HoB Jan. 29 30 31
Sorry it took so long to get this up. Being as I tried to get my son to see a real hard rock band at the Concord Pavillion ten years ago when they had Joe Lynn on vocals. That show cancelled. I had tickets back in the 70's for two different tours, both cancelled. We had bad Luck in northern Cal with this band. When we saw the HOB shows on the web I thought no way am I going to spend the time and money to go to la la land to see this club show even though as a hard core fan it sure would be a blast. Well when my kid sezzz him and his buddy are going hell or high water I get sucked in.
We hadn't planned on getting in on Fri. knowing of the private JBL show but planned to spend Thurs. thru Sun. and catch two shows. Well due to some nice old folks, guests of JBL and in no way interested in seeing the band, we managed to get in three straight nights. We had tickets for two so there are in fact rock and roll gods that sometime smile on devoted followers of certain bands. Hallelujah brothers and sisters.
First night we stayed back by the bar and really thought we heard a great set. Songs were popping out of this band like fireworks. Into the Fire, Speed King, NO ONE CAME absolutely KICKED ASS. New songs seemed to get great treatment as well. Steve did beautiful work on Screaming and Ted.
Fri. Night the crowd was lighter and we got about 20 feet from the stage, now we were getting some killer sound. The JBL crowd weren't all that hip to the band but did give them pretty good attention. I only hoped they realized what a rare performance this was. The way Steve seemed to adopt When a Blind Man Cries was probably the first time I understood how much I like the song. I never payed much attention to it before. What impressed me was the way the band could forego all the crowd milking antics you normally see from other so called hard rock outfits. The singalong bit for Smoke lasts all of 5 secs. The strobe light effect for No one Came with big Ian twirling the mike stand was a classic piece of rock showmanship that I used to see at long closed venues like the Fillmore West and Winterland in S.F. years ago. The organ and guitar trades add so much expertise to the performance that it is very difficult to compare this bands show to anyone. The rythm section of the fabulous Roger Glover and Ian Paice is as good as it gets.
The closing show Sat. night was also great, I thought I heard Ian's voice crack a little between songs about half way through the set when he was speaking to the crowd. Gee, could it be that screaming your FOOL HEAD OFF for DAMN NEAR TWO HOURS FOUR STRAIGHT NIGHTS might be a little hard on the throat? I only wish these STUPID ASS radio stations had the good sense to support this band the way they deserve. Oh, I forgot Sheryl Crow and Third Eye Blind are what's really important in this modern world of Rock and Roll. Excuse Me, I am going to PUKE.
THANK YOU DEEP PURPLE. May the band rock for etternity. I THANK YOU. I'm sure the tour if it gets here to northern Califonia will be in a much bigger venue than the great HOB. Let me say here that the staff were the most courteous and helpful folks I've ever seen at a rock show anywhere. Even the security guys did there thing without acting like storm troopers. WE had a blast. I'm not sure it will be quite the same in a stadium, but I'm sure as hell game to try it out. Thanks to the people who take care of this site, I would not have done it without you. Cheers and may they rock you to the bone real soon.
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