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ATL Hall, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
September 16, 2003

It is the 5th time that Purple comes to play here in Brazil. First time was only in 1991, with Blackmore and Lord but without Gillan, and the concerts were rather disappointing. Then they returned with Morse already in 1997 (Purpendicular Tour), 1999 (Abandon Tour), and 2000 (Concerto Tour). What was different this time was that they are playing here as the major attraction of the so-called "Kaiser Music Festival". Kaiser is the name of a Brazilian beer produced by Coca-Cola Company (as you can probably guess, not exactly a good beer by any means!), and this is much more a project rather than a festival. They already brought artists such as Roger Waters, Kansas, and pop artists in the past, and although Deep Purple has a reasonably big name amongst rockers here, it was quite a surprise to see them listed for this edition of the event. They usually play here for audiences varying from 5,000 to 10,000 people, but this year I guess they will be playing for bigger audiences, ranging probably from 7,000 to 30,000, depending on the city and venue. This all due to the huge promotion provided by Coca-Cola/Kaiser.

Anyway, a big let down for the concert here in Rio was that instead of only selling stand up tickets, this year they decided to sell seated places in the front, and then placed a stand up area in the back! Of course, a lot of confusion happened, and Deep Purple even asked them to remove all the tables from the front area (or it would look like a "Las Vegas gig"!). People from the stand up area literally invaded the seated area, and it all was transformed into a stand up area at the end of the day! :-) Well, that's rock'n'roll...

Scheduled to begin at 9:30pm, the concert actually began at 10pm with "Highway Star". The spirits were high, the band seemed to be enjoying the return to Rio and Brazil, as their concerts are always very hot here. It was easy to notice that the sound was *really* loud, and not too clear but good enough. The lighting was top notch, and very well managed by - probably - someone who came with the band, i.e., in sync with the music. The public was crazy about Steve's performance, especially when he was playing Blackmore's famous guitar solo and licks. Gillan's voice was great. I can't really understand why people tend to say bad words about his voice nowadays... for God's sake, the guy is almost 60 years old and sings with so much passion and still has a very strong voice! OK, the screams are not as they used to be, but he's still Gillan. Paicey and Glover were efficient as always, it has to be a pleasure to have them providing such a solid foundation. Most of the people around me were mentioning how good they thought Don Airey was. I wasn't surprised, the guy has history with so many great bands and artists, and he was in my opinion the perfect choice to substitute Mr. Lord. His Hammond organ sound was awesome, a bit "thinner" and brighter than Lord's, but still very very good!

Next song was "Woman From Tokyo", and everyone were singing along with the band. Time for a new song, and it was "Silver Tongue". Not bad at all, nice work on synths and guitar. Then Airey was left alone to start what would be one of my favorite songs live: "Lazy". Astounding rendition, followed by some other new songs: the Morse instrumental "Contact Lost", enhanced with some extra guitar licks, and "Haunted", nicer than I thought it would be (I prefer the live, rawer version of the song), and with incredible and powerful vocals by Gillan.

Then I was for "Bananas", and as a matter of fact I was very curious to see the duels between Airey and Morse alive, but what we got was "Space Truckin'" instead. Not that I really had something to complain, as this was one of the highlights of the night! One of the best versions I ever saw, with a mad performance by Mr. Paice! Following, the new instrumental called "Well Dressed Guitar", that apparently will make it as a bonus track for the Japanese release of "Bananas" (??)... what can I say, once again a stupefying performance by Airey and Morse! Great song, period. Ideal for gigs...

Lights off, time for a hit here in Brazil: "Knocking At Your Back Door". The crowd singing together with the band, the atmosphere was full of positive energy. Next was "House Of Pain", which is a good song but not one of my faves from the new album, and if I could choose one change in the setlist I would replace this one for "Bananas". The Don Airey keyboards extravaganza was kinda long but very interesting and acclaimed by the audience. He was really impressive playing the Hammond, the synths, piano... with a mix of classical stuff, Brazilian popular music, and even the theme for Star Wars (with the lights above him imitating lasers!). Very good, the guy has class.

Then it was time for another new song, one that really shines live: "I Got Your Number". Good vibrations and great performance by the whole band, who seemed to be really enjoying their time, which is something nice to see after 35 years of career... Morse, Glover and Airey singing the backing vocals, with Gillan making jokes all the time behind them. The place almost melt down when Airey began to play "Perfect Strangers". Time for the lights to be switched on, and everyone were singing with all their efforts. This songs is always a winner in this neck of woods.

The usual musical trickery by Steve Morse (this time together with Paice and Glover) precedes "Smoke On The Water". They played parts of Guns N'Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine", AC/DC's "Back In Black", The Kinks' "You Really Got Me", The Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun", plus other very well known songs by Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, etc. Always the perfect song for the end of the regular set, no further comments needed.

A short break before returning, and then "Hush" and "Black Night" were played, to finish a brilliant night that wasn't perfect only because the set wasn't long enough to complete satisfy the crowd, the total running time being of 1:35 hour. No one seemed to enjoy the idea of leaving, but unfortunately it was time to go home. A huge line was formed to leave the parking lot of ATL Hall, but my friends and I decided to stay for an hour more and drink a few more beers before leaving (a clever move, if you ask me!).

That's it... the band doesn't seem to get old, and apparently have much more to show! Rock'n'roll...

Rodrigo Werneck
www.uriah-heep.com
www.ken-hensley.com