[ d e e p P u r . p l e ) The Highway Star

Deep Purple at the Pavelló de la Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona (Catalonia)
September the 22nd 1998 (22:00 h)

The set
Ted The Mechanic
Strange Kind Of Woman
Bloodsucker
Pictures of Home
Almost Human
Woman From Tokyo
Watching The Sky
Any Fule Kno That
Morse solo (incl. Cascades ending with full band)
Smoke On The Water
Lord solo (incl. Rhapsody in Blue)
Lazy
Perfect Strangers
Speed King (incl. Paice solo and Rave On)
Encores
Seventh Heaven
Highway Star

    Purple's previous visit to the city was with Joe Satriani at the Palau d'Esports (1995): too heavy guitar sound for the acoustics of the room and our ears. This time the sound was better (though S. Morse's sound is very aggressive, too), but the bass was too loud (I mean not only Glover's but also the bass drum, etc.), and that almost ruined my bootleg [Aaaaaawwww... - Ed. ;^) ]. Almost sold out (4.000 people approx).
    The performance was excellent. I heard several bootlegs of the Purpendicular tour and I was afraid of Gillan's voice. No worry. Great singing, good humour among the musicians, more than what the people expected. Lord played a fragment of Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue during his solo (1998 is the composer's centennial). Speed King included a funny battle between Gillan's voice and Morse's guitar. Abandon songs sounded great. Wonderful night.

Ferran Nogués


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