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North American setlist
AXS.tv has a machine-written review of the opening night for the North American tour in Raleigh, NC, on August 4, 2026. However, it contains the setlist, which we compared against setlist.fm — checks out, and with release dates for each composition.
- Highway Star (Machine Head, 1972)
- A Bit on the Side (=1, 2024)
- Into the Fire (Deep Purple in Rock, 1970)
- Guitar Solo
- Arrogant Boy (SPLAT!, 2026)
- Lazy Sod (=1, 2024)
- Lazy (Machine Head, 1972)
- When a Blind Man Cries (Machine Head, 1972)
- Diablo (SPLAT!, 2026)
- Keyboard Solo
- Scriblin’ Gib’rish (SPLAT!, 2026)
- Space Truckin’ (Machine Head, 1972)
- Smoke on the Water (Machine Head, 1972)
- Guinnesis (SPLAT!, 2026)
- Hush (Shades of Deep Purple, 1968)
Interesting to note that this is the most current material played on this package tour — Kansas’ set of 9 tracks is comprised from the albums released between 1975 and 1980, and Jefferson Starship has just one new song out of the seven played.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Now I could be bitching about only one tune from In Rock, but I’m not that kind of person at all ☺️
August 9th, 2026 at 05:33It is a very nice setlist 👏🏼
And even more important: Ian will not have to strain his voice singing these songs.
I have to admit that those guys from DP are bipolar. They switched from a set list of maybe one or two new songs during a SM era to nearly half the setlist made up of new songs. I admire the elements of craziness and risk taking. This band never surprises me and I have a feeling they are serious about a new album.
August 9th, 2026 at 05:38Peace ✌️
I think leaving out “Hard Loving Man” is a good choice, for many reasons. I’d like them to try out The Rider instead of Diablo, but it’s just a personal preference of course.
August 9th, 2026 at 09:30No Black Night !!
And I really want to see Perfect Strangers back …after all, that was the song that heralded the momentous reunion ( which is why we are all at this point now in 2026 ) ….plus ….its absolutely epic !
August 9th, 2026 at 10:02Great set list. Like to see the boys shake it up a bit and highlight the new material. These guys are not a band just resting on their past. It’s a vibrant band putting out music that, in my opinion, stands against their early 1970s out put.
Cheers!
August 9th, 2026 at 11:31Saw them last night in Clearwater, FL. They were really amazing and IG has not sounded this great in years.
August 9th, 2026 at 11:48I was looking at tickets to this particular show a day before the event on Ticketmaster. The seat tickets were expensive, but that was not surprised me the most. It was the low % occupancy. There were lots of seat tickets available. Like 40 – 50% availability.
Can anyone confirm that went to this concert?
August 9th, 2026 at 12:37I knew when they came to America the set list would lose a couple of songs. Hard Lovin Man and Black Night are now gone. With Kansas on before them and Jefferson Starship on before Kansas it was bound to happen. There’s only so much time. I can’t wait for the show in Massachusetts on the 13th. That’s the one I will be at. I’m hoping there will be a live release next year from all of this years touring. There should have been a live release in 2025 from the =1 touring in 2024. Can’t wait for Thursday!
August 9th, 2026 at 13:35Would be great if Steve Morse joined both Kansas and Deep Purple on stage….😉
August 9th, 2026 at 14:13I was at the Clearwater show last night and can confirm the setlist. Place was packed all the ways to lawn area. Probably close to 9 k.
Disappointed there was no Jefferson Starship; wanted to see Cathy Richardson belt out White Rabbit and Somebody to Love. She does it great justice and is one hell of a singer.
Kansas played great – but no original members; that was a letdown. Played for an hr. Ronnie Plat has been singing for them for some time since Steve Walsh stepped down over a dozen years ago. Played the songs with great energy. Their keyboard player is an absolute wiz. Liked him and need to check out their last new album – only 1 new song. A bunch of zombies the crowd was – only got up for Carry on Wayward. May have been heat – FLorida this time of year is ultra humid.
DP came on around 9 pm and played for 90 minutes. Everyone liked them and they played good. Give them a lot of credit for playing nearly half their set with new songs from =1 and Splat plus deeper cuts with ITF and WABMC. New songs sounded great. Most people I spoke to in crowd liked the new album as do I. Not sure if this was last time I saw them given their age, but was happy I did and they did not dissappoint. Was thinking Morse might make an appearance as Ocala is 2 hours from Clearwater but no show. He could have done double duty with Kansas and DP!)
