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

Review, São Paulo 9/7/2000

Well, the concert was fabulous! As I had the opportunity of watching two shows in Sao Paolo, I will try a sort of comparison between them. The first night in SP, September 7, was amazing. The set list was pretty much the same as the CD, which is as follows:

Intro (I don't know, some sort of classic music)
"Concerto, Movement I"
"Concerto, Movement II"
"Concerto, Movement III"

Break

"Pictured Within", with Miller Anderson
"Sitting In A Dream", with Dio
"Love Is All", with Dio
"Dream Fever", with Dio
"Rainbow In The Dark", with Dio
"Wring That Neck"
"That's Why God Is Singing The Blues"
"Via Miami"
"Ted The Mechanic"
"Watching The Sky"
"Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming"
"Pictures Of Home"
"Smoke On The Water"

I'm not quite sure about the sequence after Dio, but I think this is it. The band seemed to enjoy the whole concert. Morse, as always, was very sympathetic, laughing at the crowd all the time. The Jazz Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo played fantastically as well, but they seemed to be afraid, which is understandable since they are not used to this, and it was the first night. But, as I said, they were great as well. And Paul Mann is also amazing! It is very interesting the way he conducted the sinfonica and the band, sometimes telling Paice when to start! The audience listened to "The Concerto" in a very respectful way, except for some bastards screaming once in a while.

When Dio came on, the crowd went crazy! That's obvious, it's Dio! It was fantastic seeing Deep Purple playing two of Dio's classic songs. I am not sure, but Morse didn't seem to enjoy playing Dio very much. The riffs are quite marked, I don't know. Of course, he played very well.

"Via Miami" was great. I love this version of the song. And Gillan was very talktative. I remember him saying, when introducing the band, "On guitars, Steve Morse! On keyboards, Jon Lord! And of course, the rest of the band!" Very fun. When introducing "Wring that Neck" he said, "and now Ian Paice will bring back "Wring that Neck"!". Paice played it marvellously, in a very free way. Great guy. Gillan's voice was also great. And I think I saw some white hair on Gillan...Interesting.

"Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" left the crowd crazy! You know, it's a beautiful song, but not as fantastic as many other Purple songs. But Morse makes it seem to be the greatest song of all time! His solo is fantastic!

After "Pictures Of Home", they managed to get offstage, and then obviously they came back, with everybody, and played "Smoke On The Water". After "Smoke On The Water", they really finished the show. The crowd keep trying call them back singing "Black Night" (OoooOOOoooooOO....OO!), but the lights went on and we knew it was finished...But on September 9...

Fabio Di Dario


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