[% META title = 'Tour Reviews' %]
Masters
Not bad for old guys, Not bad at all.
I have to say right away that as a Russian native currently living in the American Mormonland, who fell in love with DP when the best we could hope for in Moscow was a second-third-fourth-hand black market vinyl, I have a special relationship with the band. I guess I could take pretty much anything from them (well, maybe not JLT). But Thursday's show at the Salt Lake's suburbian E Center was objectively good, or, as Mr. Gillan likes to put it, "Superb!"
Many reviews here praise Ronnie James Dio's 60 minutes of fame, and I'm not here to slam him - his voice actually is quite good. But when, after very loud and not very clean performance of RJD's band, Deep Purple got on stage, it was like, "Step aside, son, nice try, let us show you what the word 'music' actually means."
Gillan is in fine voice, much better than when I saw Purple in Denver in August 1998. Too bad it was a short set in Salt Lake City, sounds like he could do a very good Child In Time (as we all know, not always the case). Glover is as great or greater than always - beautiful solo. Paice, even though he doesn't look pretty and didn't do the one-hand trick, does a great job. Morse is also fantastic, Well-Dressed Guitar is a good piece. Airy is very good - not quite at the level of being brilliant as the rest of the guys, but very good. His sound is more electronic than Lord's, and he obviously lacks Lord's presence on stage. But overall - great show. Those are true masters who really don't try to look pretty with tight black leather and weird-shaped guitars, like Dio or Scorpions. They just make music, and do it effortlessly, with a smile, not taking themselves too seriously. Impressive.
I stayed for Scorps, and they were good like Dio, but not as good as Purple. I humbly believe Dio and Scorpions should play together, and Purple should have their own gig. I know, I know. Wishful thinking. The audience welcomed all three bands warmly (lots of breast-flashing and stage-jumping). I suspect there were many who liked Scorps better than Purple. Let them. Somebody likes Britney Spears, too. I go for the masters.