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The Five Guys at Five Points
Deep Purple live at Fivepoint Amphitheater (Irvine, USA 2018-09-27)
When I wrote my 60th birthday / US Thanksgiving / first overseas Purple O2 London concert review for 11/23/17, I thought it might be the last time I’d see the Boys. But lo and behold, here they are back in the States. So for the 5th decade, the same four of us trucked out to Five Points Amphitheater Irvine to see the Five Guys. Personally, expectations were low considering what the US shows have been in recent years compared to what I saw at in London last November. US double bills, time curfews, greatest hits set list with very little Ian Gillan crowd interaction.
Last SoCal trip in, August ’17 at the Greek Theater, Alice Cooper played a spirited set, but many of his fans left and the Purple set seemed anticlimactic for the evening. None of that last night with the Judas Priest billing. After the Priest set, someone asked me, “How will Purple follow THAT?” To the Priest fans credit, they stuck it out and are probably very glad they did. (Aside from the three Priest folks in front of me who seriously yelled for “Burn” all night long)…
Spirited set from the Guys, crowd was into it all the way to the magical 11:00 curfew time when “Hush” ended. Both the band and the crowd were lively, Ian G looked in better shape than the UK tour and Ian Paice even jumped out behind the drum set to make his own call for the encore. I’m still checking the tape as Don started the lead in to “Perfect Strangers” but then changed it around to get back to “Lazy”. Intentional? I made sure I videoed “Smoke” and “Hush” as they *could* be the last live offerings I’ll attend.
“We love you, take it easy, bye bye!”
Irvine 2018? The Surprising, a good one, for sure.
Martin Paretti
w Kerry Frohling, Bob Grabar and Dave Krutcik
review by Martin Paretti
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
It’s good to know that the guys are still in good form as they near the end of the touring road.
October 5th, 2018 at 14:09Kinda odd that there is still no mention of a CD/DVD from the inFinite or Long Goodbye Tour.After all,Santa will be on his own world tour soon.
I went to this show as well,my 20th Deep Purple
October 5th, 2018 at 20:59gig,taking my 16 year old son.It was a great double bill but I was stunned it wasn’t sold out.Last year DP and Coop sold out the Greek Theater,albeit a slightly smaller venue.Ticket prices were outrageous so that might have kept people away.Judging by the t-shirts it was more of a Priest crowd and they were strong.Highlight from their set for me was Delivering the Goods,never heard this one before and this was my 13th JP show.Judas fans will tell you Rob sounds like he did in the 80’s but not so.Like Gillan retired CIT,Rob needs to retire Painkiller, that was rough.Purple came out and kicked ass with a blistering Highway Star leading into Pictures of Home and a bludgeoning Bloodsucker.Great start.Other highlights were Lazy,Knocking at Your Backdoor,PS, and the extended Hush.The guys got into a groove that infectious.Paice stole the show for me,he was in a zone this night,whipping out some quick fills throughout the set.The guys definitely won over the Priest fans.My son dug it,told me this was the best concert I’ve taken him to. Hopefully we can get one more trip through the States with a FULL set in smaller venues.