[% META title = 'Tour Reviews' %]
Explosive Purple
Just got back from Cincy and thought I'd throw my two cents in. This is the second year in a row that I had the privilege to witness Deep Purple In Rock. Dio and Scorpions opened the show and DP closed it. Dio and Scorpions play loud and hard, but if somebody were to make a mistake, that mistake would probably be drowned out by all of the other instruments. Their lead guitars just do rise slightly above the rest of the commotion.
On the other hand, DP with their totally adept musicians play pure and clean. Steve Morse leads the way with flawless guitar mastery. Don Airey plays just as well as any. Although Jon Lord would have to be the sentimental favorite, Don is more than qualified to fill his shoes. Ian Gillan was in fine voice tonight and also remembered all the words. I thought that he sounded real good last year, but I believe he sounded better this time. He just might have been in perfect form. Roger Glover and Ian Paice just do their jobs as well as anyone can. Roger got to sport his bass a little, but we were not treated to a drum solo by Ian.
Dio started the show and his voice sounded very good. Like someone else pointed out in another review, Man On The Silver Mountain is played too fast. I know only a few of his songs, so the time period he is allotted seemed to be enough for me.
Scorpions came up next. They really put on a spirited and energetic show. The lead singer sang quite well, sounded just like he does on the radio staples. They were more entertaining than Dio in that they seemed to enjoy playing better than Dio's group. They finished their set with Rock You Like A Hurricane, which really got the crowd roaring.
Finally, after much anticipation, Purple hit the stage. They surprised me by opening with Fireball, which turned out to be a good opening number. I believe that Woman From Tokyo was next. The crowd got really fired up with this explosive start. At that moment, (only two songs in), I knew that DP was going to give me my money's worth. The boys really mixed it up a bit as I was expecting to hear basically what I heard last year.
One delightful surprise was Knocking At Your Back Door. I've never heard them play it live before. It rocked and so did the house. Speed King certainly got everybody's blood pumping. Steve and Don traded punches with their instruments which sounded great. I was hoping that Ian P would give us a drum solo in there too, but for some reason it didn't happen this night. Purple did not play Fools which is one of my favorite songs, but it probably doesn't connect too well with casual DP fans.
Another surprise is that Steve Morse went right into the SOTW riff to begin that song, instead of the medley of well known guitar licks that he normally starts with. I like it better when he does the medley. Perfect Strangers sounded awesome. They finished up with Hush then Highway Star.
This is the best concert I've been to, the only thing that might have made it better would have been to catch a Steve Morse or Roger Glover guitar pick. I was only about fifteen feet from the stage, but out of range.
Once again, same as last year, I couldn't believe the show was over. It seemed to be over way too fast. Man, I hate to see those guys walk off stage!