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German reviews 2002
 

'Best of' outlives itself

This was my 9th DP-concert on eight tours in 15 years and we got 105 minutes of good entertainment and the band was in good shape.

The pros and Steve was featured a lot and did some amazing soloing especially in Mary Long. and Don fits in better than a year ago. The organ-guitar duell in Speed King was perfect as was his solo in When A Blind Man Cries, which were the both highlight songs of the show (for me). and The (older) three were professional and as good as you expect them to be, Roger and Ian had fine solos. and The band seemed to enjoy themselves, shaking hands with a lot of people in the front rows, good interaction on stage (e.g. Steve conducting Don's solo).

The cons: - No surprises in the setlist. Please exchange every second song with newer, solo or more rare stuff. It was not very exciting at all, there didn't seem to be much improvisation. - Not much of Ian Gillan chatting. - Don's solo - though technically impressive - was a boring mixture of mainly classical melodies. - The Planets - I like the idea of putting together rock and classic and they were technically good, BUT there was neither heart nor brain in their music. - No Dio, probably due to the location - the concert ended at 21'45.

Conclusion: It was well worth the money and enjoyable, but I would second the argument of going into the studio and doing new stuff instead of constant touring with a 'best of' setlist.

Setlist:
Fireball
Woman From Tokyo
Mary Long
Ted The Mechanic
Lazy
The Well-Dressed Guitar
When A Blind Man Cries
Space Truckin'
Perfect Strangers (Don Airey solo)
Speed King (Ian Paice solo) and rock'n'roll-medley
Smoke On The Water

Encore:
Hush
Black Night
Highway Star

Gerriet Backer

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