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No reason to quit!
Costa Mesa: The triple bill of Deep Purple / Blue Oyster Cult / Edgar Winter played in Orange County at the Pacific Amphitheatre. Lucky for me as it’s only 1/2 a mile from my apartment!
Edgar Winter opened the show… I last saw him open for Uriah Heep 6 years ago. Edgar is a fantastic performer and musician. I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed his set. Great back up band and a fine entertainer! He seemed to really enjoy what he was doing… playing music for the people.
Blue Oyster Cult… I did not know they were still around. Last saw them in 1984 when they would fill arenas. Excellent playing by all, but the only musicians with energy was the bassist (Rudy Sarzo) and the 3rd rhythm guitarist/keyboardist. Bloom and Dharma looked like they just got off from their Wall Street job to play a gig. Still, an enjoyable set of hits.
Deep Purple came on with Pictures of Home. The set was like the others listed.
The entire band was brilliant… even if Gillan’s pipes were not as “ballsy” as they once were. The range he does still have sounds fine and powerful. Don, Steve, Paice, and Glover… are superb.
There were teenagers in the audience… one with his hippy dad and wearing a Misfits T-shirt… *he* was REALLY getting into the show. It wasn’t just all fat, middle aged people, although they were in abundance.
Glover was, at times, jumping up and down while playing. That man is really 20 something in age in my opinion. In fact, the playing from the band was from men 40 years younger… not 50 or 60 year olds. I give this show a solid A. There is no reason they should stop playing nor stop making albums any time soon.
The only complaint is that there is NOT enough new material played. If they played only Morse-era material for at least 1/2 the set, I would be far happier. I’ve heard the Machine Head album enough performed live. Give the true fans some variety before DP finally calls it quits.
Carl Hardwick
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
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