Newsgroups: alt.music.deep-purple
Subject: Beacon Theater, NYC 11/26/96
From: gillansinn@aol.com
Date: 29 Nov 1996 04:52:27 GMT

The Beacon Theater show on the 26th was the second show of the US tour for me. My friends from Connecticut and I met up with a few aolers before making our way to the Bear Bar a couple blocks from the theater. Here we met up with the usual amdp crowd (Misty, Svante, Ed, Dave, etc) for a couple beers before the show. It was cool to be at a bar and hear Purple blasted over the stereo at full volume!

     My friends and I decided to head into the theater a bit earlier than the others to pick up a couple more shirts and check out or seats. The opening band, Wild T and the Spirit were OK, but their playing seemed really sloppy.

     Purple came on just before 9, opening as usual with Hush. Gillan seemed to be looking at the lyrics quite a bit for this song, something he didn't need to do in Hartford. Set list was the same as Hartford, but tonight Gillan's interaction with the audience made it much better. With the front row being right up against the stage, Ian was shaking hands with people through out the night, accepting hats, etc. The crowd remained standing for the whole show, and gave a great response.

     During the strobe light bit in No One Came, someone from the audience jumped on stage and tried to move around Gillan. It looked wild with the strobe on, Gillan throwing the mic stand around with this guy from the audince jumping around him. At the end of the song Gillan was clearly surprised at all that had happened, and apologized for hitting the guy during all the confusion! Another guy jumped on stage to play congas later in the set!

     After Gillan introduced Smoke as being from Machine Head, Steve played the riff to Lazy for a bit, though he wasn't joined by the others. Speed King was amazing. During the trading solos bit, Steve teased Jon with the riff to Burn. Jon put one hand on his hip while Steve was playing it, as if to say "i'm not going to copy that!" only to play the riff with his other hand! The encore went over very well and the band seemed very happy with the crowd response.

     After the show we hung around outside the theater to get a few more autographs. Roger left after signing a couple (perhaps heading home?) but the others stayed for a while despite it being so cold out. They all seemed very happy. So far, the best show of the tour for me.

Brendan Johnston

[ reviews home ]