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Dodge Theatre, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
February 13, 2004

Silver Tongue
Woman From Tokyo
I Got Your Number
Strange Kind Of Woman (Gillan and Morse trade riffs at the end)
Bananas
Knocking At Your Back Door
Contact Lost (tribute to shuttle, awesome guitar from Morse, wow)
Well Dressed Guitar
House Of Pain
Perfect Strangers
(concert stops and projector drops dates, stops on 1972 and slide show of events and times of that era as band plays Machine Head)
Highway Star
Maybe I'm A Leo
Pictures Of Home
Never Before
Smoke On The Water
Lazy
When A Blind Man Cries
Space Truckin'

Hush
Hit The Road Jack / Black Night

The wife and I hit the doors around 7.30 just in time for Thin Lizzy. They left a lot to be desired, but were too loud in a sence that all you could hear was guitar. It got better towards the end of the show.
It seems like they wanted to show up Ian Paice a little, by announcing that their drummer played with Plant and Page before he did a fair drum solo and also by saying he's the best in the world. Let's set the record straight. The only two drummers that even come close to Paice are Powell and Bonham, God rest their souls. Nice try, Lizzy.
They did get a good round of cheers of course for Cowboy Song (we are in Phoenix).
I've seen them in the 70s with Lynott and all in all this band did a good enough job, but only just.
I've seen Deep Purple in their third heyday in the 80s during the Perfect Strangers tour at a sold out Giants Stadium in New Jersey with 80,000 fans. This show ranked up to that one. This show looked to be sold out with very few seats open.
Gillan was saying "superb" and I have never heard him sing better. He was on fire and the crowd loved him. One strange thing - he didn't have his congas but often retired to a tambourine.
I really thought Don Airey played very well (I have seen him with Rainbow and Ozzy). He fit in well and played great and looked very happy to be there unlike Jon who we all love. This line-up was happy to be there and it showed!
The crowd went wild for Purple and was standing for the Gods of rock most of the show.
Phoenix loves Purple, come back soon.
Barry Oringer

Thin Lizzy started off and after some of the earlier reviews I wasn't expecting much, but they weren't bad at all. The sound was poor for the first song (Jailbreak) but then it improved. They had lots of people on their feet and played for about half an hour.
Then Deep Purple came on ... All the songs were great (and I was pleasantly surprised by the Bananas ones), the real standout songs for me were Knocking, Contact Lost/well Dressed Guitar, Perfect Strangers, Highway Star, Smoke, Lazy and Space Truckin'.
Gillan was in great voice all night. His only muff was forgetting to grab the microphone for the first line in Never Before, but he was screaming away.
Morse was obviously having a blast, smiling really broadly all the time. Airey did a couple of great solos going into PS and also in Lazy.
I don't think I've enjoyed a concert as much as this in ages. I was there with my wife and daughters 9 and 10 - they've been Purple fans for ages and they also had a great time. DP seemed more together than when I saw them last (June 2002 in Phoenix).
I loved that they played so many songs, my only regret though was SM didn't get to do a long intro into SOTW (the 2002 version in Phoenix was classic).
At the end of their set (and also after the encore) they threw out loads of picks and drum sticks and during the set IG had some people sing into the mike for SOTW, loads of shaking hands etc.
In short, the music was fabulous, DP and the crowd both had a blast and I can't wait till 2006 to see them again!
Bill Jackson

I just want to make this sweet and short.
I am a huge Blackmore fan so when I went to see Deep Purple at Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, it was because of Gillan, Glover and Airey. Last night's show was by far the best I have ever seen them play and I have seen Purple at least 14 times in past 20 years. The whole band was great including Steve Morse, who was amazing. The Machine Head set was great. One of the best shows I have ever seen.
Paul Trocki