Review: Triport Rock Festival, Songdo, Inchon, Korea, 31 July 99

This was the first world rock festival held in South Korea and many rock fans in this country had anticipated for it. But unfortunately, we had a lot of rain and storm at the first day and many teams could not begin theire show. (All the schedue of second day was cancelled for this violent weather.) In spite of this, almost ten thousand kid was standing still until the end of show. Purple was the headliner of that day and this was the second concert held in Korea. (the first one had held in March, 1996) The majority of crowd was teenage and I wondered these kids who love RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, MAD CAPSULE MARKETS and PRODIGY could enjoy the Purples' tunes. But I was totally wrong. The youth went wild! Purple was surprised and felt happy for these crowd who waited for them for 12 hours in the heavy rain. The show was fantastic itself. The danger of elelectrical damage could not be the obstacle for the show and the gap of 30 years between Purple and kids was also absolutely no problem.
Most of all, Steve was the wildest at that time. As a sincere fan of Steve, I could never ever have seen Steve to be such a hard rocking man. He played a real great guitar solo and all the people was surprised by it! All the critics and broadcasts praised Purple for their enthusiastic show. This is no exaggeration and it is true to itself. It must be the greatest rock concert ever held in this country.

The set-list
Prelude - BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN: I could not belive my ears. Gillan was short-haired but still good.

1. PICTURES OF HOME: similar version to Olympia 96 CD. Gillan screamed and Roger played nice bass licks. Another bass solo at the end of song.

2. TED THE MECHANIC: the kids loved it. Real nice groove.

3. STRANGE KIND OF WOMAN: the greatest shuffle tune. It remained the same.

4. WOMAN FROM TOKYO: no light show...but so what!

5. SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE SCREAMING: when Steve played the main theme of this song, the rain poured. I will never, never forget this scene in my life. Steve and Roger sang the backing vocals.

6. SPACE TRUCKIN': like thunder and lightning, it was awesome. When Ian hit the symbal, the water exploded!

7. LAZY: the band and crowd were dancing together.

8. GUITAR SOLO - AMAZING GRACE: it was an incredible sound. Steve played this with the volume technique. Also with pouring rain... Can you imagine this spectacular scene ?

9. BACK IN BLACK - VOODOO CHILD followed by SMOKE ON THE WATER: Oh my God...

10. SPEED KING: it was really heavy but at the guitar-organ interplay section there seemed to be something missing among Steve, Jon and Roger. Gillan immediately sang a Elvis tune. Yes, they are veterans.

Encore - HIGHWAY STAR
The announcer remarked the end of show. But the kids were screaming the words "Deep Purple". Then Gillan stole the mike from the announcer and played this song. The band and kids were totally gone mad.

From Seoul, Korea
Dae-Won "Stay Heavy" Lee

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