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

THE FIRST GIG IN BRAZILIAN TOUR 1999

Last night I saw the first of the 6 shows of DP in this 1999 Brazilian Tour. It took place in Sãao Paulo, in a place called Via Funchal, which is the best theatre in the city. The house was crowded (it's capacity is 6,000 people) and the tickets for Saturday were already sold out.

The show started punctually at 10 p.m., with the musicians coming to the stage in dimming light and started playing "TED" without any introduction. The volume was very high, and a little mixed up in the beginning but soon it got better. But the drums were a bit too low during the whole presentation.

The others songs followed: Strange Kind of Woman / Bludsucker / Pictures of Home / Almost Human / Woman From Tokyo / Watching the Sky / Fireball / I Feel Like Screaming / Any Fule Kno That / SM solo / Smoke on the Water / Lazy / Perfect Strangers / Speed King and the final encore Black Night and Highway Star.

The band was much more compact than the last tour. SM amused everybody in his solo, when he jammed with famous rock songs like "Whole Lotta Love", making the audience wait anxiously to find out which would be the next one to be played. RG also had a more active participation during the show.

The two members who were the highlights of the night were IG and SM. IG was perfect, he did not save his voice for the next shows, he cried out at his maximum during the whole presentation. I had never listened to his voice so clear and high before, even when his band played years ago. It is interesting that IG is now the maestro of the band, commanding with gestures, like Blackmore did before. SM was like hell, very inventive, creative, fast. He played too much, but yet leaving space for the other instruments. Both were very charismatic too.

JL was a little disappointing. His solo was very short and not very creative. The fans missed the classical inserts he used to do. Also he was too static; we wanted him to be almost knocking over his organ, like he did in the last tour. However, IG asked and he played "AQUARELA DO BRASIL" for the Brazilian fans.

It was actually a marvellous show, better than most fans expected and the improvement from the last tour was noticed. You will not find anyone of the audience dissatisfied with the gig.

Like IG sang in 1970, "Oh What a Night"!

E. Kaneco


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