Düsseldorf October 9th, 1998
Last friday I drove down from Holland to Düsseldorf, Germany to see Deep Purple before the weekend. Next Monday I will see them after the weekend in Rotterdam, Holland.
In 1992 I saw a concert from Rush in Köln during wich I was not so impressed with the German audience. Very noisy and even a fight a few meters from the stage. After reading the reviews of the concert in Essen: "a very lame audience", I did not know what to expect. What a suprise! A great atmosphere, from the growling Hammond intro till the last tones of Highway star two hours later. The band was really turned on by this, a lot of smiles and interaction between band and audience.
I was standing 10 meters from the stage on the right side, a perfect position for the overall sound. This was my 9th Purple concert, since I saw them for the first time in Belgium in 1984, I have never heard Ian's voice so powerful and so upfront in the mix. Great!
As mentioned before in some of the other reviews the sound mix is not the strongest part of this tour. It started great, not to loud and I could hear everybody. Later during the concert the bass was (sometimes) much to loud and the Hammond too far down in the mix, with the exception of the solos in the last two numbers. And the sound of Ian Paice's toms. Come on sound man, let them sound like proper drums, not like banging on a big metal door! But what a great concert it was. The band is really in top form. They are playing very tight, some numbers are finished in really amazing ways. A great experience, wich turned a big smile on my face ever since. I hope we can create the same atmosphere in Rotterdam on Monday.
[ reviews | the highway star ]