Newsgroups: alt.music.deep-purple
Subject: Kalamazoo, Dec. 1
From: "Collin O'Brien" 
Date: 2 Dec 1996 16:45:54 GMT

The Kalamazoo show was held at the State Theatre. A great venue, though I'd guess it only holds 1,000 - 1,500 - quite a change from the 12,000 at the Horizon in Chicago!. Great acoustics - also unlike the Horizon!

Admittedly the Chicago crowd was not the greatest, but the Kalamazoo crowd could best be described as cadaver-like. The people around me spent more time screaming for people to sit down than cheering for the band. They *finally* loosened up for Speed King and the encores. I was actually embarrassed to be a part of the audience... And the worst part was that it seemed the mood of the crowd affected the band. They still seemed to be having fun, but not as much as they had at the Horizon.

Nonetheless, they still put on a tremendous show! The set list was identical to the rest of the NA tour, so I won't bother to repeat it here.

The band (as usual) was in top form, though IG seemed even more tired than he did in Chicago (I have to believe the extended touring is starting to wear all of them down a bit). However his voice was still in great shape. Roger's bass sound continues to amaze me - it's extremely well-defined and punchy, and IMO is a major piece of the "new" DP sound. IP was perfect again; what else can you say about him? Same with Jon, who did a longer solo than he did in Chicago. And Steve's playing was nothing short of stunning; his solo in particular was brilliant. Interestingly enough, I heard no calls for "Blackmore" in either Chicago or Kalamazoo. Highlights of the show for me were "No One Came", "Speed King", and SIFLS.

IG got a bit ahead of himself when it came time to play "Cascades...":
IG: "This next song tells a story - imagine, you're in a hotel, and you get a message you can't understand..."
JL (arms crossed in front of him, refusing to play): "No it isn't!"
IG: "Yes it is!"
JL: "No it isn't!" .
IG: "OK, well imagine you're in a hotel, and it catches on fire..."
(Crowd resurrects itself and goes crazy, thinking it's SOTW - I laugh; in some ways it's great to know the set list beforehand).
IG: "This song is called "Cascades: I'm Not You're Lover"...".
:-(.

In both Chicago and Kalamazoo IG introduced "Hey Cisco" with a story about the Lone Ranger, but said there weren't enough interesting words that rhymed with "Lone Ranger", so they wrote a song about the Cisco Kid instead...

Definitely another great show in Kalamazoo - just wish the audience had been better.

Cheers,
Collin

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