[% META title = 'Tour Reviews' %]
All passed out
Having read a number of the prior reviews on this sight, I was a little concerned about crowd reaction to Deep Purple on Saturday night in Virginia Beach. The postings so far seem to indicate that the audiences on the tour thus far have been heavy on 80s metalheads (a group to which I belong) giddy for the Scorps and light on 70s era hard rock fans (another group to which I claim membership) who bought tickets more for DP's presence on the bill. I'm happy to report that from Perfect Strangers onwards the crowd - in the range of 6,000 to 8,000 peeps - was on its feet, singing, shouting and cheering. In fact, the members of DP all seemed to be a little surprised. DP clearly enjoyed the roar of the crowd during Smoke, Hush, Highway Star and Speed King'.
The last time I saw these guys was in Madrid, Spain during the orchestra tour in 2000. That night, John Lord introduced every song and the band was backed by the Romanian Philharmonic Orchestra. While a very cool experience, I didn't feel like I'd seen the definitive DP show since most uptempo numbers got shelved in favor of slower songs more condusive to a full orchestra. Anywho, Saturday night was the full rock show I've been waiting for since I was 14 (I'm 32 now).
I was also lucky enough to meet Steve Morse and Ian G after the show as a member of the DP entourage singled out myself, my wife and a friend of ours for back stage passes! Listen up: these crew people are at every show and when you are the only fool in your entire section standing, screaming and singing along despite all the people behind you sitting down (and screaming at you to sit down), you will likely get noticed as a real fan. We did and the people around us (the geriatric idiots whose complete lack of enthusiasm always ruins my experience) were stunned when the nice lady walked up and handed us three backstage passes! Their jealousy was evident and I sat there gloating as I screamed "You're not at the fucking opera!" It was awesome.