on Tuesday. Roth will also play the Goldfield Trading Co. in Sacramento on Wednesday.
Uli Jon Roth
Saturday, April 6, 6 p.m. $25-$100
Vinnie's
Sunday, April 7, 7 p.m. $25-$100
Vintage Space at Flamingo Resort and Spa
Tuesday, April 9, 6 p.m. $25-$30
Moe's Alley