Back to
South American & Mexican reviews

Current reviews

photos

more photos

online video

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

1. Highway Star
2. Woman From Tokyo
3. Silver Tongue
4. Lazy
5. Contact Lost
6. Haunted
7. Space Truckin'
8. I Got Your Number
9. Knockin' At Your Back Door
10. [Baroque Jam]
11. House Of Pain
12. Don's Solo
13. Perfect Strangers
14. Steve / Roger / Paicey's Jam
15. Smoke On The Water

16. Hush
17. Black Night

First of all, thank you for the greatest concert of the year! I just got back home and it's impossible to sleep!
I've seen the band once, in 1999, but I wasn't very familiar with the songs at that time. Tonight I could enjoy it way more than the first time.
You guys were amazing, looking so happy and excited in front of thousands of people who got lucky to see Deep Purple live this year. Too bad there were chairs in a big part of the place, but some people in the back didn't care at all, jumping the fence between them and the chairs!
The news songs sounded great. I could see that just a few people knew the songs and sung along. I'm one of them! I went bananas during "House of Pain"! "Contact Lost"... pure emotion, what a feeling from this one.
Great solos by Morse and Airey, incredible. Airey's skills, the classic themes and the funny themes, everything! He really is the only one who could be on the keyboards since Lord left. Yeah, Morse played a bit of "Sweet Child O' Mine", but it's ok. Great cover medley including AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Beatles etc.
The classic songs were pefect. Opening with "Highway Star" was an ass kicking thing! I missed a few songs, from In Rock and Fireball, but all the songs were great! The encore with "Hush" and "Black Night" was a good choice, as usual. Excellent set list.
Sorry about my limited english. If I could send this e-mail in portuguese, it would look more exciting, for sure!
Thank you once again!
Cheers with Caipirinha! :)
Bernardo

Just arrived home from the show, and I can say I'm not a bit disappointed. Technically the show was perfect. Don Airey, Ian Paice and Roger Glover were perfect. Steve Morse more than perfect. But there were some low points.
Comparing to the shows I saw on the Abandon tour, this was quite short (less than 2 hours). Classics like Strange Kind of Woman, Speed King, Child In Time, Fireball, Pictures of Home were left out and none of the material from Purpendicular or Abandon was played. The drum solo could be a lot longer and it seemed that Ian Gillan was a bit tired.
In the overall it was a very good show, but not great, and the songs form Bananas sounded excellent live.
Hope to see them soon
Long Live Deep Purple!
Guilherme Vanni, Rio, Brazil

