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

Deep Purple: Magdeburg / Bördelandhalle (19.11.97)

It was my sixth DP-concert and the second this year and I must say that it was one of the best. Only my first "Purpendicular" - concert had the same class. But when at the Purpendicular tour the setlist (and of course Steve) were new, now we have a band who is changing the songs from show to show.
Although I saw DP in spring this year (see my review of the Halle/Saale -Concert) it was an unbelievable event. The Bördelandhalle was not sold out, but I think there were 6000 people.
The German support band SINNER played a well received set (appr. 45 min) and seemed very happy to play with DP (best support band sound I ever heard).
The DP show started with TED and then SKOW with extra organ solo. The last song was SPEED KING (featering org/g- and voc/g-interplay (extra long and funny) and a nice bass solo) the longest version I ever heard.
The whole band played better from song to song. Especially the solos were far better than on the first leg of the German tour. Steve played the nicest solo I ever heard him do, Jon also played a very nice solo (the last time it was a little bit ordinary).
All in all they played over 2 hours. The first encore was BLACK NIGHT, because the crowd was singing it for minutes (I think the band wanted to play Seventh Heaven) and then Highway Star.
I heard the opinions of other people after the show and they all said something like: "This was the best concert I ever saw".
I hope we can see them soon with a new tour in this fine shape.

Holger Fitzkow


[ reviews | the highway star ]