Newsgroups: alt.music.deep-purple
Subject: Pittsburgh, 12/6
From: Yuri Michael Greenfield 
Date: Sat,  7 Dec 1996 12:18:25 -0500

First of all, I wasn't gonna buy a _|_ shirt for $30, you must have been fantacizing Trond! The opening band, "Wild T smth" was fairly technical but forgettable. Their leader, some Jamaican guy who looked a good deal like Bob Marley, was trying to pull a Jimi Hendrix and failing miserably. His guitar playing was mediocre (unlike Hendrix's great) and his singing was bad (unlike Hendrix's mediocre). They covered "there must be some way outta here," I am not sure about the exact title of that song.

Anyways, on to Purple. They opened with Hush as expected, and I was really happy to see them. Gillan couldn't remember words worth shit, but it didn't matter. He sang the "la-la-la" part really well, and all the solos were very good. Then came Fireball and it was a little unimpressive 'cause I somehow couldn't hear the bass as well as is necessary on that song, nor could Gillan scream well enough. It was too bad really because that was the song that was supposed to really kick ass!

But when we arrived at Pictures of Home and Black Night, I was ecstatic! I was there with a girl who was only familiar with Hush and Smoke on the Water, so I figured it was just about time for her to be impressed. It was definitely a high point! I was taking pictures, and then she took pictures of me and my two soccer teammates who happened to get seats right next to us: we shook our heads annd went nuts. I was really having fun!!

They played a bunch of new songs. I've always liked Ted. But the rest did not impress. They tried so hard on Cascades and all the other _|_ stuff, clearly more than with the old songs! So I stood there and thought: "Well, they're really good musicians and what I'm hearing now is as good a proof as any - the instruments sound great, too bad the songwriting sucks so much." Sorry, _|_ die-hards and maniacs, that stuff just sucks, no comparison with Pictures of Home or Black Night.

Other highlights: Smoke on the Water going into a keyboard solo kicked some serious ass!! That song is absolutely immortal and superb, however tired of it one might be. And DP always beat the studio version live. They also played Speed King which was so-so, mainly due to Gillan's lack of ability to scream the place off - I liked the solos a lot, actually. They then rocked through Perfect Strangers which was the best they've ever done on that song and closed with Highway Star, a real knockout! Here credit goes to Mr Morse who, unlike the author of the original guitar solo, played it straight as opposed to trying to pointlessly improvising around. I'd never heard a live Highway Star version I really liked until yesterday. My favorite live versions of Smoke are on Live in London and by Gillan, maybe also on CHoHW. And yesterday was pretty good too.

As a bottom line I must say this. It was a very good show, definitely worth seeing. All the musicians played their instruments well. It is not true that Gillan can't sing, but just like on _|_ you couldn't hear him too well for he was seldom able to outscream all the instruments. They should really work on the mix, I guess it must be the same as they had it in the '70s. Steve Morse is a good guitarist; he's no Steve Vai or Joe Satriani obviously, but it doesn't take that much to play Purple solos, be it Pictures of Home, Smoke, or Highway Star. Blackmore is irreplacable, but only as it relates to Rainbow level guitar playing. One can go and see Steve Morse with Deep Purple and enjoy all the songs every bit as much as they would have with Blackmore.

What was really missing was the flamboyance. I was looking at the stage and couldn't help but thinking: "So here it is, my dream, DP onstage! Glover, and Gillan, and Paice, and Lord hidden behind a tall speaker. And they're playing all these songs I love, but where's the stardom??!! It feels a little too reserved, held back. Maybe it's Blackmore with his crazy behavior that's missing, but then how would I know? I've never seen the guy live, after all." Gillan tried leading the show but he's a little too slow for that. I wish Morse did a bit more as far as that, but he had about the passion of John Entwhistle.

Yuri

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