Next time bring King Crimson
I was a little let down by the show in Clarkston on June 28th. Not by the band, but by other circumstances. My fiancée and I were forced to close on two real estate deals that afternoon which put us on the road much later than we'd have liked. The stress of some related matters had us dragged out physically and emotionally, but I'd been looking forward to this concert for a long time and was determined not to miss it. What should have been a two hour drive from Kalamazoo took over four hours. You can probably imagine what was brewing up in my chest - if we miss Deep Purple I am gonna be soooo pissed!!!
DTE Music Theater (formerly Pine Knob) has horrible parking facilities and this night things were extremely slow and disorderly. I could hear Purple on stage when we pulled in, just kicking into "Lazy". By the time we got into the theater and found a spot on the hill they'd begun "Perfect Strangers". I'm not sure how many songs we missed or how long it took but it seemed like an eternity.
"When A Blind Man Cries" was very moving. Ian Gillan sounded and looked great. Another neat moment was during "Speed King", I think, amidst the improvised part when Ian Gillan acted out a scene involving his woman giving him hell for partying too much. It reminded me a little of "No Laughing In Heaven" from his solo days. He has got the greatest voice for that kind of stuff... The rest of the guys are amazing too but IG was the star this night.
The show wrapped up with "Highway Star". I loved what I saw and I hope next time around these guys will be headlining a better package. The Skynyrd thing just didn't feel right to me. Purple were much better paired with ELP and Dream Theater a couple years back. I'm sure we all have our 'wish list' of double bills but my vote goes to Deep Purple/King Crimson. That would really be something...
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