Review of Deep Purple @ HOB-Chicago, December 16th
Dateline: House of Blues - Chicago
December 16th
This is Tim Phillis reporting from the House of Blues Chicago where Deep Purple just finished an absolutely MONSTER set. The band played for about 2 - ½ hours of great music; everything was fair game from "Hush" and "Black Knight" through "Ted the Mechanic" and one killer new track "Seventh Heaven". A complete set list is attached at the end of this report.
This was my first Purple concert experience and there is no way to describe the experience. My wife and I are huge music fans and as a music fan, there is no other venue that will due other than the House of Blues. It was like a high school gym with us standing about 75 ft. from the band. We were there earlier enough we could have gotten down to the very front of the stage; however, with this being our first Purple experience, I wanted to see and hear everything. There was probably 1500 people total for the show so the entire show had a very intimate feel to it.
Deep Purple was in exceptional form and the entire band seemed to have a good time. There were lots of smiles and laughs exchanged on stage that I understand was not the case with Ritchie. Ian Gillian sound fantastic and he and Steve Morse performed well together. Steve is an excellent guitar player and his style fits well into the Purple scheme. Roger Glover and Ian Paice kept up a thunderous, rhythmic beat that had the entire crowd in a frenzy. Above it all, John Lord sat in the middle of the stage supervising the entire organized mayhem. All in all, the show was fabulous, the band was great and we saw them at the greatest stage on earth.
The following is the song list. The mix of songs was dynamite including everything from "In Rock" to "Purpendicular" and they included one new song from the upcoming studio release:
Main Show:
Hush
Fireball
Into the Fire
Ted, the Mechanic
Pictures of Home
Black Knight
Bloodsucker
Rosa’s Cantina
Woman from Tokyo
Seventh Heaven (New Song, FABULOUS)
No One Came
Smoke on the Water
When a Blind Man Cries
Speed King
Encore:
Perfect Strangers
Highway Star
The other part of the show that solidified the experience was talking with the other fans. We stood next to a guy who saw Deep Purple for the first time in 1970, the year I was born. We stood in line with a couple of guys who drove from Minneapolis (approx. 7 hours) to see this show. These are other stories that we traded while waiting in line or waiting for the show to start added so much to the experience. I can’t wait to go see them again.
They are the Greatest Rock Band in the World.
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