Back to

Current reviews
Down Under reviews

Jean-Philippe Grange's photos

State Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
April 26, 2004

Silver Tongue
Woman From Tokyo
I Got Your Number
Strange Kind Of Woman
Bananas
Knocking At Your Back Door
Contact Lost
The Well Dressed Guitar
Perfect Strangers
Highway Star
Lazy
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Space Truckin'
Smoke On The Water

Speed King
Hush
Black Night

I'm trying to choose a single superlative to describe Deep Purple.
Supreme, sublime, special, awesome, inspiring, outstanding, sensational, amazing, perfection - I think I'll settle on superb.
Tonight Deep Purple played their fourth Sydney concert and their final Australian concert on this leg of their Bananas tour.
The venue was the State Theatre in downtown Sydney. The State is one of those 'oldy worldy' theatres, one where you'd expect the wurlitzer organ to pipe in the evening's entertainment. It holds 2,300 and it looked pretty full. Tonight I chose to sit in the front row the mezzanine (in the middle) so that I could for one final time capture the full band and have a balanced sound.
There was no Bananas back drop tonight and the lighting and sound were a little different. It must be a real challenge for the technicians to adapt the equipment to the various concerts halls, stadiums and theatres.
The band were in good form and the Sydney crowd really got into it, thanks to Ian Gillan who stepped off the stage to discuss the intricacies of the sitting arrangements with one of the ushers. The venue has a 'policy' of no dancing in the aisles but with Ian's assistance it was open slather and the audience really got pumping.
I believe that I must tell the truth and say things as they really are. This band is superb.
Graeme Milton

Deep Purple are the Fountain of Youth.
While Ian Gillan And Roger Glover performed with the energy of people half their age, the effect on the audience was more dramatic. The couple seated behind me had to be in their sixties, yet ten minutes into the show they wore the facial expressions of excited 16-year-olds.
For two hours I was in my teens when the most important thing in life was rock music.
The lighting used added greatly to the outstanding performance. It wasn't a "gee whizz" Genesis light show, nor did they have the sheer number of lights Dire Straits would use.They combined simple lighting with the best possible music and performance to produce a very powerful and joyous image. At various times they simply illuminated the audience to reveal more than 2000 people , all having the time of their youth.
John McGee