Deep Purple Concert Review

RBC Amphitheatre – Toronto, Ontario, Canada

July 18, 2026

Could they do it again, and do it even better than the last time I saw them two years ago in 2024?

Could they pull off absolute magic again?

This was the question on my mind tonight as I geared up to see Deep Purple MK IX for the second time in two years.

Now, a bit of background info – Rush were playing just downtown of the RBC Amphitheatre last night, so Purple had competition. My chosen family and I had tried to go see them on any and all dates available, but with nosebleeds being a whopping $400 Canadian bucks a seat, who the fuck can afford that in this economy?!

So we saw that Purple was playing on the 18th – and do you know how much tickets cost for four seats? Not even $400, which would have been reasonable, but a cool ninety dollars Canadian for all four seats. That was a win-win in our books, and so we said to hell with Rush and their highway robbery, we are going to see the mighty Deep Purple!

Personally, I also love Rush, but if they’re gonna let Ticketbastard frisk fans like that and not take a principled stand, fuck ‘em! Deep Purple always wins!

Given that it seems large tours may be coming to an end given the increasing age of the boys, this may in fact be my final Purple show. If it is, what a hell of a way to say goodbye to my favourite band!

This show was extra special for me, as it was also my boyfriend’s birthday, and I got him a ticket to the show. We’d met through a mutual friend, and initially bonded over our mutual love of Hammond Organ, and I immediately introduced him to Purple, getting him to listen to Made In Japan, Machine Head and then In Rock. He hadn’t heard anything beyond Smoke on the Water, but he immediately took to the band, their music, Jon’s mastery of the Hammond and after a while, it seems, to me!

We were grinning the whole night, and he was asking me questions about Don’s rig, curious about what kind of Hammond Mr. Airey uses (why, an A100 through a Leslie 122 and a Marshall stack, I said!) and we were like kids in a candy shop watching Don make the Beast growl and snarl all night!

But before we get to Deep Purple, a few words on the opening acts!

Jefferson Starship… are decidedly not my cup of tea. The band was tight, the lead guitar player was in fact very good, but the two lead singers, David Freiberg and Cathy Robinson, both had very wide, operatic vibratos that are not to my taste. They could both sometimes wander off pitch in their upper registers, but given Mr. Freiberg is 87, I’ll be fair and say he did a very good job overall – I just don’t like his voice, or Cathy’s.

Aside from the two Jefferson Airplane tunes of White Rabbit and Somebody to Love, and their 80s hit We Built This City On Rock and Roll, I couldn’t name any of the other tunes. But I certainly recognized them… throughout their set I kept having the reaction of, “Wait…. they did this cheesy 80s hit too?!”

It was mostly cheesy but solid 80s pop rock – and we even got an apology from them:

“Canada, we want to say to you as Americans, we love you… and we’re sorry.”

The whole crowd cheered. By contrast, when Kansas did Song For America, they got quite a few boos!

Politics, it seems, is inescapable.

Speaking of Kansas … well, they’re not really Kansas now, are they?

With no original members left, they were essentially a glorified cover band bearing the name of Kansas. It was honestly more than a bit awkward when the lead singer told the story of how Kerry Livgren wrote Dust in the Wind, taking his wife’s advice to turn his little guitar exercise into a song, that Livgren was nowhere to be found on stage.

So yes, really, Kansas was in fact a Kansas tribute act consisting entirely of touring band members, but I’ll tell you what: they were a damn good cover band!

They opened with Point of Know Return and played such songs as Down the Road – which had some amazing wah wah fiddle and really allowed the band members to stretch out, and of course the obligatory Carry On Wayward Son had the whole crowd singing along, myself included.

All the band members were excellent, but it was the fiddle and keyboard player who impressed the hell out of me – the keyboardist in particular played a mean synth and Hammond and could probably hold his own against our beloved Don Airey.

Overall, it was a ton of prog, with a ton of time signature changes, played exceptionally well, and right up my alley. Pretty good for a cover band!

And then of course, it was time for the mighty Deep Purple!

Straight out the gate, I appreciated that the intro video contained references to all Purple albums past and present, as Mars, the Bringer of War played through the speakers, now with theremin (Don’s little addition I wonder?), and then Purple hit that first power chord, and I’m a teenager again for the next 90 minutes!

Paicey rolls straight into Highway Star, Roger’s bass comes thundering in (a relief, as my boyfriend and I both noticed the bass for the previous two acts was noticeably quiet in the mix), Simon is chugging away and Don has that Hammond absolutely roaring!

And then out walks Ian Gillan, about to turn 81 in a few short hours, wearing a t-shirt that says “Too late to die young” and I am grinning as he launches into the first verse. He’s aged noticeably since I saw him last two years ago, and while he’s straining at first to hit his upper register, hit those high notes he does, screaming within his range, and he can do no wrong!

