I attended a concert last night by Uli Jon Roth, legendary guitarist from mid-seventies Scorpions who left the band in 1978 before they made it big in the US. There are very few guitarists in the rock arena who changed perceptably the course of music -- the ones that come to mind are Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, and possibly Jimmy Page, but Uli Roth is on that list. He is on every heavy metal guitar players list of influences, because he basically single-handedly created the neo-classical genre of heavy metal guitar. Ritchie Blackmore explored the style somewhat in Deep Purple and Rainbow, but Uli Roth really captured the feeling, speed, and dexterity of classical violin and merged it into rock music. He has had an eclectic career, putting out solo albums occasionally that were more concept pieces than groups of songs, with titles like "Beyond the Astral Skies". I'm unaware of any other US tour over the years, but he is now on a world tour. Definitely an interesting night of music, with Uli's "sky music" played in front of a giant screen with images of clouds, water, and images from the songs interspersed with movies of Uli playing over the years. The night ended with 2 encores -- the first with several Scorpions songs and a Hendrix classic, and the second with just Uli and his keyboard player playing some mellow and very intricate classical music ("Rondo Alla Turca" from Mozart and another) rounding off the evening nicely. Uli plays from the soul and is a true original.