It had been raining earlier on the evening but the weather gods proved to be in a good mood( Maybe they are Purple fans too..?). I came just in time to hear the last pathetic notes of Smokie 's "Living next door to Alice", and to hear the crowd sc ream -Alice, Alice, Who the f A4 A4k is Alice? The gig was at a football stadium. Quit e small and not a regular rock concert place, but 3-4000 people had showed up anyway. Purpl e came on at 8 o clock, strolling casually up on stage to the cheers of the crowd and ro ckin 'off with "Fireball". What a START! My stupid grin erupted on my face and stayed th ere for the rest of the evening!
"Fireball" was followed by "Ted, the Mechanic" which proved to be as exce llent live as I had hoped. After that "Pictures of home" which got a surprisingly good we lcome. The Stockholm audience seems to know their Purple well! "Black Night" was up next with a great solopart by Steve. Funny and heavy. No singalong this time, thanks for that! "Cascades" next. I 've been having trouble appretiating this song on the record, but live, it turned out to be a heck of a rocker. Brilliant slow solowork by Steve again. What a man! "SIFLS" with acoustic guitars on stands for Steve and Roger. Also great! If someone in the crowd had been having doupts about Steve before, he rea lly blowed them away with his playing here. He and Roger also worked extra as quireboys. Time for "Woman From Tokyo". The best version of the song I 've ever heard! Steve again contributed to the song with funky riffs to bring it to a even higher level. Another Fir eball track; " No one Came" proved to be the best song of the night. I can 't find word s! Even the next song, old "Smoke" sounded fresh. Jon did his solo mainly based around Smo ke. The riff kept popping up even in the slower more melodic parts. Fun! "When a blind man cries" was a better choice than CIT, but I wasn 't too impressed with the version.
The last song before the encore was an old Italian ballad (standing joke of the evening ..)...IG: - And it goes asomating lika dis... "Speed King" . Steve and Jon did a solo and in the end You could here parts from "Cruise Control" with Dixie Dregs. I wonder if they had rehearsed that... Paicey did a short tounge in cheeke drum solo, and then they got off stage. Back for the encore Jon played a very short taste of "Perfect Strangers". The crowd went, as we say, WILD. The others came along and I've never heard PS be ing played so heavy. " Hey Cisco" with Steve and Rog backing up as quireboys again, was of course as great as anything and when You thought You couldn 't be impressed any mo re, they ended with Highway Star. I was exstatic!
I thought the best show I had ever seen in my life was Purple in Stockhol m a Friday in June 1985. I was wrong. The best show I 've ever seen with any band is P urple in Stockholm a Thursday in June 1996. I knew Steve Morse was a great guitari st and I have been digging him for years in Dregs, Kansas, and on his own, but this is far beyond my wildest dreams. All the other guys were of course better than ever as wel l. A while in to the show, a guy beside me screamed " Ritchie, Ritchie, Who the f**k is Ritchie?" and I almost have to agree with him. All the love to TMIB, but this tops ever ything I have ever seen with him. The weather was Ok, Smokie were lousy, the crowd was happy, the sound was great and the band was the best..
Sorry I can't afford to see them in Timrå, since I was born nearby. I envy all You Guys and Girls who can look forward to a great gig up there.Tell them Hi from me and Mårten.
Cheers,
Jesper Almén
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