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USA 2002 reviews
Part 2
Part 1

Impeccably funky

After excellent perfomances by Dio and the Scorpions, Deep Purple had quite a lot to live up to. In addition, without Jon Lord (or Ritchie Blackmore), the group had even more to prove, if that is possible.

Well, let me tell you - they were fantastic! I was very, very impressed - Don Airey (formerly of Rainbow, among many others) did a very nice job filling Lord's immense shoes and, as we already know, Steve Morse is a monster on guitar (the new number Well-Dressed Guitar demonstrated this aptly).

They started with Fireball and ended with Highway Star. In between were Ted The Mechanic, Perfect Strangers, Knocking At Your Back Door, Lazy, Woman From Tokyo, Smoke On The Water, Speed King [with a little bit of Bloodsucker thrown in for good measure], and even a rousing version of Hush.

Being such a huge Blackmore fan, I never thought I'd say this... but the band is tighter than ever. Seems as if Ritchie was getting a little lazy (no pun intended) in sticking with the original arrangements, which seemed to water things down a bit sometimes. Also, it should be noted that the band was very heavy and funky, too - many a foot was tapping throughout the venue. I'd say 3000-5000 people were there: huge and very positive response from the audience.

In short, sensational... or, as Ian Gillan kept telling the audience, impeccable.

Vince Palamara

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