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

They made me happy

Wow, What a show! I can't stop thinking about Deep Purple. With much anticipation and the day finally arriving I was treated to a true rock show. Ted Nugent was great as ever, Deep Purple were fantastic and Skynyrd were o.k. I was there to see Deep Purple for the second time in my life and I wasn't disappointed. The first time I saw them was in T.O at the Warehouse in '96 and they were truly awesome with some new guy on guitar named Steve Morse. I was very impressed that night with the band and the new guitarist. Musically he was right on the money but it appeared to me that he wasn't all that comfortable filling in for Blackmore with these Legends. Boy what a difference 5 years makes. It's now his band and it shows. Smiling, laughing, interacting with the crowd, this guy is Deep Purple's guitarist and does he rock. The set list was pretty much the same as the rest of the shows replacing "Hey Cisco" with "Knocking At Your Back Door." I loved all the tunes and I thought they did an awesome job with "Fools" for the true Deep Purple fan.

The part I didn't like was that it seemed that 'system' wise the sound got better with each act which to a music fan that just wants to get rocked doesn't seem fair but it's the only way people would stick around for Skynyrd. Don't get me wrong, Skynyrd were o.k. but it just wasn't Skynyrd if you know what I mean. The best part about their show was when they turned the lights out and cranked the full version of "All Along The Watchtower" by Hendrix. Anyways a big thank you to the boys of DP for letting me forget about life for a while and just smile in sheer listening pleasure.

Steve Driscoll


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