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An unrusted, seasoned performance
The Chosun Daily reviews in a most positive way the Deep Purple gig in South Korea from April 18, 2026.
At 7 p.m. on the 18th, the Culture Park inside the Paradise City Resort in Incheon. The band Deep Purple opened their performance with their signature song *Highway Star*. The knuckles of the members were wrinkled, and their white hair bore the weight of time. Yet, their unrusted, seasoned performance quickly heated up the atmosphere like an 8-cylinder muscle car about to race. On the outdoor stage, the takeoff and landing of airplanes on Incheon Airport’s runway were visible. The audience erupted in a thunderous chorus, as if they had become stars on the runway themselves.
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I watched full concert from Korea. Big Ian much better than the first concerts in Japan..he’s like a diesel engine.
April 20th, 2026 at 08:15I’m glad that song “A Bit on the Side “(for me the best song on the last album) is constantly on the set list..fit into the opening Heyi/hard opening concert block. “A Bit on the Side” is a mid-tempo song, between the fast classic songs Highway Star and Hard Lovin Man. The guys perform fantastically..especially Roger’s bass groove (BS “Zero the Hero”) haha
Song “Guinness” what song is it? some Irish folk theme? I don’t know? part of the new DP song? but it sounds so good, excellent instrumental ride reminds me of “Time For Bedlam”
That was a really good instrumental jam.
April 20th, 2026 at 11:04That’s a nice jam, but calling it a “song” is a stretch.
You can wake DP in their sleep and they can come up with stuff like this off hand.
April 20th, 2026 at 19:52Hush seems like an easy piece, but in reality it is not, the na-na-na-na modulation must be very precise and the verse is tight due to the breath… BigIan has excellent intonation for his 81 years!
the instrumental piece Guinness is nothing more than a “divertissement”…
April 20th, 2026 at 20:12I wouldn’t get too excited about something so canonical full of Purple standards from the last 15 years…
I mean, it could be any Infinite scrap…
honestly, grabsplatter, coronarias redig, A200, Son of Alerik or even Contact Lost were something else…
I have never been much of a fan of ANY Deep Purple instrumental, starting with And The Adress! 🤣 Wring That Neck/Hard Road, April, parts of the Concerto, A 200 and Ode to G were pretty much the exceptions. Son of Alerik overstayed its welcome big time. Those Rainbow instrumentals bored me to death too, Snowman being the salient exception. Difficult to Cure is for me a novelty piece, a bit silly.
Whenever Purple release an instrumental I automatically assume it’s just laziness on the part of Big Ian. 😈
April 20th, 2026 at 22:10The Korea audience really love it that concert. They cheered for almost everything, like for song “Uncommon Man” (wish they kept the black-and-white tiles screen animation for Don’s keyboard riff, audience might roar even more) and the solid “A Bit on the Side” (this, Lazy Sod, and Bleeding Obvious are the only highlights of the album to me)
And they also raised their voice even after Airey or McBride made some relatively short licks with their instruments. You can guess 5 of them were really touched by the reception and fueled their performance.
April 21st, 2026 at 01:43As I often say, the more instrumental music the better. Plus it gives the old fella a little more time to lie down and rest behind Glover’s amps. Rest that body Ian and of course the throat is included in that. Always good that Hush is included as that song was one of the very first, all those many years ago. Cheers.
April 21st, 2026 at 06:46@ 4
April 21st, 2026 at 06:52so right in assessment Flavio. Sounds like a throwaway “Let’s do ‘Pictures of Home’ sequel” sort of grab. They play it with a lovely aplomb, as they are so seasoned, always nice to hear it. Still, I hope the ideas for the new album fare much better than this. Last Airey-Mc Bride LP showed that they have still much to offer (loved a few tracks off this album, especially title cut “Pushed to The Edge” and “Power of Change” – with the excellent vocals of Mitchell Emms, joining aside Carl Sentence), let’s hope this is the quality marker for the next DP record.
Hah, Purple’s copyright Gestapo has now taken the vid down! 😂
Who knows, it might have cropped up as a Sabrina Carpenter song next!
April 21st, 2026 at 10:28@5 Uwe,
as much as I know we don’t discuss and criticize other’s gustos, I must defend “Son Of Alerik” as a brilliant instrumental. Catching a phrase from air during a jam and turning it on-the-fly into almost full fledged idea (while discussing the changes of chords WHILE actually playing it!!) – is a sign of sheer brilliance of Blackmore-Glover-Lord-Paice quartet to me. Very few people can do it, and do it soooo well. I, for one, am super happy that the tape was rolling during these 10 minutes, it captured something unique and very Purple at their best.
April 22nd, 2026 at 07:13I could watch the video before it was taken down and what a great performance by the band ! Gillan looks and sings fantastic…
Not sure he/they’ll keep up with such a huge tour but what a great start !
Still I hope they’ll change the setlist for the gigs in Europe. It’s great for Asia as they didn’t experience it but here we had it already… Though it’s fantastic they’ve kept Blindman and Anya.
So I still hope for new songs (like they sometimes do before an album release) and of course why not Never Before, Fools, Maybe I’m a Leo, etc… (Yes Roger, I know ;))
April 22nd, 2026 at 12:30Have to agree with Thorsun @ 10, there is nothing like an off the cuff performance. Spontaneous music can be wonderful sometimes, more so if playing it ourselves with other musicians. I do enjoy Son of Alerik. Any ‘b’ sides, alternative takes or un released music will always be a hit and miss situation. Same as what appears on an official release. How many arrangements and songs on an album are really good and what about the poor or unlistenable music. Every artist has that too, there is no escaping that either. Life eh. Cheers.
April 22nd, 2026 at 15:14@4
As an instrumentalist any early “Wring That Neck” Live version is one of my favourites.
I love having many bootlegs to enjoy those and listen how the band evolved their live act in those early days.
Even though Jon Lord’s talent for improvisation is unmatched, I’m glad and grateful that the band is still releasing high-quality albums and touring. After all, this is almost the only way for a much younger audience to enjoy quality hard rock.
April 22nd, 2026 at 16:22Thorsun, I find Son of Alerik mildly entertaining too, but I would call it a song, it’s a laid back jam. Of course Purple can always improvise well – it’s their home turf so to say.
April 22nd, 2026 at 19:24would = wouldn’t !!!
April 22nd, 2026 at 21:29The instrumental part of DP was as important as the quality and strenght of the singer(s).
Blackmore/Lord/Paice made that work and the essence came back during the TBRO tour.
I understand the bad blood between Gillan and Blackmore but what a moment to take a hike.
Doing more instrumentals now , dunno…. The magic is gone.
April 23rd, 2026 at 12:13