Blossom Music Center 8-21-98
Set list: Ted The Mechanic, Strange Kind Of Woman, Bloodsucker, Pictures Of Home, Almost Human, Woman From Tokyo, Watching The Sky, Any Fule Kno That, Unknown 10 minute Jam, Smoke On The Water, Lazy, Perfect Strangers, Speed King, Peggy Sue, Highway Star
Sound quality: excellent
Overall performance (out of 10): 8
Time: About 1 hour and 45 minutes
Comments: I really wanted to hear "Hush" played live again, and was surprised by the band opening with Ted instead. If they are only going to play one song from "Purpendicular" I would have rather heard "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" instead, but oh well, that's ok, it was still a pretty good show.
There was a much larger crowd than I expected, but it seemed like many of them where I was were just there for the hits, and ignored the jams. They missed the best parts of the show, for jamming is what Deep Purple has been best at for 30 years.
I bootlegged the show and the tape came out great (For personal use only, not for sale). Steve Morse plays like it has been his band all along, right out in front, willing to take on any Blackmore riff and make it his own.
I was not too impressed with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but was nicely surprised when they did a little from "21st Century Schizoid Man" (Yeah, I've been doing this for a long time).
Have seen Purple do better in years gone by, but they are still way ahead of many of the other bands out there.
[ reviews | the highway star ]