Around the world with Deep Purple
Vol. II part 2
Tuesday, August 18, Molson Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Pre-Show
The venue: Molson Centre is a new hockey stadium for Montreal Canadians which also from time to time is converted into arena for musical acts. The place is notable for two things: really good sound for an arena of such capacity (seats approx. 20,000 for hockey games) and next to total lack of security at the entrance (hint! hint!)
At around 5pm we occupied a table at the bar accross the street where the waitress was quite impressed with a dozen of guys all spotting different flavours of DP t-shirts. As Montreal is only 2 hour drive from Ottawa, there was quite a crowd coming: I personally knew more than 20 people coming for this gig. Speak about Purple crusade!
The show
Scheduled for 7:30, Dream Theater started at 7:22 and when I entered the hall, the lights were already off. It happened that the block of seats Jim booked for us were far from being excellent (Jim, I know it's not your fault!) - far left section in 100 range, last row. A friend of mine booked his ticket 3 days before the show and he got a seat right on the floor (I joined him down there later on).
DT played the same set as the day before and with the same enthusiasm. They were very well received and during the break I overheard a few conversations inbetween seasoned rockers that went like 'What's this band name? I gotta check it out'.
I spend most of the ELP set in the bar as the day before in QC I draw a conclusion they'd do much better swapping with DT to open the set. Palmer's drum solo was good though absolutely the same as the night before.
Break, soundcheck, lights go off and here comes the tastiest part of the night. Deep Purple complete with Ian screaming, Paicey swinging, Roger nailing, Jon shining and Steve putting licks ot top of this. Nice addition to the previous night was thematic backdrop with collage of hi-rise buildings much in the same spirit as the new album cover. Needless to say, when the band is in top notch form, no one can compete with them. My only two concerns are that Jon's Hammond was low in the mix (I mentioned the same problem in Europe) and Steve is overdoing his parts. Mind you, he wasn't anything to complain about, but there were times when a simple riff would (IMvHO) fit better than a Malmsteenesque run through the guitar neck. The same is with Jon - I could hear his parts perfectly well, but the others were just blasting and Hammond sound appeared to make a mellow background for the blast. Speaking about highlights, it's definitely PoH, Steve's solo/Cascades and PS. Basically, all the back catalogue was done very well and was extremely well received (the crowd was much more enthusiastic than the night before in QC). Watching the Sky also seemed to get it's moment with the audience.
After the encore, security loosened up a bit and let people come right to the stage where I brushed hands with Roger and Big Ian.
Post show
Most of our gang promptly left for Ottawa, while we diehards went on to seek the back exit and wait for the band there. I definitely hate these huge arenas as it is there where you are distanced from the musicians all the night, even after the show. Naturally, Molson Centre is no different and has a private indoor parking where the band boarded their tour bus and off they were. We only managed to wave our hands through tinted bus windows. Rog and Steve waved back but that was about it, the bus didn't stop.
Next morning there was a very positive review in the Montreal Gazette, local anglophone daily, complete with nice picture of Big Ian with Steve on stage. The article also mentioned 5,500 people at the Molson Centre that night which I highly doubt. It looked much more like 7-8,000 at least.
..to be continued...
[ reviews | the highway star ]