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Reviews, Europe 2003

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Arena, Nürnberg, Germany
November 8, 2003

"Wow! Okay, to take it ahead: This was the best gig I've ever seen!
Okay, hold on...there was of course the mindblowing Blackmore´s Night gig this year, but that was only because he played songs he almost never played. Also there was that fantastic Whitesnake gig, but it would have been better with Coverdale alone. Maybe I should say it was the best big rock gig, because I´ve seen club gigs by fantastic R´n´B Bands that could easily be better but... Maybe the best Purple gig? Hard to tell as Regensburg ´99 was an unforgettable experience for me (not only because it was my only chance to see the Lord of the Hammond live in concert). So maybe this was the second best or a close rank 1 b)... Why am I so praising? Well because everything was right and in place about it.
Okay from the start again...
We arrived punctually (it wasn´t as stressful as we thought as we drove with a friend´s father who was going to see the gig as well) and even managed to reach the second row by a little cheating. Ah, always this waiting within freaking people. Your mouth is dry and your back begins to hurt. Molly Hatchet...I won´t waste my words on them. Maybe later but writing about them would be waste of space here, in my opinion.
Fantastic to see Deep Purple hit the stage with Highway Star going almost as straight into Strange Kind Of Woman as back in the 80s with only a very small announcement.
Silver Tongue is a brilliant live song and the extended ending fitted quite good to it. Knocking At Your Backdoor was a real treat once again. House Of Pain was started by IG on the harp with the intro of the Purpendicular Waltz before Paicy started hitting the cowbell. Very, very good live song as well. Great to see that everyone in the front rows knew the lyrics and so we all sang along "Back to the house of pain". Brilliant!
Lazy had an awesome intro by our dear Don who seemed to have a better night than ever before! But of course with only 5-6 minutes it´s far to short these days, for me. Bananas was announced by Gillan as "a little quiz, see if you get it right" which was followed by his description of the weird EU paramenters for bananas import.
During the - truly smoking! - solos of Bananas IG went back to get himself a folder which he laid on the drum riser to which he was standing next. "What´s that," I thought, "learning the lyrics for new songs while playing the percussion?"
I should be proved to be right. Contact Lost followed with an intersting bridge following which wasn´t the filled with the usual Morse standards all the time (they were present of course, but there was more). I prepared to hear Haunted but I was surprised as Morse´s soloing got faster, harder and more intensive which wouldn´t fit if the intro to Haunted would follow. And it truly was something new, it was the live premiere of Doing It Tonight, which is a very entertaing live song that sends good vibes to the crowd. IG sang the bridge very well and even without taking a breath he managed to get properly into the third verse. At the point where it usually fades out in the studio it went on, then came a break and they ended it with the last few bars of Picture Of Innocence.
Space Truckin´live was brilliant again, although I don´t like it when it ends at a point it doesn´t have to end for what I feel, if you get my point.
I Got Your Number is just designed for stage in my opinion. I like the studio version but live the song can really breath and has life in it. The bridge section send shivers down my spine. The Well Dressed Guitar had a very intersting beginning - hadn´t thought this song can still develop - and this was actually the first time I really enjoyed this classical influenced widdling.
Perfect Strangers was unusal well received by the crowd(yes, you read right "unusal well" means "even better than usual"). Shame they don´t use green lights anymore. But still it looked good with the mirorr ball in the backround.
Straight into Smoke On The Water this was performed very good and I´ve enjoyed it even more than before, no matter how often I get to hear it, this time it was really VERY good and we sang along so loudly Gillan almost feel on the floor.
Hush was also nice with a short - too short but I was told it must´ve been longer than on the other dates - drum solo (I´m sure he´d gone on if Morse wouldn´t have started to play on) which was very good again. Quite a good bass solo and a short rendition of Hit The Road Jack(which was barly recognizable as only the Lyrics were there but the rest was very different) lead us into Black Night were we had a lot of fun with Morse again.
The end of an evening of sheer brilliance. What can I say? The best show in years and possibly even the best out of my four(definitly better than Heidenheim last year and easily better than Nürnberg two years ago). The setlist was the best since long and the light show(despite on Perfect Strangers) was the best I´ve ever seen(with Purple). Loved the suns in the backround during Silver Tongue.
Barefoot Gillan was in better shape than on any of my previous Purple gigs. He joked around but it didn´t seem childish and most of the time he acted just like in the seventies with not to much extras. He really seemed to have fun, remebered ALL the lyrics, coughed rarely and screamed only if necessary but then it was good. He was VERY professional and still some spontanous things happened like that he sit down stage as he announced Contact Lost.
Roger Glover seemed to have more fun this time. He smiled a lot and even looked much more at the people in the crowd and also stayed for autographs. Much better than in Heidenheim were he never opened his eyes while he was playing and left the stage early. I realized I´ve never seen him as good and his playing was outstanding as well(and in the mix almost as loud as the guitar!).
Steve Morse had a lot of fun again, didn´t smile all the time but in between there was quite a grin now and then, but that was always when he wasn´t playing.
Ian Paice is a monster! I´ve invited a friend to the gig who is a huge Ian Paice fan and he was very impressed by his stage presence and playing. Same for me again of course.
Don Airey was better than the shows before. This time he REALLY smoked and did some spontanous things as well as jumping from piano to organ and even rocking it a little. Ian Paice came back on stage with an open mouth and cheering quite a lot. Also he was much better in the mix than on Bananas on the shows I´ve seen before. During the encores we wore a funny head an even looked a bit drunk.
So overall the sound was quite good then. Light as well, setlist was perfect and everyone in the band was in better shape than on all the previous gigs I´ve seen before.
The people in the crowd weren´t some of the best I´ve celebrated my music with(some of them even seemed to be very under the standards of people who are allowed to see the light of day!)and during the encores too many drunken ones joined us. But the cheering was more intensive and Gillan seemed to be seriously impressed by a wonderful audience.
So, was this really the best gig i´ve ever seen you ask?
Well, as I´ve said I have seen a lot good gigs. This time I went with not much expectations and got more than a satisfiying gig. It was impressive, full of tension and momentum, most of them had their best night, I felt good there as well, possibly this is going to be my favourite gig to lock back at and it´s definitly the best gig I´ve witnessed(not only myself but also from all I´ve heard and seen before) by purple in the new century and millenium!"
Regards,
Milan Fahrnholz