Beautiful place, beautiful show
Setlist:
Woman From Tokyo
Ted The Mechanic
Mary Long
Lazy
No One Came
Fools
The Well Dressed Guitar
Perfect Strangers
When A Bind Man Cries
Smoke On The Water with Guitar Parade
Speed King
Black Night
Hush
Highway Star
Deep Purple played the Elbwiesen, a "beautiful place" as Ian Gillan said. And he was right. The river Elbe behind, old buildings in front of the stage and the hottest day of the year in Germany - perfect arrangement for a beautiful Deep Purple show. Luckily I met Ingrid and Michel from the Purple Forum and we got some beers together (after waiting a long time) and had a nice talk.
The setlist was the same as at the last dates. Ian Gillan sang well, very great moments in "Blind Man". Steve Morse was astonishing, he played one great solo after another and dominated the set in a positive way. Don Airey replacing Jon Lord did a great job, he acted very professional, very likeable and got a warm welcome by the friendly audience. Ian Paice was just Ian Paice - best rock drummer on the planet, as Jon Lord said. Roger Glover did a huge job, he played awesome and even did some vocals during the improvised parts of "Speed King". Highlights of the set to me were "Mary Long", "Fools" and "Perfect Strangers" with great reaction from the audience.
It was a very good Deep Purple concert at an extraordinary place, and everyone seemed to be satisfied. But after the show I felt some moments of sadness: listening to Deep Purple without Jon Lord gave me a strange feeling. Thanks to Don Airey for his fine work, but best wishes to Jon Lord and may he return soon and stay on stage with Deep Purple for a long time.
[ reviews | the highway star ]