Happy Father's Day!!
Just got in about 1/2 hour ago from the Nugent/Purple/Skynyryd show at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel NJ. The ticket was a gift for Father's Day from my wonderful wife and seven year old daughter (Doreen & Megan respectively), thanx alot you two! The show was an all around great night of rock music. Ted Nugent came on just about a hour late, 7pm, and played a pretty good set of tunes, workin' as a three piece unit. Sound mix was a little off as Ted's vocals were overpowered by his guitar but a good opener none the less.
Equipment change went pretty quick as most of Purple's gear was already set up behind Ted's. Considering the majority of concert goers tonite were wearing Skynyrd shirts the band was met with an enthusiastic response opeing with "Woman From Tokyo". Sound mix for DP was perfect, all were coming through great. Ian Gillan's voice was strong and clear all through the show. Second on the set was "Ted The Mechanic" with Steve's guitar sounding great. I would like to have heard more from "Purpendicular"/"Abandon" especially "Any Fule Kno That", which I haven't heard live yet. DP then went into one of my many favorites "Lazy" with Jon doing the usual top notch intro. Next up was a welcome surpise of "Knocking At Your Back Door" which hasn't appeared on any of the USA set lists so far.
The balance of the set included excellent renditions of "Perfect Strangers", "When A Blind Man Cries", "Fools" (another personal favorite) and "Pictures Of Home" concluding with, you guessed it, "Smoke On The Water" with Steve doing his mixed intro of Zep, ZZ and few others much to the crowds delight. Most of the crowd was up on their feet from here on through the two encore's of "Hush" and "Highway Star".
Paice and Roger sounded as good as ever being the best rythym section in the business rounding out flawless a performance by all. My only complaint is the same from most of the reviews to date - the show was too short, but could a real Purple fan ever get enough? I hope to see them headline in the not too distant future perhaps after a new album.
Any Purple fans that left early should have stayed around for Skynyrd. I admit I wouldn't have gone to see them if DP were not there but they did put on really good show playing a pretty much expected set. It was a pleasure seeing Rick Medlock again (I became a fan of Blackfoot when Ken Hensley joined the band).
All in all it was great evening of rock music enjoyed by all in attendance.
[ reviews | the highway star ]