From: Trond.Strom@keo.KVAERNER.telemax.no (Strom, Trond KEO)
Newsgroups: alt.music.deep-purple
Subject: Deep Purple with Steve Morse: Thumbs up!
Date: 18 May 1995 04:07:14 -0500

Hello, all!

I finally have heard my first live tape of Deep Purple with Steve Morse (and 
several of you will now think I'm very slow...), and I enjoyed it very much.

The tape in question was from the Ft. Lauderdale show on 4. March. I like 
Steve Morse's guitar work - when I read in interviews that he would 
incorporate some of the things Satriani did on stage, I feared a ripoff, but 
this is not what I feared. He uses some of the same licks here and there, 
but much less of it than Satriani did. The difference in class between these 
two guys reveals itself (for me) during "When a Blind Man Cries", where 
Steve Morse does the right thing, and delivers a calm and emotive solo. Now, 
if only they would play the "riff" to "Anyone's Daughter" correctly again, I 
know the new version is Ritchie's making, but still...

Alot of the reviewers at the gig remarked that "Woman From Tokyo" was played 
in a complete state (BOTH the middle section AND the piano solo near the 
end) for the first time EVER at these gigs, but no one has mentioned that 
this is the first "reunion" gigs that can boast a nearly complete "Lazy"! 
The verses after the lunch wrapper solo have always been omitted earlier.

Otherwise - this was the first DP live tape for years where I probably will 
have to write down the track order as I'm listening to it! After the closing 
"Speed King", I actually was wondering what was coming as the first encore, 
having forgotten that they didn't kick off with "Highway Star". Of course I 
got the clue when Big Ian announced "This is a song we wrote on a bus, to 
Portsmouth, I think..." Hope they'll do more of this in the future - 
shuffling around the track lists, rehearse more oldies, etc. etc. (Hm, Jon 
Lord can clearly be heard playing "Hard Loving Man" during the Space 
Truckin'/Mandrake Root solo on the Swiss 1994 radio recording... :-)

Overall - a good performance by the whole band, Big Ian's screams during 
Child in Time amazed me (and I wondered why he didn't go all the way up on 
the last "verse" of the screaming, cause he sounded like he had much more to 
give!), Steve Morse's solo on the same song worked (unlike Satriani's), the 
new songs sounded at least "interesting" ("Soon Forgotten" is great, ready 
for recording in it's present state, "Perpendicular Waltz" can become very 
good with some more work, but I don't remember "Ted the Mechanic"... but 
I've only heard these tracks one time!)

Thanks to Bobby for the tape.


All the best,
Trond J. Strom           Trond.Strom@keo.KVAERNER.telemax.no