Can't wait to see them again. And again. And again...
The group came on about 9:40. The building was small, around 2000 - 3000 people. It was almost or was a sellout. Gillan came out pointing to his gray hair and smiling. He was wearing red leather pants and a Hawaiian shirt. The rest were dressed as usual.
1. "Woman From Tokyo" - good opening song. Crowd was going crazy.
2. "Ted The Mechanic" - another standard. Done well as usual. Gillan explains who the people are that the next song is about.
3. "Mary Long" - Never heard it live before. It was good, but nothing great.
4. "Lazy" - Lord opens with a nice short solo. Song was tight and well done.
5. "No One Came" - A surprise. It was sharp and tight.
6. "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" - One of my favorites. Just a great song.
7. "Fools" - Another surprise. It was well done, just not one of my favorite
Purple songs. Then a nice keyboard solo and then into...
8. "Perfect Strangers" - Great song, well done, good light show with it.
9. "Hey Cisco" - Very fast. Well done.
10. "When A Blind Man Cries" - Excellent job. Gillan sounded great.
Steve's guitar solo - Playing with various songs of other groups before finally
settling on...
11. "Smoke On The Water" - Huge crowd pop. Well done.
12. "Speed King" - Great duel between Lord and Morse. Best Paice drum solo I
have heard in years. Fantastic job by all. High energy all the way through.
Encore: Gillan changed clothes.
13. "Hush" - Great job. Again not one of my favorite songs.
14. "Highway Star" - Awesome. Morse just continues to show everyone how good he
really is. Gillan got ahead of himself at the end, caught himself, and got
back on track.
All in all the show was outstanding and I can't wait to see them again. The show ended at 11:40. About a 2 hour set. My 15 year old son was at his first rock concert and was jumping and singing the whole time. He loved the whole show. My wife has never liked purple, but she went to humor me, and all she could say after "Speed King" was "WOW." She is amazed at Steve Morse, Ian Gillan, and Jon Lord. She said she really enjoyed the show. I have been a Purple fan for 30 years. I haven't seen then since '85. I can't wait to see them again. And again. And again. We drove almost 300 miles one way for the show. It was well worth it.
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