[% META title = 'Tour Reviews' %]

Malaysia to Merriwater - very totally awesome

It was awesome to see Deep Purple again at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia MD.

I arrived around 6, and before I could even get out of my car I was able to buy a ticket from a roaming vendor (at a tiny discount). There wasn't too many people on the lawn when I got there (my first time there by the way), so I thought I had a very good spot to lay out my blanket. It wasn't till after Dio took the stage that I realized that from where my butt was parked on the lawn, I couldn't see the stage over all the people who were filing into the pavilion seats. Thank goodness for the Comcast big screens!

This was my second time seeing Deep Purple live. The only other time was in, of all places... Malaysia! I was living with a girlfriend at the time, and I couldn't resist at the time when I heard they were in the country. The most remarkable memory of that show was the crowd singing Soldier of Fortune during a medley. I had never heard that song before that night, but I quickly corrected that mistake!

Tonight, same as the last time I saw them, I was impressed by the way the band played off each other. It seemed like each song had a little guitar solo, a little keyboard solo, a little drum solo, with a little bass solo mixed in.

The funniest moment of the night came when Ian said to the crowd: "We'd like to do a song for a special occasion, an anniversary. This is the 100th year anniversary of the day I wrote this song. It's called Hush." That was very cool!

Another special moment of the night (for me) came during the keyboard solo. In the middle, Don Airey started playing the Star Wars theme. I'm a big time Star Wars fan, and I was totally surprised at the crowd response when he did that!

It was kind of cool that there was a somewhat relationship between Dio and Deep Purple. Roger Glover (of Deep Purple, but bass player player with Rainbow) played with Rainbow, and Dio was the original singer for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. [And both Deep Purple's keyboard tech Mickey Lee Soule, and Don Airey also played keyboards in Rainbow. Mickey was in the very first line-up with RJD. Rasmus]

Deep Purple played a new song tonight, which (I think) hasn't been recorded yet, it was an instrumental, I think it was called Speed Guitar, it was very totally awesome. Definitely will get that CD when it comes out.

OK, enough for now, take care all and long live rock and roll.

P.S. I loved those plastic guitar shaped Beer glasses - very cool!

Sky Mill

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