Purple @ Hamburg
I felt a bit sorry for the guys that went to the Schwarzwaldhalle to see purple. It seems like they went to a totally different concert. Their reviews about the show were a bit disappointing to read, but the concert in Hamburg's Sportshalle, in my opinion, was just great. This being my first Purple concert, I wasn't disappointed in the least.
The organisation at the Sportshalle was quite good. Going in or out of the place didn't take more than 10 minutes. The place was sold out and people were still standing outside the hall, trying to buy tickets from you.
Rage, the supporting act, was quite good, though the orchestra that was supposedly accompanying them were reduced to a quartet. The singer couldn't even pronounce the band's name properly (he called themselves Rache), and he kept flapping his hands up and down trying to get the audience in a singing mood: never mind the bass playing! In comparison with other supporting acts I've seen (especially the one Whitesnake had in their farewell tour),however, they were very good.
Purple came on minutes after Rage finished and started off with Hush. They continued (in no particular order), with: Almost Human (Roger & Steve doing b-vocals), Seventh Heaven, Watching the Sky (some song about Roger apparently), Fingers to the Bone, Evil Louie, Bludsucker, Ted, Perfect Strangers, Woman from Tokyo, Pictures of Home, Smoke on the Water, lazy, Strange Kind of Woman and Speed King. The encores were Any Fule Kno That and Highway Star.
There were certain things I liked & disliked from the concert. I agree with some other reviews that the traditional organ and drum solos were too short, but this gave room for a couple of extra songs I thought. There was little communication with the audience, though that could be because of the language barrier.
On the other hand, I was very impressed with the band. Gillan sounded as good as ever, though he has put on a few pounds. He didn't even have a lyric sheet to remind him of the lyrics and only had to be corrected once (by little Ian), when he introduced the next song. Roger was prancing up and down happily. His bass playing, in my opinion, has improved dramatically. Morse was just plain good, though nothing too special either and Jon and little Ian were in good shape.
A couple of events did happen and I think I should mention them. Early on during the show, some IDIOT threw a glass of beer (plastic glass), on to the stage, most of it spilling over Morse's guitar. I thought it would cause a short circuit and Morse was going to get fried, but thankfully nothing happened. Further on, in the middle of a song, another ARSEHOLE, threw another glass. This one (drink in it and all), hit Jon right on his face. By the look on Jon's face, I knew it had to have hurt him. A back stage helper had to take him out back so he could recover.
Roger was the only one in the band who seemed to have realised straight away. He looked like if he wanted to stop playing and go backstage to see how Jon was doing, but decided to carry on playing and go back after they finished the song. The others must have realised that something was wrong since the audience went all quite and everybody was staring blankly at the exit wing which Jon had gone through. Morse entertained us with a solo as Gillan & Glover went to see Jon, but the audience were not interested in it. We were all shouting for Jon, in the hope that he would come out and the show would not be cancelled or the band play without him. Thankfully, he appeared 10 minutes later shaking his fist angrily at whoever threw the glass at him (I actually thought he was going to go into the audience and clobber this guy). We all spontaneously applauded and the band carried on. It was a good thing that Jon came back since the next song on the list was Perfect Strangers.
Anyway, that's about it. In general, it was a good show, though I would have liked to have heard No One Came. Still, they played 7 songs from their new album, which quite impressed me. To tell you the truth I was a bit disappointed with Abandon at first, but now that I heard them live, I hear the album in a totally different perspective and enjoy it a whole more. Regardless of what other people might think, I believe purple have at least 2 more albums in them. The variety of both very young and very old listeners in this show, proves that they are still wanted. I mean HECK! The Rolling Stones are still at it!
Even though only one person was involved, I would like to apologize to Jon on behalf of everyone at the Sportshalle, for that idiot who threw the glass. Hope to see you "Next" Time Around.
[ reviews | the highway star ]