The band then launches into A Bit On The Side and Ian’s voice is starting to relax as he finds his footing and his voice warms up. I was a bit disappointed to see Simon McBride play his solo note for note from the studio recording, however, Simon was only doing this for the new material… for the more classic stuff, he was finally improvising and taking liberties, which I was overjoyed about!

That was a bit of a head scratcher for me – I still am confused as to why he replicates his solos only for the new tunes, but, I am very glad to see a Simon who takes some risks and injects some danger into the proceedings!

Don Airey, the Mad Professor himself, was improvising like absolute fucking mad the whole night, and finally the danger, the improv, and the adventure had returned to the band at last! More on that later – back to the set!

Into The Fire, described by Gillan as “a bit of chamber pop music”,was an absolute highlight, and my boyfriend and I were grinning hearing Ian Gillan screaming gloriously as any octogenarian should!

Paicey’s groove was rock solid, and Simon and Don’s solos were tasty! I noticed Ian cough through out the night as he sang, I was worried he had a cold, but honestly, you wouldn’t know it with how well he sang!

Then it was time for Simon’s solo spot! A bit early, I thought, but Simon impressed us duly with some tasty harmonics at the start, a flurry of notes, and some arpeggio figures which really made me think of Steve Morse, and which I thought might be Simon’s nod to Steve’s legacy in the band, and if so, I approve!

During his solo, Simon was very, very naughty and decided to troll none other than Rush themselves, by throwing in the riffs and licks from Spirit of Radio and Tom Sawyer into the mix, and I was laughing my ass off the whole time! Leave it to an Irishman to give the finger to his competition, I guess I got to hear some Rush after all!

Simon’s solo went into Arrogant Boy, which was solid, and it was a delight to hear one of the new tunes live. The middle section between Simon and Don was fantastic – Lydian mode noodling all the way, I say!

Lazy Sod was next, introduced by a marvellous rant by Gillan about his pet kitty cat, which had Paicey interrupt him mid rant to start the tune, and I was laughing once more! Simon’s solo was the one from the record, but Don’s solo was an absolute burner!

Afterwards, Gillan was going on yet another rant about his precious pet kitty cat!

“A puma” he assured us, who was, “licking the blood of my neighbours off her lips and smoking Mexican cigars!” and on and on he went, rambling about… well honestly, I’m not sure, but ti was Don’s turn to interrupt him as he crept the Hammond in and started his solo for, you guessed it, Lazy!

I’ve honestly never laughed so much at a Purple show, but Gillan’s in between song rants are legendary, and tonight he certainly did not disappoint!

Now, I’ve seen Don do the intro solo for Lazy four times now, that’s every Purple show I’ve been to, in case you’re wondering, and I have to say that tonight, he really outdid himself. There was just crazy arpeggio after arpeggio, lots of dissonance, and crazy lines – the Mad Professor was in session, and the class had better take note! Honestly, it floored me and was one of the highlights of the night!

The cherry on top for me was that I was very pleasantly surprised to find Simon improvising his ass off for the final solo at the end of the tune – the middle solo is as he’s mostly performed it since joining the band – but finally, tonight, here he was taking risks and coming into his own in the band!

I must tell you, there was danger back in the band, something that had been missing since our dear Ritchie left, as well as a sense of adventure, something that had been missing since Steve left! I was so happy to see the band stretching out and improvising again and jamming, and having fun! And, they were even tighter than last time!

Gillan gave a great performance in the middle of Lazy, with wonderful screams and Blues vocal runs, and a great harmonica solo to boot, but it was the next tune that was for me the highlight of the whole night, and an altogether otherworldly performance from our dear Ian!

When A Blind Man Cries is Ian’s signature tune in Purple, I feel. I’ve heard him sing many versions of it in the past, but last night he delivered a vocal performance that was beyond anything I’ve heard from him.

And that was, I think, because it came from a different place. When Ian wrote the lyrics in the 70s, he was imagining what it must be like to live without sight. Now, he doesn’t have to imagine it, he knows firsthand what it’s like.

Prior to Purple’s set my boyfriend went up to the stage and reported that they’d put down carpeting and high visibility tape for Ian, and I was so glad as a disabled Purple fan myself to see they’d made the stage accessible for him. He was living a very different experience from when he first wrote those words all those years ago, and it showed in how he sang those words tonight.

