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Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL, USA
February 24, 2004

Silver Tongue
Woman From Tokyo
I Got Your Number
Strange Kind of Woman
Bananas
Knocking At Your Back Door
Contact Lost
The Well Dressed Guitar
House of Pain (IG said, "Try to sing this number after partying all night.")
Don Airey solo
Perfect Strangers
Highway Star
Maybe I’m A Leo
Pictures of Home
Never Before
When A Blind Man Cries
Space Truckin’
Lazy
Smoke on the Water

Speed King
Hush

I missed much of Thin Lizzy (I was lost in Chicago downtown trying to locate the theatre), but when Deep Purple came on, man! It was something.
Ian was on his best form, the others just as good, Don surely has comfortably settled into the group.
One thing I noticed was, DP is sticking very much to the studio version of songs this time (except the encores), a little extended opener Silver Tongue, the start of Lazy was almost like Jon's version from Made In Japan, and Highway Star was a surprise, because it started very much like the studio version (four open chords on the guitar and Ian doing his introductory scream! Ever heard him do that before? Highway Star really brought the hall down.
The highlight for me was the encore: Speed King with the complete duels between Don and Steve, Roger's bass solo, Ian and Steve's duel, followed by an extended jam version of Hush (or so it seemed to me, it went on long enough).
In a nutshell, one of the best shows I have seen ever! Thanks DP.
Jagdeep Singh

Just a brief note to let you know Deep Purple put on a great show in Chicago! It was nice to hear Never Before live, and I had never before heard it live on any of their tours. :-) The live version sounded heavier, which was great! As a matter of fact, a lot of their songs had a heavier feel to them then I recall from their concerts here in 1996, 1997, and 2002.
The Machine Head section was absolutely great! Airey largely stayed with the original solos that Jon had laid down for the LP, but he did add his own touches. The first side of the album was played in order, then a slightly shortened version of WABMC, then side two in reversed order, ending with SOTW.
Gillan almost got pulled into the audience at the end of the show shaking hands with fans.
My son and I were in the balconey at the theater. The fans pretty much stayed glued to their seats there, even when Gillan was imploring them to get off their butts during SOTW. On the main floor, it looked like the fans were standing most of the time. Everyone though was really getting into the show. I heard no complaints or "Where's Blackmore?" comments like I had heard in 1996 and 1997. My son's a drummer - so he was really into Thin Lizzy's drummer, who was absolutely awesome, and Paicy, who put on the best show I've ever seen!
My favorite, though, was when they played Space Truckin'. Roger played the bass line throughout Paicey's awesome drumming just like on the studio version!
Gillan, Morse, and Airey all sounded just awesome! I have to go watch the short clip of ST from NY '73 on the Making of MH DVD now. I wish they'd release the whole show! [Don't we all! Rasmus]
Bruizer Cove

It was excellent. The highlights were seeing Pictures Of Home and Lazy live. I liked Don's keyboard solo leading into Pefect Strangers. He is the perfect replacement for Jon Lord.
I hope they film some of these shows because I would love to have a DVD of this show.
Hope they tour the US more later in the year.
Steve Strobel

These guys rock!
A long show for a change, but of course I wish it were longer! The main floor was packed and the band had the Chicago Theater on their feet. What a feeling! Supergroup! Two things contributed to this awesome experience: 1) a day's rest in Chicago must have done something magical to Ian's voice. Man! Could he scream - and to scale. He wasn't pushing the envelope. If they have another day off in some other city, maybe Child in Time is in order! 2) great lights and slide show, very well choreographed with the music.
Ian gave another twist to the Speed King introduction. He didn't introduce it as a lullaby. He said that the song was a result of him spending two months at home after the European tour and him playing with his tamborine.
Don Airey was awesome too. He's picked up all the Jon Lord solos to the note. He played effortlessly flying through the keyboard and throwing a lot of synthesizer effects, some pushing the subwoofers to the limit. Actually there were times I thought the sound was distorting. I suspect it was either from Don's keyboards or Roger's bass. Not sure if it was intentional or not.
Overall a great show and will be a very memorable one for me. Roger caught me in the crowd, pointed at me and threw a pick my way. I lost it in the bright lights above but it just came hit my knee. Pretty good aim I must say. I was at least 9 or 10 rows from the stage on the side.
I had gone with an office colleague and his 21-year-old son. The young guy simply got blown away by the quality of their music. He'd seen other rock concerts, but I suspect not of this quality. Said he would start collecting DP from now on. Yes, one convert at a time! Only a couple of billion to go. :-) Actually, after the show Steve Morse told him it was good to see young people at DP concerts. The takeaway is - all the younger generation needs is exposure to DP. It doesn't take long for them to turn into a fan.
Couple of sentences on Thin Lizzy. They were loud! I am glad somebody warned about this in a review and I took some ear plugs with me. Needless to say, they promptly came off when DP came on.
Amit Roy

