The 2009 Batttttty world tour passed through Pittsburgh Wednesday night with UFO as the entertainment. The band did a pretty good job considering the limitations of the venue that they had to work with. The sound there sucks everywhere but in the balconies, which I didn't find out until the show was over. The venue also required everybody to be out by 10 PM so that they could let their regular disco crowd in. That forced the opening act to play earlier than we expected and I missed half their set. It was an instrumental band that played in the vein of Joe Satriani, not bad if you prefer to make up your own lyrics in your head while a band is playing in front of you. They had a female bass player and I was going to volunteer to be her groupie until our leader informed me that the guitarist was her fiancee.

In any case, UFO played a solid set of old favorites and some of the best songs off the new disc. They also broke out Ain't No Baby and Mystery Train for the occasion. Vinny did especially well in Ain't No Baby. Actually, he was hot all night. This guy seems to get better as tine goes on, and I think it's time that we all just not bother with any more comparisons to any previous members of the band. Let it go already, people. Vinny is much more than good enough. He does the classic stuff well and his songwriting has finally jelled with Phil's lyrical and vocal style. The result was a really strong album. For my money The Visitor is their best effort since Mechanix. Getting back to the show, Phil's voice seemed exceptionally strong last night, maybe because they had a couple days off since their last show. He was really wailing on Ain't No Baby, which is the only way that song works. Rock Bottom was another highlight, with Vinny and Rob both playing behind their backs at the same time for a couple minutes. They did their encore as part of the set rather than leaving the stage, due to time constraints. Either that or it was some sort of bladder control issue that one of the band members has. At least that's the story Phil gave us. One question I would like to ask the band is how do they remember all the notes. Rock Bottom seemed to go for about ten minutes but the whole time they all knew what note they were going to play next. How?

The highlight of the night for my daughter and I was the time we spent with our leader. Somebody needs to explain to the band that the only reason for their tours is so that Battttty can come around and see all of us. I hope they're not so full of themselves that they think we go to the shows because they're playing. It's Batttttty that we want to see. She's been the ringleader of this circus for over ten years now, and for many of us she has become a deity in her own right. That must be why, the night before the show, I dreamed that I had an audience with the queen. The queen? I'm an American! I would be hard pressed to identify the queen if she were standing next to me, unless she was wearing her crown. My apologies if queen is supposed to be capitalized. No offense intended.

Dean Amrhein