[% META title = 'Tour Reviews' %]
Finale for Gould in L.A.
We arrived plenty early for this one as the start time was 6 pm. The 10 dollar 'cheap' parking situated us on a dusty incline patrolled by police on horseback. Avoiding mounds of horse shit, we hiked by cars blasting various impressive selections: I heard Tarot Woman, Smoke On The Water, Burn, Stormbringer, a lot of Dio and one car that was just playing AC/DC.
Dio was great again, of course. Our seats were not as low and centralized as in Milwaukee so there was no benefit of hearing the guitar cabinets straight off the stage. The Greek Theater is in a residential area and so the sound, I believe, is turned down slightly. The result was a little echo-y from our seats. Heaven And Hell ruled! Halfway through his set, there was not an empty seat in the house. Very long drum and guitar solos again...
Deep Purple was next. The set list had no surprises. Here's a setlist:
Fireball
Woman From Tokyo
Ted The Mechanic
Lazy
Well Dressed Guitar
Knocking At Your Back Door
Perfect Strangers
Speed King
Smoke On The Water
Space Truckin'
Encore:
Highway Star (with hints of Hush at beginning)
They did very well, as usual. This was the 5th night in a row according to the itinerary. That's seems like it would be tough for even 25-year-olds... amazing. Very good crowd response tonight as well.
The Scorpions also had a huge night. They were very well received and towards the end the singer launched into the 'end-of-tour thank yous' and became quite sentimental. It's obvious this was a very successful tour and there seemed to be good feelings all around. It was a hell of a package! A lot of rock'n'roll in one night...
Then for their last song, Steve Morse joined The Scorps onstage for Rock You Like A Hurricane. He was having a lot of fun and mimicking Rudolf Schenker's Townsend-like windmills.
The 'Only in Hollywood' department: As we are slowly shuffling out an older gentleman turns around to complain about his wife not going to the bathroom earlier. It was actor Elliot Gould. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to ask him who he had come to see. But I did ask if he enjoyed the show. He said yes but there were people talking loudly with Italian accents in his section!
DVH