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Current reviews

North America 2

Shaw Conference Center, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Sep 14, 2004

The show was sold out and there was actually 4,500 in attendance. Special treats included Demon's Eye and Thin Lizzy joining DP for a huge rendition of Smoke On The Water.
Highway Star and Space Truckin' were an amazing one-two punch. The crowd was great and really pushed the band to new heights. There were lots of extended solos and jams and at the end Deep Purple stayed on stage for about 10 minutes, basking in the mutual admiration between they and the crowd.
Neil Boyle

Deep Purple and Thin Lizzy's last North American show on the current tour was an absolute smash.
The Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton is a smaller place... I'm guessing 3-5,000... but it was a sold out show and both bands were fantastic.
Thin Lizzy was a surprise. With Scott Gorham being the only original member, I didn't know what to expect but they totally rocked. John Sykes was good on guitar, but the real surprise for me was Michael Lee on drums. I am somewhat familiar with him from the semi-recent Page/Plant stuff, but last night on a double kick set, he was absolutely ferocious! The crowd responded quite well to the band, it was a pleasant surprise.
When Deep Purple came out, it was a total love fest between band and audience. The new tunes were well received, but when a classic like Woman From Tokyo or Space Truckin' would start, the place went... well, bananas.
I thoroughly enjoyed the set and the performance of each musician. Don Airey's keyboard solo was a particular highlight as he worked in the intro from Ozzy's Mr. Crowley as well as the Canadian national anthem with both humour and respect, and the audience loved him for it.
I can't remember the entire set list (I'm 46, what do you expect?) but a definite high point was Smoke On The Water, the last song of the set proper. Ian invited the Thin Lizzy guys out to jam the song and it was a blast. All three guitarists traded licks (Morse, Sykes, Gorham), but most of the duelling was between Steve and John.
I overheard many fans discussing what they had just witnessed on our way out. The audience would not let them go without an encore, and what a treat! We got Speed King and Hush with lots of jamming involved too.
Bottom line, a fantastic show, and I've seen a few gigs in my life! It was my first time seeing Deep Purple live, other than on video, and I hope to see them again sometime.
Something else that made the concert special was, thanks to reasonable ticket prices, we were able to take our two boys - aged eight and 12 - with us. On the way home Matthew, our eight-year-old, when asked what he thought of the concert said, "Pardon my French, but it was kick-ass!" It's good to know that, as a father, I am successful in bringing up my children to appreciate good music, and we certainly got that last night.
To Deep Purple and Thin Lizzy, endless thanks for an excellent show and a job spectacularly well done. What a treat to see my heroes in action!
John Kereiff