Newsgroups: alt.music.deep-purple
Subject: DETROIT REVIEW
From: ROY Amit 
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 18:18:00 GMT

Since my fellow amd-pers did not respond to my request for a meeting before the show, I decided to wear my "alt.music.deep-purple /cyber truckin'" T-shirt (that I've been saving for one and half years) with the hope that somebody would recognize a fellow fan and say "Hi!". But no one came from miles around and said so. So I decided to take matters in my own hands and tank myself up, get rid of inhibitions and fire up the crowd. And whenever nature called I went to a different bathroom each time and yelled out "DEEP PURPLE" and was pleasantly surprised as to how many people respond to it. Only once did one guy say "No man, COC" (Corrosion of Conformity). Needless to say he was quickly shut down. Trust me folks this is very unlike me. I am 36 years old, work as a manager in a consulting firm and live the suburban lifestyle. But heck, DP can rub some magic on you that makes you go crazy. If anybody noticed a stupid individual yelling out "Deep Puple", it was me.

As you are aware that there were 7 bands that played at the Palace of Auburn Hills (capacity 21,000), Purple being one of them. Taking a guess I would say the stadium was 20% full. DP came on as the 5th band at around 8:20 p.m. and in short were a CLASS ABOVE THE REST. But I guess they were hard pressed for time and moved through their songs pretty quickly. They were outta there by 9:50 p.m. Roger and Paice were wearing bandanas on their heads. Ian was wearing an excerise black T-shirt. Jon Lord was wearing a black T-shirt and looking "prosperous"... if you know what I mean. :-) The lights were more a combination of green and red setting the mood right.

DP cut short their setlist. I think it was more like Hush, Fireball, Pictures of Home, Ted, Black Knight (extended version), Cascades (Steve using major guitar processors... sounded more like octave dividers), Woman from Tokyo (towards the end they stepped to a scale above), Rosa Cantalina (Ian G let loose on the Harmonica), Smoke (Steve started the lead break with an "unreal" note that reminded like Carlos Santana), a little Lazy keyboard that drifted into Speed king (this is where I could actually make out how well Steve fit in with the band. Jon Lord had his arms around Steve and both talked back with their instruments. Paicey took off with a little 2 minute solo. Ian G did some scatting with Steve). The encore numbers were Perfect Strangers, Hey Cisco (Roger and Steve harmonising) and finally Highway Star. Needless to say, I left after Deep Purple.

Overall I think it was a great show. You could clearly make out the difference between Deep Purple and the other grungy bands that was just full of bass, distortion and jerky rhythm guitar. The only downside was I think the acoustics of the stadium... I couldn't make out what Ian was saying. And a bitch of an usher wouldn't let me take photographs (I sneaked some in though).

I am not new to Steve Morse and have had a couple of his albums even before he joined Purple. And no matter what people in this NG feel about him IMHO I think he is one of the greatest who fits in with the band like Never Never Before.

Regards,
Amit Roy

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