Just got back from the venue and I can still hear bells inside my head along with the feeling of shaking all DP's hands.
Arrived at the ATL Hall about 5:00 pm, what gave me more than enough time to get prepared to see the band. As it was raining the security guys moved us from the outdoors to another entrance, inside the shopping area where the venue is located. The crowd was really excited, and as the security was amused with so many people to be patted and metal-searched they were doing a so bad work that I got in there carrying lots of coins, cell phone, keys and a tape recorder. Getting into the Hall looked for the Tour Programme but it wasn't being sold. Too bad!
In the hall, the chairs were standing in front of the stage, and behind it all was located the no-chairs area (where I was). The crowd got really mad with that, because when we bought the tickets we were told that the chairs would be in the upstairs. Another bad point! The crowd almost started a riot, and some people got hurt a bit.
The third bad point goes to the opening act. It wasn't even anounced on the ads! So we got there to see DP and got a band called Laguna before 'em playing a couple of mediocre songs and some bad covers (Pulp Fiction's Misirlou and Beatles). Boo! The frontman wasn't even male enough to reply the "boos" and thanked the good reception! Doh!
Some minutes more, and the 9:30 pm anounced DP got on the stage at 10:00 pm. Turned on my tape recorder and let the music flow.
They opened with the more than classic Highway Star, followed by Woman From Tokyo and some "Obrigado". Then came the first new song of the night: Silver Tongue, which amused the crowd with its so potent riff. Superb. Right after, Don introduced us with a beautiful solo to Lazy. At this point the audience went nuts, and Gillan got really excited with the concert. But every amusement came down with Morse's Contact Lost. Incredible instrumental song, followed by the fantastic Haunted. I personally liked this part a lot, but the guys around me that were waiting for all those big hard hits got a bit disappointed, calling that a Dixie Purple or Deep Dregs sound. And I can't see what's wrong with that!
To lift everybody to the stars once more, Space Truckin' was the right vehicle. At this time the chorus was sung by the audience higher than the 2 PA system. Although Paicey's solo during the song wasn't as exciting as it used to be, it was still unbeliavable.
After, they did one more new song: I Got Your Number. Really good vibe, the crowd even sang along with Roger and Steve on the chorus. Good one! But I still think this song sounds like a Rush tune, and Roger's low-tuned voice sounds like Alex Lifeson's sometimes. Following this one, Knocking At Your Back Door and Well Dressed Guitar were done. Then Don started to show his real abilities and virtuosity. When it ended, Ian got back with his harmonica and did a really small jam with Roger, just to get ready to the House of Pain. The song really's got everything to become a new DP classic. For sure, the most impressive of their new stuff.
When the House of Pain ended, Don was alone to show why he can be as good (if not better than) Jon "The" Lord. He played some J. S. Bach, Mr. Crowley's intro, Tom Jobim's Chega de Saudade, some funny piano tunes, Beethoven's, Garota de Ipanema and the Star Wars Theme. Back to the legendary Hammond Organ, he casted a few more solo notes and then the so awaited Perfect Strangers intro. It was just perfect! Don really got the brazilian crowd heart! This song was so amazingly sung by everybody in the room that I hardly can listen to Ian's voice on my tape.
When I thought they were ready to leave the room, Steve jammed with Roger and Paicey the following: Guns' Sweet Child o' Mine, Hendrix' Hey Joe, AC/DC's Back in Black, Zep's Whole Lotta Love and Beatles' Here Comes The Sun. It surely was ended with Smoke On The Water. Do I have to say it was incredible?
Then they left the stage under the more than happy screams of "Deep Purple" and "Mais um" ("one more song", in portuguese). When the choir started chanting Black Night, the brazilian's fave, they got back to do Hush, which included a small Paicey's solo and the more than perfect Don's and Steve's solos.
Hush ended up in a small jam that made the bridge to the darker than ever Black Night. The crowd went crazy, and Steve soloed as hell, playing phrases that were immediately repeated by the audience. It was a magic moment.
After all the show was over. The audience kept screaming for Deep Purple after all Ian's nice words, and just got out of the hall after the lights went in. The nice thing of the end is that someone that was standing near the stage gave to Ian a full set of musical miniature instruments made of aluminium. He got so amazed with that he kissed the guy who did that.
After the concert, I went outdoors with some pals to wait for the band at the artists exit. When we saw Paicey getting into the van and the guard didn't let us go there, I got so mad that I started screaming for him. He came and signed my Bananas sleeve and took some pictures with another fans that were there. When he was going back to the van, I asked him to tell the other guys to come too. He did, and so we had Roger, Steve and Ian signing, shaking hands and posing for pics.
As Don didn't come, I asked Roger to go to him with my Bananas sleeve so he could sign that for me. And he did it! When the vans left the parking lot, everyone around 'em started clapping and screaming some words that we learned with Ian...
"Unbeliavable!" "Superb!" "Incredible!" :-)
Rom Ehalt

I didn't take a look at the set list sheet, so when the show started I had no idea they had changed it. Highway Star was brilliant as ever and was followed by Woman From Tokyo. A funny introduction from Gillan to Silver Tongue which was not so exciting for the audience. The bands can't expect Brazilians fans will know all about the new songs. The album was just released, we didn't have much time, most of people will wait a while until buy the album, it's not like Europe.
Marcel Vinicius de Morais - read Marcel's full review

It was 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...
Rodrigo Werneck - read Rodrigo's full review