[ d e e p P u r . p l e ) The Highway Star

REVIEW OF DEEP PURPLE'S CONCERT IN São PAULO - 09/09/2000

Deep Purple live in São Paulo - Brazil - 09/09/2000 with special guests Ronnie James Dio & Orquestra Jazz Sinf'nica review by Marco Andr... Briones

Setlist
First Part:
"Concerto - Movement 1"
"Concerto - Movement 2"
"Concerto - Movement 3"

Second Part:
"Pictured Within"
"Sitting In A Dream"
"Love Is All"
"Fever Dreams"
"Rainbow In The Dark"
"Wring That Neck"
"Fools"
"Ted The Mechanic"
"Watching The Sky"
"Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming"
"Pictures Of Home"
"Smoke On The Water"

Encore:
"Black Night"

Hello DP fans everywhere!!

I had the privilege to attend Deep Purple's last performance in SÃO Paulo last night. it was absolutely fantastic!!! All three nights in SÃO Paulo were sold out!! It was amazing to see fans of all ages, everybody there to enjoy a great night of excellent music. The performance started at 9.45 pm and finished at 12.30 am!! There was only a 20 minute break between the first and second parts. My advice is, if you have the opportunity to attend see dp on this tour, don't miss it!!!

Here in Brazil we had the participation of The Orquestra Jazz Sinf'nica, which performed the parts originally performed by the London Symphony Orchestra on the album. Our local orchestra did an excellent job!! Ian Gillan praised them many times during the evening!! I could also see that Jon Lord was very well impressed during the long instrumental orchestral passages, when his face was shown on the big screens, and he was smiling, very pleased with what he was hearing.

The first part of the concert started when the lights went out, and the crowd went crazy. After all the musicians were ready, all the dp members entered the stage from the right side, to a standing ovation by the audience!! Ian Gillan was carrying a handy cam and filming everything!!

In a few minutes, the orchestra started playing "The Concerto". It was nice to see dp paying attention to the orchestra. Both Steve and Roger were sitting on chairs. Gillan was leaning on the stage, filming the crowd and the orchestra.

The whole performance was amazing, just like the album!! I could almost feel like i was listening to a CD, because of the amazing quality of the sound in the concert. The highlights of this part were steve's blistering solos!! Let me tell you, the whole band was in very good shape, but Steve Morse and Ian Paice were particularly inspired, playing like it was their last concert!!! They were absolutely fantastic!!

It was also nice to see Paul Mann 'dancing' in some parts of the performance!! He's such a character!! He seemed to be very enthusiastic and enjoying very much the concert and all the audience participation!! Every movement was concluded with standing ovations by the audience!!

After the conclusion of the first part there was a 20 minute break. In the beginning of the second part, Jon Lord entered the stage followed by Miller Anderson, and introduced him to the audience. They did a wonderful version of "Pictured Within". What an amazing voice!! This man sings very, very well!!!

Right after the song, Glover, Paice and Morse entered the stage, followed by Ronnie James Dio. Everybody went crazy to see DP on the same stage with Dio!!! All of them were greated with great enthusiasm by the audience. They played wonderfully "Sitting In A Dream", with Ronnie singing it perfectly. This guy is certainly one of the best singers of all time!! It seems the older he gets, the better he sings!!! In one word: incredible!!

After that they played "Love Is All". Before the song started, Ronnie said that the next song was a happy one, so everybody should get happy, then he looked at Steve and said: "let's get happy, Steve!!" It was so nice!! He also mentioned that "the "Butterfly Ball" album was written and produced with love and care by my friend here, mr. Roger Glover!!!"

Then the band played a song called "Fever Dreams", from Ronnie's new album, called "Magica". It was quite good and well received by the crowd, specially if we consider that most people were hearing it for the first time, including myself. After that, Ronnie thanked Deep Purple a lot, saying they are his all time favorite band, and promised to come back to Brazil with his own band in march 2001. He said "see you in march" before launching into one of the biggest hits of his solo career, "Rainbow In The Dark". The crowd went mad!!!!

After Ronnie left the stage, morse left with him. Jon Lord said: "well, now back into Purple territory, we'd like to play something very old for you, something that was recorded when God was still a small boy!!!" Everybody laughed... Then they played "Wring That Neck", which ended with an incredible drum solo, with Paice playing part of it with only one arm!!!

Then, Gillan and Morse entered the stage again, this time, to perform "Fools". This new version of the song is fantastic!! I think that Steve Morse gave his special touch to this song. It strongly feel that they should include it in the next album... People will love it!!! There was also a heavy echo on Gillan's voice, in the beginning of every verse... It sounded great!!!

"Ted The Mechanic" came next, with Gillan saying "it's hard to write somebody's life story on a napkin, but i tried!! This one is called "Ted The Mechanic"." Everybody loved it!! At this time, the orchestra was joined by a group of five female brazilian vocalists, that not only sang very well, but were also very beautiful and danced all the time. Gillan seemed to love their performance, saying they were superb, magnificent and also very beautiful!!! There was also a horn section, that played and danced too!! Even some of the orchestra members were clearly having a great time, shaking their instruments to the rhythm of the music!!!

"Watching The Sky" followed, and then "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming", according to Gillan "written after waking up and noticing that you've lost a very important telephone number..." The crowd sang the melody along with Steve's playing!! It was one of the highlights of the night!!!

"Pictures Of Home" was the next song, with a very beautiful intro by the orchestra. At this time, everybody were standing up, dancing, waving their hands, clapping, making a hell of a party!!! Then we saw Ronnie James Dio and Miller Anderson enter the stage, and we heard a great performance of "Smoke On The Water", with dio singing along with Gillan. The crowd went mad!!!

After the band left the stage, everyone in the audience started clapping and singing the riff from "Black Night". Some five minutes later, the band came back and steve started playing the riff along with the crowd, being joined by Paice, Lord, and Glover. They played "Black Night" with great enthusiasm, for an ecstatic crowd!!! After that, the dream was over...

Thanks for Deep Purple and Ronnie James Dio for bringing this fantastic concert to Brazil!!! Hope to see you again soon!! It was a night I'll never forget...

Marco André Briones


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