August 9th, 2026 at 16:09On a consistent level, Machine Head will always reign supreme in the set – and it has been that way since 1972, talk about longevity of those songs. Even Mk III and IV with their radical set changes played some Machine Head Songs. Of course, the way MiJ embalmed more than half of those songs for eternity also played a role, MH and MiJ were a double whammy.
Is my memory failing me or didn’t the Morse Era regularly see the band start out with four to five (or even more) songs from whatever the newest album was in their touring repertoire which then only gradually dropped out of the set one by one over time as tours would go into their second or sometimes even third year? I think that as far as inclusion of new songs goes, DP are actually a model legacy act, a lot of other band of 70s and 80s origin cling much more to their older material.
A lot of the set discussions here is people complaining about over-familiarity who have seen DP twenty-times or more – I MEAN WHADDAYA EXPECT???!!! 🤣
August 9th, 2026 at 16:18@2 Adel Faragalla
August 9th, 2026 at 16:19All in all, the songs with Morse were like iron balls chained to their ankles 😅, so a setlist like this doesn’t surprise me all that much. It’s surprising, sure, but I was expecting it. Cheers
🍷
Half of the band Kansas joined the band in 2023 or later. The longest time band member is the singer who joined in 2014. I think it’s more a tribute band that plays their greatest hits live.
August 9th, 2026 at 16:47Not true, AndreA, while I have made critical observations of Steve’s wardrobe choices in the past, he definitely (co-)wrote a lot more than a handful of excellent songs during his tenure with DP. I could easily draw up an evening-filling setlist of goodies from him. (A lot of them never played live by DP or only rarely so.)
I don’t think that Steve era songs have left the setlist for lack of quality, but because playing them without him is challenging (and not all that much to Simon’s taste, that is at least what I have read/heard between the lines in Simon’s interviews). The way Steve masters his instrument (Didn’t I put that nicely just now, Beate?) is an integral part of the appeal of the songs he wrote with Purple.
Of course they have that Machine Head albatross around their collective necks which precludes them from devoting too much time on material that is neither “Golden 70s” nor from the relevant album.
August 9th, 2026 at 17:59I lets a reasonable amount of new material.
Quibbles and thoughts
Jefferson Starship played that gig too so they might have one more song when it’s just them and Kansas
A Bit on The side should be replaced with a Splat song
That’s it
August 9th, 2026 at 20:37Bold move if this is their last tour, so many new songs.
In the past I d said to expect new songs dropping like flies.
We ll see what happens if they go on, RB already said in 86 the rest wanted to grow old together.
Lord took a hike, being knee injured and like with Steve the rest couldnt wait.
With RB in the band a kneeissue d not have caused this.
August 9th, 2026 at 20:41Drop from the setlist Into the Fire, A Bit on the Side, Space Truckin’, and Scriblin’ Gib’rish.
Add Guilt Trippin’, Splat!, and rotate in The Only Horse in Town, The Rider, and The Beating of Wings as the fifth Splat number.
If they feel another Mark II tune is required instead, add WFT, Pictures of Home, or Maybe I’m a Leo. Or pay homage to Steve with The Aviator, SIFLS, or the circa 2000 version of Fools.
Cheers
August 9th, 2026 at 21:54#15 Chip:
A song from =1 in the setlist is a must, otherwise it would mean that the band has already “archived” the album, but that’s not the case!
I bet they don’t play any more because they have to make room for the 70’s classics
#14 Uwe:
August 9th, 2026 at 23:22yes, and then it’s also a question of space in the setlist!…it would be a contradiction if they played Steve’s songs and didn’t play other songs by =1 or Splat!
@9 and 10: that was my dream, too!
@14: “I don’t think that Steve era songs have left the setlist for lack of quality, but because playing them without him is challenging (and not all that much to Simon’s taste, that is at least what I have read/heard between the lines in Simon’s interviews). The way Steve masters his instrument (Didn’t I put that nicely just now, Beate?) is an integral part of the appeal of the songs he wrote with Purple.”
Thank you, Uwe – but do you remember Simon saying in interviews that “Purple struff” is not hard to play?? Perhaps he didn’t listen carefully enough to the songs of the “Morse-Era”. And yes, taste is another thing…
August 10th, 2026 at 09:20I didn’t know this. And now some things are clearer to me.
August 10th, 2026 at 10:19Unfortunately, sadness and misery.
There will never be a setlist that pleases everyone, but as things go, this is not too bad. If you cut out the solos, you have 13 tracks – 7 from the 60s/70s and 6 from the current band. That is not to bad a split.
August 10th, 2026 at 12:59They’ve dropped three tracks from the summer European festival set, so hopefully the main EU set will be longer again. I’d be happy if they kept this set, but added in two more Splat! tracks and something from Morse-era.