There were a lot of people outside who had been told during the day that tickets were available at the venue. Well, if there was they didn't have enough to go around, because there were a lot of disgruntled people looking for tickets. It was nice to see a lot of younger faces in the crowd.
It's a shame the suits in the US recording industry don't support this band. Regardless of any line-up changes, Deep Purple has always been one of rock's best live acts of all time.
Mr.Gillan will always be The Man! But please add two tunes to the set: Rat Bat Blue and Burn. All that tune ever lacked was your vocals!
And finally cheers to the bands soundman, he is by far one of the industries best. [Moray The Engineer. Indeed! Rasmus]
Rick Carlson

ok so the show is over and its a cold february night in the windy city so when walking through the alley behind the venue to get to the parking garage what do you do?? well if your diehards like myself and my friend are you stand there quietly and hope you meet at least one of the band members so we went for it now having met yes this same way last time they were in town i sort of knew what to expect so i had brought a camera i ran back to my car to get it and then the wait began-- after quite a long wait we saw people coming out wearing backstage passes and i told my buddy this is probably it well about another 30 minutes goes by and he said he was going to walk to the corner and get us some coffee i told him i wouldnt because you just never know and i swear i barely finished my sentence and the back door opened from the building and out walked don,steve, and ian paice i was the 1st to ask if they would sign some autographs and they were more than willing to do so i got a pic with ian and steve ( i had missed out on don and he was already in the car -- maybe next time) after about another 15-20 minute wait out came ian gillian and roger and they too were more than willing to sign and take pics i made a comment to roger that want to repeat right now and i hope the band is reading this because i really mean this---- after 35 years and being genuine rock stars and legends it would of been very very easy to have just told us no to autographs and just walked on and you guys were nothing like that when ian paice went to sign my tour book my sharpie went dry and i was like oh no and he was so nice he said thats ok someone here must have one ill sign with that and HE asked someone to borrow thier marker--- then my friend went to snap a pic that he agreed to pose for and the camera wouldnt work and i thought thats it i blew it and again ian just kept cool and told me fix your camera ill wait -- i really couldnt believe that and steve was just as friendly for taking pics and signing (luckily my camera worked the rest of the night) when ian gillian and roger came out ig thanked us for being a wonderful crowd and we told him thats because they had put on a wonderful show i also told ian that it was almost 19 years ago to the day that i had seen deep purple for the 1st time and also for my 1st ever concert on the perfect strangers tour then roger came and signed took pics and just basically stayed and talked with us till he was told it was time to go so anyway sorry i got carried away there but my comment to roger and what i want to repeat is that the guys in deep purple could not have been any nicer or treated us any better if they had wanted too after growing up listening to them -- im the same age as the band :) and then to have met them and on top of all that have them be that down to earth about it was just a incredible experience so i want to first of all thank all of you reading this for your patience in my rambling but i think you can see now why i had so much to talk about and if you cant well then catch this band on this tour and then you will know what all the fuss is about and last and certainly not least i want to thank deep purple for all the years of listening pleasure for many great live shows that ive been at and for when the whole thing came to head and i finally got to meet you guys being as nice and as down to earth as you were there were no egos no rock gods just 5 great musicians who seem to have remembered thier roots and actually realized that the fans made them and therefore i took it as thier way of saying thank you by taking the time to hang out --- thanks again guys and see you next time your in chicago
BONZO49875@aol.com