The emotion felt personal, he was expressing real pain. You could feel the difference in the way the words came across, and when he went for the climax at the end and held those final notes and let out the pain in his voice, you could tell the song had a completely different meaning for him now. To bear his soul like that on stage, to be so utterly vulnerable in front of all of us, took courage, and I absolutely respect him for that. By the end of the tune, myself, my boyfriend and my best friend who was also with us, all had tears in our eyes as we realized just what we’d heard and witnessed.

I think it might be the best performance I’ve ever seen from Ian, as well as the most personal and vulnerable. I’ve never heard the song before, and I am so glad I got to hear this version of it, as it was real, and totally authentic. A pure expression from a pure heart – I can’t ask for more than that, honestly, as both a fan and a human being.

After we wiped the mist from, our eyes and settled down again, something marvellous happened: a jam began on stage! My eyes lit up! Where was this going, I wondered? I had no idea, and that was the fun of it, the band jammed on, smiling and having fun, and going straight into Diablo from the new record, which was full of chaos and surprises!

In the middle of the tune, out walked Kathy Robinson and David Freiberg from Jefferson Starship to sing backing vocals in the bridge and then, in the middle of the solos… a bloody construction worker bearing…. something… I couldn’t tell what… appeared beside Gillan and offered him… whatever the hell this thing was. It looked like some sort of alien technology!

My best friend and I looked at each other, utterly delighted and totally confused as to just what the bloody hell was going on, but we absolutely loved it and were laughing throughout the whole thing! Simon, Don and Gillan all gave marvellous solos, and it was a wonderful bit of chaotic, silly fun on stage! As I said, I’ve never laughed so much at a Purple show in my life, I was having a ball!

Don’s solo was up next, featuring quotes from Mr. Crowley, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, the Canadian national anthem and an old rag time tune called Tiger Rag. Don’s solo was different this time, it was actually quite dissonant as he purposely held down that string pad underneath the piano and created chaos. I loved it, it was different, and my favourite of all his solos I’ve seen throughout the years.

Then came something I’d been hoping for and hadn’t heard since I saw the band when Steve was in it – the intro to Perfect Strangers came growling along with menace, the Hammond snarling, and I was so happy to hear it after so long.

When I saw Purple last two years prior, Purple surprised us all by playing Bleeding Obvious in its place – in fact, if I had one small criticism of the show I saw tonight, part of me wishes they’d played more new material and one or two deep cuts, as only three songs off Splat! and one off =1 were featured overall,

The setlist, I feel, could do with some reworking, but if tonight was to be my final Purple show, as the lads seem to be talking of cutting back on big tours, then in a way I’m glad it was a hits heavy set and I got to hear my favourites one last time.

Perfect Strangers was thunderous, and Don surprised us all at the end and did the solo on the Moog this time instead of the Hammond, perhaps a nod to Jon’s original synth solo. It was creative, dissonant, and totally unexpected!

Space Truckin’ was of course next, albeit at a much slower tempo than usual, which I actually think worked in the song’s favour – it seemed much heavier and menacing at the slower pace, and I actually rather liked this slightly more heavy version! It was Paicey’s turn to shine, as he pounded those drums with ease and made the whole amphitheatre shake! Gillan impressed us all with some high screams, just managing to get them on pitch, and I was happy to see my hero still screaming in his eighties!

And then, of course, it was time for Smoke on the Water.

Simon hits that riff, and I’m a nineteen year old kid again, singing along, my boyfriend singing along right beside me with the whole crowd…. it never gets old, does it? Simon improvised one hell of a solo, going way off the beaten path that Ritchie started, and I watched him thinking, “This is not the same guitar player I saw two years ago. I’m really glad he’s grown in this band!”

Finally, there’s a nice balance between tightness, improvisation and fun in this band again and Deep Purple are back to where they should be, I feel. Yeah, the setlist could do with some new life breathed into it, but beggars can’t be choosers, especially when most of the guys are pushing eighty!

At any rate, we all stand up to applaud, thinking the show’s over, I’ve got tears in my eyes as this might be the last time I see them and…

“We’re not done just quite yet!” Gillan informs us!

“What?!” I think as I sit back down, pleasantly surprised that for once they’re not ending with Smoke, “What the hell are we going to get now? What about the encore??”

As it turns out, the typical encore of Hush got moved to the end of the set, and there was no encore tonight. In all my years of seeing this band, I’ve never seen a Purple show without an encore, and I half wonder if one of the other bands went over and they had to cut it short.

Whatever the case was, next came Guinnesis, an instrumental out take from Splat! only available currently as a seven inch vinyl single, which I guess is a literal deep cut now that I think of it, and which absolutely needs a wider release (if DP’s management or label is reading this, take note!) as it’s a hell of an instrumental!

A thunderous, grooving shuffle, heavy as fuck, with fantastic solos from Simon and Don – why this song isn’t more widely available is beyond me, or on standard releases of the new record for that matter! Put it out to the world, I say! It’s great!

