Back to...
German reviews 2002
 

So many smiling faces

The Brenzpark was filled with nearly 7000 friendly people when I was looking for a good place in front of the stage for me and my 16-year-old son.

The rain stopped just before magician Ronnie James Dio hit the stage and his set was very good incl. three songs from the new Album Killing The Dragon and good old stuff from the Sabbath and Rainbow days along with classics like Holy Diver and Fever Dreams. The only encore was the well known Rainbow In The Dark. Ronnie was good in voice and his band well done with old Rainbow friend Jimmy Bain who did a good job playing the bassline for Heaven And Hell.

01. Killing The Dragon
02. Egypt - The Chains Are On
03. Children Of The Sea
04. Stand Up And Shout
05. Push
06. Rock'n'Roll
07. Magica
08. Fever Dreams
09. Man On The Silver Mountain
10. Long Live Rock'n'Roll - Man On The Silver Mountain
11. Holy Diver
12. Heaven And Hell
13. Mob Rules

14. Rainbow In The Dark

It was 10pm when a stormy intro for Fireball brought our Heroes Deep Purple on stage and they sounded very good; Ian 'barefoot' Gillan's voice was very clear and determined; Woman From Tokyo and Mary Long (a real surprise) were next. Steve Morse smiles all the times and did a great job especially in The Well Dressed Guitar.

Don Airey played a fine intro for Lazy and put a little piece of the German national anthem in his solo along with a little Star Wars theme and Toccata. Ian Gillan said: "Thank you, Don!" for his brilliant solo during When A Blind Man Cries.

A welcome surprise for me was Knocking At Your Back Door with Roger's fine bassline. Roger 'the pirat' is my favourite member of the band and I was very happy when he played his amazing solo in Speeeed King.

I don´t know why they dropped Space Truckin' from the set - but it doesn´t matter; the lightshow was great during the fantastic: "battadomm, battadom, battadom, battadomm". Drum machine little Ian Paice works hard behind his set - his solo was absolutely great, highpointed with a highspeed one-handed drum roll.

Ian Gillan said: "Steve will play a Scottish tune" and Steve did it very well and funny and lead the band into the last number Smoke On The Water while Ian let the audience repeat the chorus about eight times! "I thaaaaaaaank you! You´re superb!"

The encore started with Hush. Black Night followed with a very long and interesting intro. The last tune was Highway Star, of course with a fine duet by Ian and Steve during the the brilliantly played guitar solo!

"Eaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooouuuuwww! Good night!"

01. Fireball
02. Woman From Tokyo
03. Mary Long
04. Ted The Mechanic
05. Lazy
06. When A Blind Man Cries
07. Knocking At Your Back Door
08. Perfect Strangers
09. The Well Dressed Guitar
10. Speed King
11. Smoke On The Water

12. Hush
13. Black Night
14. Highway Star

This was the stuff that kept me alive for 30 years listening to Deep Purple. The show was great and nearly 100 min. long. On our way back to the car we saw so many smiling faces.

"I know, I know, we´ll never forget..."

Harald Miller

Back to reviews