Vienna, Austria 27.10.2000
This could be called the 'highlights tour'.
Starting with Jon's introductions and "Pictured Within", while people were still shuffling to get to their seats, which was quite annoying, tension was building up towards the performance of two heavy rock songs by Dio (somebody should do a thesis on 'the meaning of Rainbow imagery in the works of Ronald James Padavona').
Back to swing with "Wring That Neck" (could have been conceived by Mancini) with no guitar, introduced as a song from the time "when Deep Purple were young and God still a boy".
"Fools" turns out to be a great live number (sooner or later we'll have heard all "Fireball" tracks, thank you), Gillan in fantastic shape for "When A Blind Man Cries", and "Ted The Mechanic" is simply a killer, also in this arrangement.
I liked the "Concerto" but couldn't get used to the orchestra being amplified and having a permanent hiss from the PA system during the quiet parts. Steve still makes his guitar gently weep, amazing, quoting Copeland's "Fanfare" using the volume control.
The audience just remained in their seats until "Smoke On The Water", when everybody ran forward and made it look more a kind of usual rock concert during the encores. "Black Night" saw Ian Gillan directing the crowd from Paul Mann's place. All in all a great evening with three (!) hours of a broad range of music, with no break in between. Thank you.
Setlist:
"Pictured Within" (sung by Miller Anderson)
"Sitting in A Dream" (Dio)
"Love Is All" (Dio)
"Fever Dreams" (Dio)
"Rainbow In The Dark" (Dio)
"Wring That Neck"
"Fools"
"When A Blind Man Cries"
"Ted The Mechanic"
"The Well-Stressed Guitar" (Morse)
"Pictures Of Home"
"Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming"
"Concerto for Group and Orchestra"
"Perfect Strangers"
"Smoke On The Water" (Dio second verse)
"Black Night"
"Highway Star"
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