Considering he helped form UFO as a teenager as the British rock band’s original drummer and continued to be its backstop into his 70s, Andy Parker has more than earned the right to call it a career.
Maybe spend the rest of his life sipping Mai Tais in the sand while soaking in the sun.
Not to say Parker may not do so from time to time. But when UFO vocalist Phil Mogg — the only member to have performed on every one of the band’s albums from 1970-2022 — had a heart attack and subsequent surgery four years ago that resulted in an abrupt end to UFO’s farewell tour, Parker found himself on an island unto himself: still wanting to perform UFO’s music but suddenly without any bandmates.
Enter a guitarist from Houston, of all places, whose band Love And War had opened for UFO on three occasions to get in touch with the man from the shores of England and inform him that he had a UFO tribute band called Lights Out.
Lead guitarist John Adams reached out to Parker and invited him to jam. Maybe even rehearse. Parker, who was already living in another part of Texas, agreed.
And a match was made in the metal-verse of Rock N’ Roll.
Adams and Parker brought Lights Out - A UFO Experience to Fitzgerald’s on Friday night to perform UFO’s iconic 1979 live album Strangers in the Night in its entirety plus other classics.
This time armed with vocalist Mark Boals, bassist Barry Sparks and rhythm guitarist / keyboardist Wayne Findlay, Lights Out dazzled the sold-out bar that had to turn away procrastinators at the door.
Sparks and Findlay have had prior stints playing UFO music, the latter doing so for more than 18 years in Michael Schenker’s solo concoctions.
Boals, meanwhile, solidified his vocal prowess via three Yngwie Malmsteen albums: Trilogy, which is marking its 40th anniversary this year, plus 1999’s Alchemy and 2000’s War to End All Wars.
Prior to the show, the entire band graciously went “Into the Pit” with Alamo True Metal, which you can watch below. We were joined by Sirius XM’s and “That Metal Show” co-host Eddie Trunk, who flew into the Alamo City the night before to introduce Lights Out on stage.
The band shared a few laughs, spoke of Lights Out’s formation and said a few words remembering the late Paul Raymond, Paul Chapman and Pete Way while Parker acknowledged that Mogg is “doing fine” following his health scare.
Lights Out, fittingly, was playing on what would’ve been Way’s birthday, and Sparks recalled that it was during a 1995 gig here at La Semana Alegre, while he was playing bass for Malmsteen, where he met Way and Mogg for the first time.
Some may refer to Lights Out as a supergroup. But it is definitely not a tribute act anymore when one of its members is an original.
Rather, the band lived up to its Experience moniker, giving the locals 1 hour and 39 minutes of pure Rock N’ Roll entertainment. Given that most concerts in bars tend to be insanely underlit both from a fan’s and photographer’s standpoint, it also helped that Lights Out, ironically, brightened Fitzgerald’s arguably more than it has ever been.
Their sound was even more powerful on classics such as “Too Hot to Handle,” “I’m A Loser,” “Pushed to the Limit,” “Lights Out” and the always guitar-solo entertaining “Rock Bottom,” all of which can be seen via ATM’s footage below.
The band even tossed in a tune Parker said is one of his favorites in “Venus” — not to be confused with the Bananarama pop classic — and of course the track that Iron Maiden blares across arenas and stadiums prior to taking the stage: “Doctor Doctor.”
Sparks and Adams feverishly played their guitars and pranced around the stage, while the 74-year-old Parker simply looks as if he could play the kit for another decade. Adams even found time to acknowledge that “Schenker is the G.O.A.T., I don’t care what anyone says” of the UFO legend who completed his own My Years with UFO visit last October at the Tobin Center (coverage here).
Boals, who also performed in town in 2014 with Dio Disciples, shared during the interview that his introduction to UFO came in 1978 when he climbed a fire escape in Youngstown, Ohio, and snuck into a show that ended up appearing on the Strangers in the Night deluxe edition. Boals shared the same anecdote with the audience, but added, “I’m going to pay Andy back right now,” turning toward the drummer and handing him his debt in front of a packed house of witnesses.
No, Lights Out isn’t your ordinary “tribute act.” Their pedigrees out-stack many original outfits that exist today and, at least with this lineup, would have little trouble filling places like the Aztec Theatre around the country on their own tour.
Hmmm, perhaps that will become a reality within the realm of the intergalactic metal-verse in 2027. Because those on hand at Fitzgerald’s would undoubtedly agree this unidentified flying object would be welcome to touch down in the Alamo City anytime it so desires.
“San Antonio is the heavy metal capital of the world,” Adams said. “We go back as far as you do, and this town fucking rocks!”
That sounds as good of a foreshadowing endorsement as any.
SETLIST: We Belong to the Night, Let It Roll, Natural Thing, Out in the Street, Only You Can Rock Me, Doctor Doctor, Mother Mary, This Kids, Love to Love, Too Hot to Handle, I’m A Loser, Cherry, Venus, Pushed to the Limit, Lights Out, Rock Bottom. ENCORE: Shoot Shoot
