[ d e e p P u r . p l e ) The Highway Star

Ode to Steve Morse

This was the 4th time I've seen DP live and I can tell you, apart from the Concerto concert which I have seen in Frankfurt (and which is something very special to me) this was by far the best DP performance I have seen so far! Right from the very first minute the audience was going crazy when they started playing "Woman From Tokyo". The setup of songs was pretty much the same as in Dresden.

It was also the first time for me to hear "Mary Long" and "Fools", great songs. And then - here he is, the master playing "The Well-Dressed Guitar"! Incredible! Hey Steve, you must have been listening to some Yngwie Malmsteen CDs lately! ;-) I guess the influence is obvious. Anyway, I adore this guy!

There has been some new Deep Purple out there for a couple of years now. I mean, we should not forget that a lot of the DP songs known by everybody in the world have the Ritchie Blackmore stamp on it. And that's good. However, Steve Morse has really managed to transfer these songs into something that is well known on the one hand but also kind of new for DP on the other hand. He took it to a new level. I think he is the best DP could possibly have done. Ok, that's enough of my "ode to Steve Morse" for the moment... ;-)

Anyway, the more songs they played, the better the mood of the audience got. The best thing was that you could watch the guys having fun on the stage. Well, it all climaxed in "Back Night" and - sure enough - "Highway Star". But then there was something very irritating. They left the stage and everybody was sure they would come back again. But then the lights went on - and that was it! We could not believe it!

So there was only one way to deal with this situation - go back to your car, put in a DP tape and keep on rockin'!

Thanks Deep Purple for such a great time!

"I know - we'll never forget..."

Markus Kleine-Vossbeck


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