I just love these guys!
A great show! I arrived in time to check out Ted Nugent, who in spite of his talent, seems to supersede his musicianship with his "over the top arrogance." The muddy sound made every song sound like "Catch Scratch Fever" (but then again, maybe it wasn't the sound). Go, TED!
Then followed my classic metal heroes Deep Purple! I just loved these guys. "Woman From Tokyo" to me was saying "DEEP PURPLE IS IN THE HOUSE!" I had never heard "Ted The Mechanic" before, but from what they did with it, I've got to say that it rocked really hard (SOLD!). "Lazy"... well, it was "Lazy"... Nice blues jamming with a lick so classic and memorable that it helps define rock'n'roll in the same intangible musical mojo that James Brown, Chuck Berry, and (dare I say?... dare... dare!)... Elvis did.
"Knocking At Your Back Door" was a pleasant surprise, as the "un-Purple" crowd seemed to be really into this one. "Pictures Of Home"... for the fans and thank you very much, guys!! The adrenaline was flying for me at this point and Roger's bass solo at the end was GREAT! "Fools" was a nice touch, since this year is the 30th anniversary of the "Fireball" album. Ian's vocals shot through on this one really well. "Perfect Strangers" kicked ass, even though I noticed the missing "Echo of your past" line... oooops, Ian... I guess "Your tears are lost in foreign rain" will do just fine. [Indeed, "falling rain" will do even better. ;^) Rasmus] Nonetheless... all good. "When A Blind Man Cries" was the 'See, Ian can sing the blues' tune. Also very nice. Then the "cheesy rock licks into-hey this is one of those licks too" - "Smoke On The Water." At this point the crowd was going crazy and loving it all. For me, "Smoke" has about as much excitement as "Stairway" does. I guess it had to be done.
The encore was great too. "Hush" was great as Jon Lord proved that age has nothing to do with how fast one's hands and fingers can move on the organ. Then they ended with "Highway Star," which was cool (thank you Steve for respecting Ritchie's solo).
I've got to hand it to Lynyrd Skynyrd: they threw a great show also. They've got it together and many thanks to the management for putting Deep Purple on the ticket!
As a DP fan I enjoyed the show a lot. I hope Deep Purple comes around as a headliner soon with a longer setlist. As for those of you who have commented on Ritchie Blackmore being missing, saying that "Steve Morse is no Ritchie Blackmore..." Well, you know what? He isn't... that's probably why Deep Purple still exists!
DEEP PURPLE ROCKS AND PLEASE COME BACK TO AMERICA!!!!
A fan for life,
[ reviews | the highway star ]