[ d e e p P u r . p l e ) The Highway Star

Perfect wakeup call for boring Hong Kong

At first I felt a little bit sorry for the band, as the audience was not as enthusiastic (well most of them anyway) as they would have been outside of Hong Kong during this most wonderful concert!!!

But then again I have never heard the audience in HK being as loud and into it as last night - this was definitely the most amazed audience I have ever heard for HK standards!!!! I've been to many concerts & shows in HK (as I lived here for 11 years) and usually the crowd just falls asleep when clapping - and most of the time they run out before the encores, as it is easier to catch a cab back home!

But this time... people were not only clapping and shouting but were actually singing!!! GREAT JOB - after 11 years I thought that this would never be possible!!! This actually sounded like an concert - I'll name it the first real concert in HK.

The cold atmosphere mainly comes from all the damn stools they always have to set up, bad venues and unfortunatly mostly mainstream attitude of the people here.

Best intro ever for "Smoke On The Water" - at least here the audience sounded like a real one!!! (sad that HK-people have to sit down right after - it just chilled down the atmosphere again...) The "Highway Star" intro was the best I ever heard!!!

I just loved "Black Night" and "Lazy" (an instrumental with lyrics ;-) ). Would have preferred to have a song as "Fireball" (one of my favourites) as first song of the night instead of "Woman From Tokyo" - but then it's the band who decide and that's what a concert is all about.

Excellent solos from everyone - loved the way Ian and Steve interacted (what a replacement for Ritchie!! - makes you wonder who the original was!!!) Great sounds from Jon; his way of playing puts such a blues into all songs. As drumming is a hobby of me I especially liked what Paice did - wow! Roger was short but full of power (why don't you make a longer solo?)

Everybody seemed so young on stage and they were obviously enjoying themself and their music. That's the best ingredients for a great concert - put in as much talent and style as Deep Purple have and you'll have a night "you will never forget"!

Thanks for reminding me of great music!!!!

As to what they played - everybody forgot about "Strange Kind Of Woman" (loved that one as well).

Here the list:
1. "Woman From Tokyo"
2. "Ted The Mechanic"
3. "Mary Long"
4. "Lazy"
5. "No One Came"
6. "Black Night"
7. "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming"
8. "Perfect Strangers"
9. "Hey Cisco"
10. "Soldier of Fortune" (piano Solo) - "When A Blind Man Cries"
11. "Fools"
12. guitar medley - "Smoke On The Water"
13. "Speed King" - guitar-keyboard - bass solo - drum solo
14. "Hush"

Encore:
14. "Strange Kind Of Woman"
15. "Highway Star"

Greetings

Frederick


[ reviews | the highway star ]