Deep Purple Chicago USA Nov. 29, 1996

     One word review of the show: BRILLIANT!

     It was a long, but very enjoyable day. Hell, any day that you get the opportunity to see a Deep Purple concert has to be a good day (and from the fourth row, center, no less, and meeting the band after the concert!).

     The day started out driving out to the concert hall around 2 p.m. and waiting around for Purple to show up to do a soundcheck. Guess what? Purple decided not to do a soundcheck that day! Just our luck. I found out later the band is starting to slightly "burn out" - the massive tour of Europe and now Japan and America is starting to catch up to the lads.

     Never-the-less, that evening Deep Purple rocked. From the opening strains over the public address of the wolf howl intro of "Hush" to the last yell from Ian Gillan at the very end of "Highway Star", the band was excellent. (The set list remained the same as it has been on this leg of the tour - still can't believe I heard one of my all-time favs, "No One Came", performed live!).

     One gets a new appreciation for the new tunes when they are heard live. The band never looked happier on-stage! Ian Gillan's voice was in fine shape - I was amazed at how much he gave his throat a thrashing that night. He was really hitting the high notes! (This was not always the case during the previous tours I saw the band do). Steve Morse was - well, Steve Morse. The man is a excellent guitarist and fits in well with the band, especially with Jon Lord. Lord smoked the keys as well, pounding the hell out of them (during a duo with Morse, I heard Jon jokingly tell Morse, "You're too fast!"). The rhythm section of Roger Glover (a constant smile on his face throughout the night) and Ian Paice (too short of a solo, Ian!) was steady as usual.

     My brother and I were able to meet the band after the show by waiting outside the stage entrance door along with five other fans (one of them being the lovely Cecil - I've read her posts many times on the DP newsgroup). We waited close to an hour trying to avoid the cold misty rain that was falling. Road manager Colin Hart peeked out the door looking for the van that was late in picking up the band. I mentioned I recognized his face from the inner sleeve photos of "Perfect Strangers" and got a kick out of this, dismissing the photo as not one of his better mug shots. Shortly thereafter, Jon Lord and Ian Paice exited and was surprised by the sharpness of the cold wind and couldn't believe that there were people out there waiting to meet the band. Jon asked if the show was "loud enough" for us. Of course, due to the cold, our pens did not want to write. I think it was Ian who remarked, "They don't make good pens in Chicago, do they?!". It was Jon Lord who came to the rescue and had an extra pen on his person. There van pulled up and wished us all well. Very nice gents, indeed.

     Later on, Steve Morse and Ian Gillan came out the door. Steve signed a little guitar underneath his name and was very friendly. Ian looked remarkably well considering the wild performance he put on that night. He was friendly and talkative as well. I asked about his solo effort and said he will get back to it after this tour. He remarked getting the solo album out was going to be like "catching a monkey by the tail". They had to go and Ian promised to get Roger to pop out to say hello. Sure enough, Roger Glover came out. We mentioned the DP newsgroup and he lamented that he doesn't have any time to post to it during a tour. A very nice person as well. All in all, the entire Purple organization seems very "down to earth" and are appreciative of their fans. I only wish I had read that the other DP newsgroupers were meeting before the show.

Here are some GILLANISMs (not necessarily word for word!) for those who won't see them on this tour:

"A song about Clayton Moore (an American 1950s TV star who portrayed the cowboy "The Lone Ranger") trying to sell his mask and uniform for $200 to a soup kitchen (a hand out of food for the homeless/poor)" - "Hey Cisco"

"A place where there's urine on the floor and is also in what you thought was your glass of margarita" - "Rosa's Cantina"

"A transvestite sitting down next to you at a (strip) club and telling you his life story - which took all of 30 minutes" - "Ted The Mechanic"

"About waiting for the bar to open for a few quick ones before going into the studio and ending up staying longer than you intended" - "Sometimes I Feel Like (Drinking)/Screaming"

"Here's a ballad I used to sing to my little daughter before I put her to bed each night" - "Speed King"

"About flying away, not necessarily on an airplane, but mentally" - "The Aviator"

Pat (who as soon as he mails this will remember something else he wanted to mention about the concert in this review) Devaney

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