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House of Blues, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
February 15, 2004

Thin Lizzy
7.45pm-8.28pm

Jailbreak
Waiting For An Alibi
Don't Believe A Word
Emerald
Cold Sweat
Bad Reputation
Still In Love With You
Cowboy Song
The Boys Are Back In Town

In between set music over p.a. included:
For Those About To Rock (AC/DC)
Now I'm Here (Queen)
Hell's Bells (AC/DC)
Attack Of The Mad Axeman (Michael Schenker Group; a nice surprise)

Deep Purple
1st set 9.00pm- 9.54pm

Silver Tongue
Woman From Tokyo
I Got Your Number
Strange Kind Of Woman
Bananas
Knocking On Your Back Door
Contact Lost
Well Dressed Guitar
Airey keys solo
Perfect Stranger

Machine Head set 9.55pm-10.40pm

Highway Star
Maybe I'm A Leo
Pictures Of Home
Never Before
When A Blind Man Cries
Space Truckin'
Airey organ solo
Lazy
Smoke On The Water

encore 10.42pm-10.55pm

Speed King incl. snippets of: Lucille, At The Hop, It's Now Or Never
Hush

A fantastic night of rock and roll here in Sin City.
Thin Lizzy (who should really be called the Sykes/Gorham Lizzy Tribute) opened the evening with a well balanced set of favorites. The sound was excellent, unlike reports from previous shows on this tour.
Sykes and Gorham ripped it up and their anonymous sidemen played with a fiery zest as well. It's too bad Brian Downey and Darren Wharton aren't involved. It could truly be called Thin Lizzy at that point, with just a replacement for Phil Lynott, although Phil's obviously irreplacable.
I would love to hear new music from this line up, or some more obscure Lizzy tracks like Angel Of Death and Chinatown. Heck, I'd love to see Sykes toss out Still Of The Night just to see the crowd's reaction. Overall, a perfect opener for Purple.
Deep Purple's last show in Vegas was the opening date of the Scorps/DP/Dio triple header in May 2002. Purple stole the show that night. I'd been into the band for quite some time, but had never seen them until then. That first show featured "obscurities" (not for me, but to a vast majority of the audience) like Fools and Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming that were dropped as the tour went along. Had I witnessed the greatest hits set that tour devolved into, I may not have been quite as thrilled. It was with much anticipation Vegas was getting an actual headlining show this time around.
The HOB was nicely packed. Probably not a hundred percent sold out, but easily 95%. The crowd pretty much fit into the stereotypical "classic rock" category. Not a lot of youngsters to be seen, unfortunately. The crowd's reaction throughout the evening was unpredictable, if anything. I had a great vantage point directly to the right of the soundboard with a clear view of the band and the venue, although I couldn't see up into the balcony. The crowd alternated between frenzied and heavily sedated, although not during times where you'd predict they would be.
Set opener Silver Tongue got one of the blankest reactions I've ever seen at any rock show, but Woman From Tokyo was greeted with a response akin to Britney Spears stripping onstage. Conversely, Highway Star and Smoke On The Water were given tepid responses, while Maybe I'm A Leo and Never Before got rapturous ovations. Go figure. I was very pleased the lesser known tracks got such a great response.
The sound for Purple's show was excellent and Ian's voice was *perfect.* I've read many times (even on this tour) about him having problems with his voice. I must be blessed as the three times I've seen him (twice now with Purple and once with Sabbath in '83), his voice has been nothing short of superb.
I Got Your Number came off fantastic in the live setting. After the quiet middle eight when Morse sets off into a blazing solo and the bottom drops out with a jamming Glover bassline, that was one of my highlights of the evening. Great stuff.
All of the new material was great and I wish there'd have been more. Sun Goes Down and Never A Word would've been great additions to the set. Now that I'm thinking about it, the first set should've been all Morse era material from '95 to the present. Yeah...that's a great idea. ;)
When I first heard that Machine Head was going to be the featured album, I was honestly nonplussed. I'd much rather see a complete Fireball or Who Do We Think We Are show. (I *must* see Rat Bat Blue once in my lifetime.) After last night's stunning performance, there was no doubt in my mind about the chosen album. This is material that is truly as fresh now as it was back in '72. How thrilling it was to get storming renditions of Leo, Pictures Of Home, Never Before, Blind Man and the other classics all in one show. Music is simply not made like this anymore. Can you imagine Linkin Park playing their debut in its entirety 30 years from now? Didn't think so.
Speed King was a great - and unexpected - encore tune. Since Black Night has been the only song (aside from Hush) reported thus far in the encore slot, I wasn't even thinking about Speed King. A tip of the hat to Elvis and Vegas with It's Now Or Never was a sweet touch.
The band seemed to be genuinely having a great time and with a show this strong, it certainly bodes well for the future. Hopefully we get a DVD out of this tour. Don't miss it when it hits your town.
Oh, and what is that banana they were selling for 50 bucks last night?
Wayne Gucker

Again the mix for Thin Lizzy is terrible. I guess their Front Of House engineer must be tone deaf. I could not wait for Thin Lizzy to finish their set again. They are good players and it is a shame that they have a guy touring with them who can't mix for shit.
Again we are pumped for Purple. They hit the stage a bit after 9 PM and open up with Silver Tongue. They play almost the same as the night before in LA except they leave out House and Pain and there are no guests. They finish off with Speed King and Hush. Great show once again.
I have seen Deep Purple with almost every lineup. This might have been the best I have seen them in the Steve Morse era so far. They are a great band and even with the loss of Jon Lord (which I was really disappointed about) Don Airey has done a very good job of filling his shoes. As Steve had to do with Ritchie Blackmore.
Tommy Fiore

After catching the lads in sizzling form both in San Francisco and Los Angeles, I pushed on to Las Vegas for my third show of the tour.
The House of Blues is tucked inside a huge casino called the Mandalay Bay. Strange indeed! The crowd was 'meek' especially compared to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The show was great (as usual) and if I'd had no obligations at home I would be well on my way to New Mexico now for the next show.
However, the House of Blues is a poorly designed venue. There couldn't have been a sound engineer on this project because the sound upstairs flat out sucked! Skip this venue next time lads.
With a great new album and a ass-kicking show I once again tip my hat to everyone connected with Deep Purple. Thanks for three great shows!
Victor Martinez

Show review by Caught Live Too