Beate, I took Simon’s quote to refer to the Ritchie material only and there it is nothing new. Guitarists have been telling me for ages that it is easier to approximate Ritchie’s riffs rather than, say, Billy Gibbons’, Jeff Beck’s or Jimmy Page’s style. Not because Ritchie is a less skilled guitar player, but because some elements in his style are so dominant almost to the exclusion of everything else they are evident to latch onto even for just an off-the-cuff impression.
And Ritchie’s riffs are a lot less “frilly” than what Steve came up with.
Frankly, I don’t think Simon has that much experience in having to copy Steve Morse because he mostly has to copy Ritchie’s riffs with Purple or the Don Airey Band – and that already from the get-go of his joining. Every guitarist I have discussed the matter with for instance agrees that the riff to Ted the Mechanic is more difficult to play than anything Ritchie ever came up with (with maybe the exception of Lazy which is also by Roger Glover rated as the most elaborate Mk II riff needing the greatest dexterity of a guitarist).
Compositionally/chords-wise a lot of the Mk II material is meat and potatoes. Meat and potatoes prepared by a skillful chef named Ritchie, mind you, but meat and potatoes nonetheless. And I do think that it is more difficult to get Jon’s and Little Ian’s playing right than Ritchie’s. Most DP tributes have someone who can mimic Blackmore, but how many well-done “Jon Lords” and “Ian Paices” have you heard in tributes?
People always assume that Ritchie’s style was inimitable because Bolin, Satriani, Morse and McBride didn’t sound like him one bit, but forget that DP always went out of their way to get someone who DID NOT sound like Ritchie. Getting Ritchie 100% right is of course impossible, but approximating him in a way that people recognize his stylistic elements? Not so much.
Did I just commit another heresy?
August 10th, 2026 at 15:58Yo,
@22…
I’d almost suggest that “Demon’s Eye” has RB playing at his most unique, & difficult to imitate…The solo & outro contain amazing melody & phrasing…
“Lazy” has key changes for sure, but there’s a subtle trick / flurry-of-notes that are picked very-fast via down-stroke in the melody-riff, towards the end of the 2nd phrase, that you can get away with either playing-it or not…People will still recognise the tune, though this flurry-of-notes is/was unique to RB & his unique style.
SM & JS nail-it-all in the live arena, though there’s a video of SM discussing & playing through “Lazy” where the “trick” is omitted. I’m not sure if Simon plays it the same as the others or not, but I have no-doubt that he could.
Ciao !
August 11th, 2026 at 00:04#9: I wish, but no chance. Too many fragile egos… He was too good for them to keep…
#7: For the Long Beach show, the only way Ticketmaster would sell tickets is if you got them directly on your cell phone. Which is not possible on my “old” I-phone. So I had to settle for getting a receipt that is not good for admission, which I have to take to an unknown office somewhere in the wilds of Long Beach… Unless TM changes their system, this will be my last Ticketmaster show. It will be unfortunate not seeing DP again, but since this will be about #20 for me, I think I can live with it.
August 11th, 2026 at 01:25#22 Uwe:
As for guitarists who imitate Ritchie, Yngwie Malmsteen, Axel Rudi Pell and Stuart Smith immediately come to mind.
Dave Murray, Michael Weikath and Henjo Richter were also heavily influenced by the Man in Black in their younger years.
and if you think about it, another ten probably come out
August 11th, 2026 at 07:24” Guitarists have been telling me for ages that it is easier to approximate Ritchie’s riffs rather than, say, Billy Gibbons’, Jeff Beck’s or Jimmy Page’s style.”
Maybe.
Maybe its my memory but I only remember 2 players that touched me in his sound in the solo s.
Glenn player Soren and…Andre Romita.
August 11th, 2026 at 12:38I had given up on seeing DP in concert anymore because of the stagnant setlist.
August 11th, 2026 at 23:33This setlist has me interested in seeing the boys again!
I think they should play all 240 Deep Purple studio songs during their set. <:-)
August 12th, 2026 at 01:53It seems to me that Gillan’s voice is best suited to songs from the last two album and McBride is the driving force behind those two albums. So I like this mix of new and old if this is going to be the last time that I get to see them in concert.
August 12th, 2026 at 05:21#28 James:
hahahahahah
August 12th, 2026 at 20:14brilliant, that’s the joke of the month!
#11…Since’98 in the New York metro area they never opened up with a Morse era song.Alot of the follow ups were Morse,almost human etc..etc,but the only other openers I recall were Hush,Woman from Tokyo and Fireball.
August 13th, 2026 at 22:42