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Schwung
2004, Roeselare Hallen, Roeselare, Belgium July 8, 2004 Silver
Tongue Woman From Tokyo I Got Your Number Strange Kind Of Woman Bananas Knocking
At Your Backdoor Demon's Eye Contact Lost Well Dressed Guitar Keyboard
solo Perfect Strangers Highway Star Space Truckin' Smoke On The Water
Hush Black Night (incl. Hit The Road Jack) As
last year Deep Purple was the top act on the Swung Festival in Belgium, and they
did great. It is not easy to play after a pure (and also still fantastic)
"ambiance" band like Status Quo, but the band I saw first live just
over 30 years agoo is still the best there is. A lovely mix of musical artwork
and "jumping" rock. "Contact lost" written by Steve after
the last spaceshuttle desaster forced the audience in emotional admiration. Of
course Highway Star, Woman from Tokyo, Smoke on the water and Black night were
great for all of us "eternal Purple Lovers", but the solo from Steve
in that "Contact lost", and the solo of Don (showing a great self confidence
as Jon Lord successor) prooved this band can be a top act for years to come. I
was even closer to the stage than last year, so I could clearly see a band enjoying
themselves. Anyway this was a great day for a 50 year old fan (myself), who
attended this concert with his three sons! Werner
Lefebvre, Belgium Official
festival website Photos Review
in Dutch I had the impression that this years'
fesival drew less people than last year. Or it could be that last year more people
were outside because of the real nice weather then. I had a look at the T-shirt
shop. Man! These things are getting more and more expensive! € 30 for 1 T-shirt!
But
as usual, I bought one. Though I have seen, and owned, nicer ones before. I
wanted to see Status Quo live. This was my first time; and, man! They were great!
This is - apart from Deep Purple - by far the best gig I have ever seen! The atmosphere
was great! Nice to see old people (older than 46 J) in the audience, playing air
guitar. 11:10 pm - Some noise and Silver Tongue. A guy next to me asked who
the guitarplayer is, he never saw nor heard him before. Woman From Tokyo I
Got Your Number Strange Kind of Woman. Ian had some difficulties to reach the
high tones. This is the first time that I write so little in a Deep Purple
review. The playing was kind of routinely. The title track of the new
album: Bananas. Knocking At Your Back Door. Again I had the impression
they were on automatic pilot. I have seen Purple now for the 21st time, and I
am afraid this is one of their worst ever. All the songs are played too short,
without any real solos. Then the surprise of the evening (well, not, as I knew
it already cos of the internet) Demons Eye. Not bad, not bad at all. Contact
Lost which switched over to The Well Dressed Guitar. That was by far the highlight
of the evening. The crowd really was enjoying this, I noticed a man who was standing
in awe. Don Airey solo which was the prelude to Perfect Strangers. Highway
Star Space Truckin Smoke without his radio intro At 00:26 the first
part was over One minute later: Hush With a Roger Glover solo, which
was one of the best I heard him do. By now things were getting better and more
real Deep Purple like! Hit The Road Jack Black Night Good one! At 00:43
it all was over. People were satisfied with the Purple gig. I was glad I saw
them again, but sadly it was all played too routinely. Michel
de Pourq This was the third time in little over
a year that Deep Purple played in Belgium.This was the best of the three concerts.
The band is in the middle of their tour and much more warmed-up than the previous
times. As usual a mix of old classic songs and brand new tracks from Bananas.A
high class performance from each member, even if Ian Paice does the strict minimum
(which is already a lot), and doesn't do any solo. The beginning of the concert
was marked by technical problems for Ian Gillan, who finally threw (out of anger)
his microphone to the stage-tech (on Morse's side) during the middle part of Woman
from Tokyo.Very scary! The main surprise for die-hard fans was Demon's eye,
played right after Knocking at your back door and introduced as "Sweet Lucy
was a dancer, but none of us would chance her because she had a demon's eye,...or
two, or maybe three...". Deep Purple remains the best live act with a
perfect balance of technique and feeling. The only thing I regret (and a lot
of the fans do) is the lack of variety in the set-list...Some material from Purpendicular
and/or Abandon would certainly be appreciated... Phil
Brussels
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