Vienna 27th Oct - Concert review
It's hard for me to tell in english what this evening means for me. Felt like it was christmas and birthday in one day. As I couldn't see them with the London Symphony Orchestra at the RAH, I was very pleased that DP repeated the event in Vienna, but couldn't figure out exactly what was in store. Some days before the concert I read about Hamburg and could see that Ronnie James Dio is special guest on this tour.
It started with Jon Lord's "Pictured Within" (Miller Anderson on vocals - which I didn't expect). Unfortunately some DP fans behind me didn't understand what's going on (as they seemed to expect the common DP songs) so they made a lot of noise, so I didn't really hear this beautiful song very well.
Jon introduced the first songs (which was unusual for me) and then I could see live the next sensation for me. Some of Roger's "Butterfly Ball" songs with the original singer Ronnie ("Sitting In A Dream", "Love Is All") were played. I had to drop some tears. Then two Dio songs followed before Ian Paice played a very well arranged "Wring That Neck" (in big band style). Especially Ian - I think - had a great evening as he played his drums like I never heard before live.
Next song "Fools" I never heard live before. Great song. But don't let me forget to tell you about the Romanian Orchestra, which accompanied everything very well, especially "When A Blind Man Cries". The same goes for "Ted The Mechanic", "Pictures Of Home" and "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" (and one song I don't remember), before Jon Lord's big hour started.
The whole "Concerto" was played, which was (for me) the biggest concerto I ever saw. I know it very well, but I never in my life expected to hear it live. Congratulations Jon (thank you so much for this). Even my wife (which really isn't a DP fan) had to cry and she liked the whole event very much.
Not giving us a short break they went on (in the common DP fashion) with "Perfect Strangers", then "Smoke On The Water" (with an great introduction of Steve) and (as I remember) with "Highway Star" and (?) as encores.
Three hours with superbly arranged and performed DP songs which felt like a look back at the last 30 years of Deep Purple (sometimes I felt like being on another star), which was and will forever be the best band (and one of the most interesting classical composer, Jon) for me. We all can't give that back - thanks so much for that.
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