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Exhibition & Convention Center, Daegu, Korea
March 26, 2004
Silver Tongue
Woman From Tokyo
I Got Your Number
Strange Kind Of Woman
Bananas
Knocking At Your Back Door
Contact Lost
Morse Solo / Well-Dressed Guitar
Don Airey Solo (incl. Arirang - Korean trad. music) / Perfect Strangers
Highway Star
Doing It Tonight
Pictures Of Home
Lazy
When A Blind Man Cries
Space Truckin'
Smoke On The Water
Hush
Hit The Road Jack
Black Night
Silver Tongue - Progressive intro and ending guitar solo
was added to the studio format. The main pentatonic riff by Steve blew off the
hall. It was the great vibe and groove!
Woman From Tokyo - Kids stood up and rushed to the front of stage. At
the end of the song, Steve shook hands with some screaming kids and did not
return to the playing mode. He missed some backing riffs for that. It was such
a crazy mood. Dons electric piano solo was quite similar to Jons
playing.
I Got Your Number - Steve and Roger sang back vocals. Arpeggio style
ending was played with distorted guitar, not in a quite mode as in the studio
recording.
Strange Kind of Woman - Ian screamed at the end of song like the album
of Made in Japan. I was surprised at his gray hair but felt that it was back
to the year of 1972!
5. Bananas - Dons typical keyboard style was shortly presented
at the intro. The highlight of the song, the call and response of guitar and
keyboard fired the stage. Steve changed the progression of solo pattern from
the original recording. After unison playing with keyboard, he started melody
centered playing first and then, fast picking shred pattern followed, which
was vice versa in the recording session. Dynamic chord change at the ending
part was dramatic itself.
Knocking on Your Back Door - All of you may know the orgasmic moment
of this song. Keyboard started and Ians drumming led the exciting moment.
It was typical but always exciting.
Contact Lost / Well Dressed Guitar - Ian
introduced the story behind the tune and it started with reverbed guitar melody
by Steve. Between two tunes, Steve played his volume technique solo, which has
been his trademark in the guitar solo time. He changed pick up position frequently
while knobbing the main volume. It was another kind of virtuosity. If anyone
listened to the tune with his eyes closed, he may not imagine those busy works
on Steves guitar. Final main melody was based on the guitar solo performance
in the Total Abandon 99 DVD.
Don Aireys Keyboard Solo - I
waited for this moment at this show. Starting with Jons Bach on to This
(?) [Also known as Bach's Toccata... Rasmus], he showed various style
of playing from classic to ragtime, and he included Korean traditional folk
song Arirang and main theme of Star Wars. His progressive style ending was continued
to warn the crowd of beginning Perfect Strangers.
Perfect Strangers - Yes,
they finally returned with the echo of
Ian Gillan danced like Persian
dancer.
Highway Star - The intro
was somewhat different. Rogers bass line (the signal of the song!) was
accompanied with Steves chicken picking bluegrass filled licks. Returning
to the main riff, all the crowd went mad. At the keyboard solo part, Don played
quite a lot like the original Machine Head studio recording. I was pleased with
that. (Steve, as he always did, he played original studio version licks.)
Doing It Tonight - It was a dancing time as the reviewer of Osaka show
wrote oin The Highway Star tour review. The ending was adopted from that of
Pictures of Innocence.
Pictures of Home - Typical performance as the band
has always done since Mark 7 began, but nobody could argue about that because
its always superb!
Lazy - Another moment where Don showed his skill. I thought he was funkier
than Jon.
When a Blind Man Cries - Ian told to the crowd that the next song
is a new song. It really started with the minor pentatonic intro which
I had never heard, but shortly after that, it changed into this heartbreaking
soulful song. Steves artificial harmonics with mournful melody echoed
in the hall.
Space Truckin' - Ian Paice exploded with his drum solo. His rolling was
really heavy.
Smoke on the Water - Steve played benjo styled fast licks with celtic
mood, and he pushed the button, then fired! Crowds screaming was louder
than performance of the band.
Hush
Black Night - At the beginning, Roger played funky bass solo which was very
cool. Ian Gillan sang abruptly Silent Night, Holy Night
. Steve
accompanied him with baroque styled licks. The sing along of Black Night was
followed.
Dae-Won Lee
This was my 11th Deep Purple concert in my four countries. I'd
previously seen the band live in Australia (March, 2001), Germany (September,
2002) and England (September, 2002). I am from New Zealand but currently working
here in Korea as an English Teacher. So it was a real bonus to see Deep Purple
in a much more foreign territory on their truely "worldwide" Bananas
Tour.
I was a bit skeptical as to how both the band and audience would react here
in Korea as opposed to a typical Western Deep Purple show, but any fears of
a quiet, conservative gig were soon dashed. As I will explain, the show here
in Daegu, Korea was a very happy affair.
The venue was relatively small which gave a nice personal feel to it. I was
seated about 20 rows back. The new song off Bananas was unfamiliar to most of
the Korean audience but Woman From Tokyo was instantly recognisable and I saw
some of the fans on their feet and the start of a group of younger fans gathering
towards the stage. A few more songs into the show and I too joined the enthusiastic
front section of fans.
Ian Gillan seemed to be in an especially good mood tonight constantly waving
to and hand-slapping the fans as well as plenty of bowing, smiling and praise
for the crowd. It was obvious the band were having a really fun time. I can't
count the number of times Ian told the audience they were "number one".
Highlights for me were Perfect Strangers (I never get sick of hearing that song),
the solo work from both Steve Morse and Don Airey which was often very effective
as a dramatic introduction to some of the classics always keeping the audience
guessing. And of course the first encore Hush where Ian Gillan proudly shouted
"1968!" before the opening guitar riff.
For the Korean audience in general, the run down of the last four songs before
the encore (Lazy, Blind Man, Truckin', Smoke) saw an incredible enthusiasm and
the sing-along to Smoke On The Water compared favourably to any Western audience
I'd been a part of in the past.
I thought the new songs from Bananas came across very well live, in fact they
stood up to early 70's and mid 80's Purple classics! How the band continue to
play show after show for months on end at such an energy level is just unbelievable.
I thaaaaaaaaaank you Deep Purple!
If there are any Kiwi fans reading this review I strongly recommend you go see
the boys in Christchurch and/or Auckland at their first NZ shows since 1984!
You won't be disappointed.
Ben Doyle
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