House of Blues Saturday Night Show
The Saturday night show was evidence of how magnificent Deep Purple still
is as a band. The performance of Ian Paice was particularly notable. The
dynamic quality and expert precision of his drumming was absolutely splendid.
Roger Glover was totally awesome, especially during "Pictures of Home". Ian
Gillan was putting on a stellar performance. He entertained the crowd
thoroughly with his charisma and silver throated vocals. Jon Lord and Steve
Morse had some excellent interactive lead solos. Steve would lay out some
blazing lead notes. Then Jon Lord would roll up his sleeves and just like in
the days of old, he would produce some incredible sounds from his Hammond
organ.
They played practically all of the hit songs. Opening with the song
"Hush" brought back memories of hearing them for the first time. Deep Purple
was catapulted into the highest echelon of the rock music world, and on this
night, they proved why they are the greatest band of all time. "Highway Star"
was absolutely dynamite. "Fireball" was hotter than hell. "Speed King" rocked
the building into the ground. "Perfect Strangers" was well, totally perfect.
The crowd was enjoying every second of this event, and for a moment I had a
feeling that the roof of the House of Blues, was going to be blown off onto
Sunset Blvd. The highlight of the evening was the new song "Seventh Heaven".
I am looking forward to the studio version of this excellent piece of work.
This was an outstanding performance by Deep Purple. At times the mix was
muddy. Maybe we can blame it on "El Nino", or perhaps an intoxicated sound
man.
Next time I would like to hear the keyboards of Jon Lord much louder, just
like on the Made in Japan album. Or as Ian Gillan would say, "turn up
everything louder than everything else". We are looking forward to the return
of Deep Purple to Southern California in the summer of 1998. Guys, come back
anytime, we will welcome you back with thunderous applause...
Cheers,
Terry Coakley
[ reviews | the highway star ]