ROGER CAN SING!!!
We went to Halle yesterday night to see DP in an open air venue called Peissnitz-Insel. They had a local support act, Rocket Drivers, who did kind of mainstream heavy stuff and after that came aprilDAZE, a young interesting German outfit in the R.E.M. way of sound.
DP hit the stage around 9 p.m. for exactly 90 minutes, plus approximately 20 minutes of encores. From the very beginning they had good sound although we might have loved it to be louder than that and the organ definitely could have been more up front. The setlist seems to remain unchanged:
Woman From Tokyo
Ted The Mechanic
Mary Long
Lazy
No One Came
Fools
Well Dressed Guitar
Perfect Strangers
When A Blind Man Cries
Smoke On The Water
Speed King
Encores:
Black Night
Hush
Highway Star
First of all: Don is the best (hopefully temporary!) replacement for Jon. He's got a hard job and I guess he fits in well and is treated as a full member of the band. But Jon is Jon, you can hear it in the different sound and style delivered now... Ian was in a perfect mood and of course all the others were smiling all the way.
I loved the version of "Mary Long", never heard it live before. "Lazy" was delivered in all its glory and of course I appreciated hearing fine versions of "No One Came" and "Fools". What a gem!
The keyboard intro to "Perfect Strangers" was a little bit boring, maybe it is hard to top right after the guitar instrumental, or maybe because it was a potpouri much in the way JL did in the 80s to introduce "Knocking At Your Backdoor"...
Most stunning was the version of "Speed King", including the most extended bass solo I ever heard from Roger and a fine and tricky drum solo by the never-ever-disappointing Ian. There was a duel between IG and SM which included some (seemingly) improvised lyrics which reminded me of the way Zappa did it in the early 70s. It was great! They also included some rock'n'roll standards and this part of the show took me by surprise: Not only did IG, RG and SM sing together, no, for a verse or two Rog sang alone and I can tell you, it was a gas! Thanx Rog!!!
I am dying to get to the next show tonight in Nuremberg.
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