Concerto, São Paulo, 9/9/2000
...On September 9 they were also fabulous! I am very happy I have seen at least these two shows, because the differences between them were not that minimal. Watching one without watching the other would have make me happy, of course, but not as pleased as I am now! The set list on september 9 was as follows:
"Concerto, Movement I"
"Concerto, Movement II"
"Concerto, Movement III"
Break
"Pictured Within", with Miller Anderson
"Sitting In A Dream", with Dio
"Love Is All", with Dio
"Dream Fever", with Dio
"Rainbow In The Dark", with Dio
"Wring That Neck"
"FOOLS"!!!!!
"Ted The Mechanic"
"Watching The Sky"
"Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming"
"Pictures Of Home"
"Smoke On The Water"
"Black Night"
As you see, if you have read mine or any other review of September 7, the slight differences between the shows were important. First, they skip the intro, going right to the "Concerto". The band was again fantastic, but it semmed they were not as happy as September 7.
The first solo of Morse in the "First Movement" started in a very different way, and he seemed to be trying to get focused on the music. Of course, this made his solo even more fantastic, because it was very different from the CD. In the middle of the "Second Movement" there was some problem on the stage with two heavy 'ropes' hanging over the sinfonica. One guy from the sinfonica got very upset and started discussing it with someone in the production. But it was short and didn't disturb the show. I think Morse and Lord didn't even see it!
Dio, again, was fantastic. He said that in March he would be back with his own band. He also introduced Deep Purple as his dearest band of all time. Incredible reunion!
This time, Jon Lord introduced "Wring that Neck". He talked about Paice, saying he was very happy to have played with Paice all these years, and so on. Paice, in comparison to September 7, seemed to be not as free. Also, his solo during the "Third Movement" was shorter than September 7. It looked like the whole band was not as happy as usual. But this made the show even more fantastic! Very intimate.
My impression about the band is reinforced by the fact that they played "Fools" instead of "Via Miami" and "That's Why God Is Singing The Blues". I couldn't believe it when they introduced the first chords of the song. Gillan's voice was incredible considering that in the original "Fireball" version he seems to sing in a slightly different way to usual. The solo was very long, amazing also, and it was interesting to see Roger Glover playing the maracas or marimbas (I'm not sure what they're called). I got one nice shot of this moment, and I hope it will be somewhere on this site. "Fools" was played without the sinfonica, but I think in the European tour, when they will be playing with one orchestra for the whole tour, some contribution from them will appear. Paul Mann is a fantastic guy and I'm sure he and Lord will manage to work out something different.
Gillan was also not so talktative as on September 7. I'm not complaining because he was great, as always.
This time they played "Smoke On The Water" without going offstage first. After "Smoke On The Water" they went offstage but the lights didn't go on! So, again, the crowd started screaming "Black Night" ('OoooOOOoooooOO!...OO!') for a while and then they came back! Incredible! Morse started introducing the riff very slowly, following the crowd, then Paice came in and they played "Black Night"! It was again interesting because it seemed that they hadn't rehearsed the song for a while. Morse, Paice and Glover kept looking at each other all time as if to say 'what do we do now?' and it was great! Well, unfortunately, the show ended after "Black Night", but not for me!
I managed to get backstage after the concert. There I talked to Paul Mann (very sympathetic), who told me this part of the tour was very tiring because he had to rehearse with different sinfonicas in every country they were playing. He told me they rehearsed for three days: one with just him and the sinfonica, and two days with the band. He said he was in SP for a week and couldn't experience anything of the city because of the schedule.
I also talked to Roger Glover and Steve Morse, but what could I say to these guys!? Just, "you are fantastic," "the show was fabulous," and so on. Both were friendly. We stayed there waiting for Gillan, Lord, Dio and Paice but they didn't appear. So, after one hour or so, it was over. That's it. It was amazing. Hope I see them again in the next tour!
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