Deep Purple at the Coliseu, Porto, Portugal, 27.07.1999 - A show with "Oporto overtones"

And it was bandana time again! Purple playing Porto for the first time (only Ian Gillan has been here before, playing at the Pavilhão do Académico in 1979 and Pavilhão Infante de Sagres in 1982). An amazing crowd at the Coliseu which is normally a cinema, but for the concert the chairs were removed from the parquet section. The audience had their arms up in the air from the very beginning, when the Portuguese opening act Tarântula started to play, until the DP encores more than two and a half hours later. Quite a stamina! Tarântula went on for 35 minutes and among their own eighties-style hardrock songs was a version of "All Right Now".
    When Purple came on the place went even more nuts. They did exactly the same set as in St. Pölten (see my report), just with small changes in the solo spots. Steve's intro to "Smoke" included bits of "Back In Black", "Stairway to Heaven", "Purple Haze" and "Sweet Home Alabama" with a little help from Roger and Ian. "69" included some "The Mule" variations as well as "Paint It Black". Good light effects during the Paice (yes, the one-handed roll again) and Lord ("Für Elise") solos. "Perfect Strangers" wasn't that good tonight, I missed the staccato bit on the keyboards which was done a bit sloppily by Steve. The sound got a bit messy during this song and also the riffy new songs didn't work as good, but this was probably more of an acoustics problem. Gillan which showed his knees during "Lazy" ("You straw no clutch") found a "real good vibe" in Porto (in the news, of course, DP were compared to good portwine) and even half an hour after the show people were singing "Black Night" on the street. The two encores were superb. "Obrigado!"
    The day after Portuguese TV (RTP) aired about two minutes of footage during the news, with Purple playing "Pictures of Home" and short interviews with Steve and Roger. The Saturday before the music programme "TOP+" showed a video of "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming". That's really a lot more than I'm used to! See you all next tour...

Igor Metzeltin (the Cunning Linguist)

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