[% META title = 'Tour Reviews' %]
Superb!
Saturday night’s concert in Pittsburgh was fantastic! My husband had vowed to never go to another concert again after enduring traffic jams, thunderstorms, bad seats, etc over the last 50 years of his life, but when he heard that Deep Purple was coming to town, he changed his mind! Deep Purple has been his favorite band since the 70s and he had never had a chance to see them before.
We bought a package for two concerts in order to get the best seats - third row, center stage - awesome! Everything was perfect until we entered the pat-down and search entry point to the pavilion when our friend Dave discovered he brought the wrong concert tickets. After driving 3½ hours, we didn’t want to return home. However, the box office employees were very accommodating and traced Dave’s tickets to his driver’s license and credit card, so the tickets we re-issued – saved by modern technology! (This is our same friend Dave that is an executive at a large international company with headquarters in Pittsburgh… We’ll never let him live this down!)
Dio’s voice was awe-inspiring and his performance set the tone for the rest of the evening. His new songs rocked as well as his older hits. We could have done without his mention of a censorship attempt after 9-11... I didn’t think the timing of his remark was appropriate.
My husband and I had seen the Scorpions perform two years ago with the San Jose Orchestra and thought that performance was unbeatable, but we were wrong. Tonight’s concert was even better. Everyone stayed on his or her feet for the rest of the night. Mathias Jabs was playing a terrific guitar solo as torrential rains hit the area, but he continued to mesmerize the crowd with his tight guitar licks. A full rainbow appeared after the storm and formed an arch over the stage - a beautiful sight. I really worried that Deep Purple would not live up to my expectations after seeing the terrific Scorpions set, but I was wrong.
Deep Purple was better than all of us ever imagined they could be. All the band members really seemed to enjoy themselves and had big smiles on their faces. There was a real sensation of vibes radiating between the band and the energized fans. Ian Gillan was barefoot and looked very sexy in his white cotton outfit and salt'n'pepper hair. He looks better now than during his album covers days of the 70s. Don played extremely well and Steve Morse was especially good. Roger’s bass was heavy in the bottom end and we loved it. Ian’s drums rocked.
I was planning to write down the set list with the pen and paper I took into the venue, but I was having so much fun just experiencing the atmosphere and dancing that I just couldn’t write anything. The set list was fantastic and I just wished that Deep Purple played more.
This was a terrific show with three great bands that all dropped their egos at the door and performed the greatest concert we ever saw.