One jam leads to another, and the night ends with Hush.

The last time I saw Purple in 2024, Don and Simon did an absolutely insane duel in the middle of this tune, the best I’ve ever heard, totally off the wall and bonkers. I thought then there was no way they could top themselves after that!

Well, I’m very happy to report that I was wrong! Tonight’s duel between Mr. Airey and Mr. McBride was even more insane, absolutely Bananas! (hey, there’s one I’d love to see make a return to the set!) and what made it so much better wasn’t just that Simon and Don somehow upped their virtuosity (I mean, how is that even possible at this point?!!), but that the danger was back in the duel this time!

Remember how Ritchie would start a motif in a duel with Jon, and they’d play off whatever the lick was, and do this marvellous cat and mouse chase around whatever the lick happened to be on a given night? You’d never know just what Ritchie would pull out of his hat, but he’d egg on Jon, and Jon would answer and just…

…well anyways, that happened tonight, only this time, it was the Hammond player taunting the banjo player!

Don threw in a menacing little tritone lick at the start of the duel… Simon is not catching on at first. Later on, Don throws it in again, and again, as if saying to Simon, “C’mon Simon, catch on, mate!” and catch on eventually Simon does, and they start twisting the lick in little ways, playing off each other, until finally reaching the fever pitch of the duel and just going hog wild at the climax!

It is the closest thing I will ever see to a classic Blackmore/Lord duel, as it had all the unpredictability and the danger of one! After the duel ended, even Roger got to throw in a tasty little bass lick – how I wish he and Paicey had taken a solo each! – and I am beyond happy that this was how the show ended, and that Deep Purple had somehow rediscovered the joy, danger, unpredictability, adventure and fun of their youth once again.

What a marvellous way to end the night – except of course, that Ian Gillan had one lovely little surprise left for us.

At the very end of the show, impromptu, he sang the refrain from Goodnight Irene, completely acapella, and wished us “Goodbye and goodnight!” and walked off the stage with the band.

The lights came up, there was to be no encore.

In some ways, it felt like farewell, goodbye. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to see the boys ever again, and but as to the question I started this review with:

“Could they pull off absolute magic again?”

They did more than pull off absolute magic – the band returned to themselves, and found their musical soul once again, started jamming again, having fun and being dangerous and adventurous again and all the things I felt were missing over the last few years had somehow returned.

This was more than magic, it was a spiritual, transcendent experience.

Just five guys being real, authentic, vulnerable and human and having fun while doing it. I can’t ask for more than that. To top it off, not only was the show tighter than last time, the performances even better, it was more free and open. Sure, the setlist could do with a bit of a revamp, but at this stage, Deep Purple can do as they please if they’re going to put on a show like I saw tonight.

It was a real, honest, heart felt connection between five guys and their fans. I couldn’t ask for more than that – my boyfriend walked away with one hell of a birthday present, and he and I both knew we’d witnessed something absolutely special tonight.

I think even though the setlist was mostly hits, it was the set I wanted deep down, all the songs I love, so I can say goodbye.

To Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Roger Glover, Don Airey and Simon McBride – thank you for giving the best and most authentic performance I’ve ever seen from you guys.

If this is goodbye, thank you or the last 20+ years of my life, you’ve been the soundtrack that’s gotten me through the good and bad times, and whatever criticisms I might hold or have held in the past, they don’t really matter.

Not when you guys play and show love to us fans like you did tonight in Toronto.

So as a fan, thank you, I love you guys with all my heart. No band is better than Deep Purple!

If this isn’t goodbye and not the last time I get to see you all – please keep going like this and jamming on stage and having fun and being yourselves! You’re the best!

Oh, and Mr. Gillan?

Happy birthday mate, you’re a legend. After the performance you gave tonight, no one can touch you or hold a candle to you, not with all the courage and heart you displayed tonight.

To all the fans – they’re back, really back. The danger and adventure has returned, at long last. Yes, it’s all the hits, but if it’s to be goodbye for those of us who can’t be reached via smaller tours, then I think that’s the best way to go out: on the songs we all love these guys for.

Go see them while you have the chance. Honestly, it is worth it.

Long live Deep Purple!!!

-Mike Nagoda

Setlist:

Intro – Mars, the Bringer of War

Highway Star
A Bit On The Side
Into The Fire
Simon’s Solo > Arrogant Boy
Lazy Sod
Lazy
When A Blind Man Cries
Jam!!! > Diablo (with Cathy Robinson and David Freiberg from Jefferson Starship)
Don’s Solo > Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Smoke on the Water
Guinnesis > Hush
Goodnight Irene

(no encore!)