Concerto For Group And Orchestra - São Paulo - Sept 07, 2000
Hi guys, here goes my review of the show:
The act started at 09:40 PM (it was estimated to start at 09:30 PM) and the Brazilian Jazz Sinfonica started with a piece from Dvorak, very beautiful and impressive. It lasted 10 minutes but it felt like years because of the expectation shown by most of 3,000 people at the Via Funchal venue.
When Deep Purple came on stage the roar of the crowd was astonishing. They were very sympathetic, waving hands and smiling at everyone around. When the very first chords from the "Concerto" were heard it was like being sent back to 1969 and it was noticed that something was about to happen. The "First Movement" was played with energy and Steve Morse soloed with inspiration and the band played wonderfully. After the very last chords the audience burst into applause and the "Second Movement" started. Gillan sang his part nicely. The band and the orchestra were both superb. Then the "Third Movement" came and, again, it was very well played with an astonishing drum solo from Mr. Ian Paice. This was the end of the first part of the show.
After a 10 minute break the orchestra and Deep Purple came back on stage and Mr. Jon Lord started introducing the second part as a trip through time and music. Mr. Jon Lord introduced "Pictured Within" saying that the song is about him, his father and everybody at the concert. It was a very touching moment. After this they called Mr. Ronnie James Dio who announced the tunes from the "Butterfly Ball", and also introduced Roger Glover to great response. They played "Sitting In A Dream" and "Love Is All" and it was as if we were at a party, everybody clapping hands. But the best was about to come: Dio and Deep Purple played a song from Dio's latest album, "Magica" and it was surprising to see how Deep Purple can sound 'heavy metal' when they want!!! After this tune we were expecting no more songs, but another surprise: Dio and Deep Purple played "Rainbow In The Dark" and the people at the show went crazy!!! Dio was very charismatic during his performance and everybody sang together with him. But, my goodness, Deep Purple playing Dio's songs was supernatural!!! Wonderful!!! Astonishing!!! And exciting!!!!
Then came the time to see Ian Paice's performance in "Wring That Neck", introduced by Steve Morse. Ian Paice was just fantastic roughing his drum set with only one hand!!!!! His left hand played while he put his right hand on his head and pretended he was resting!!!! The audience burst into applause again! After this Ian Gillan came over to sing his songs and he is something!!! He sang "Via Miami" with 'help' from 5 backing vocalists and this made this tune very special. After that he sang "That's Why God Is Singing The Blues" and again everybody started clapping, hands following the rhythm. Wonderful!
Deep Purple's set began and Gillan introduced "Ted The Mechanic" ... another wonderful solo from Steve Morse... then "Watching The Sky" with Gillan in a very inspired performance. Then they played a song that became another Brazilian Deep Purple hymn: "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" and the band was great!!! Then they played "Pictures Of Home" with a lot of energy and the band played very well (as usual!!). The end of the act was coming close and they started to play "Smoke On The Water" and everybody started jumping and singing all the lyrics together with Ian Gillan and Ronnie James Dio. The show ended here and the audience started singing "Black Night" hoping that Deep Purple would come on stage again and play it, just as in their shows in 1999. But this didn't happen!
The last show had some differences: They did not play the Dvorak piece, Gillan did not sing his 'solo' songs, they played "Fools" during their performance, and when the audience stared singing "oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh!!" they came back and encored "Black Night". Fantastic! Superb! Absolutely wonderful!
This was the best show I've ever seen!! God save Deep Purple and their friends!!
Best regards,
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