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Pacaembú Stadium, São Paulo, Brazil
September 20, 2003

Highway Star
Woman From Tokyo
Silver Tongue
Lazy
Contact Lost / Steve Morse's Solo
Haunted
Space Truckin'
I Got Your Number
Knocking at Your Back Door
Well Dressed Guitar
House of Pain
Don Airey's Solo (including the intro of Mr. Crowley)
Perfect Strangers
Guitar Job (incuding Sweet Child of Mine - arrrgh; Stairway to Heaven's Solo, Day Tripper's Riff, among others)
Smoke on the Water

encore
Hush
Black Night

After some days of rain and cold in São Paulo the weather changed and here is what happened this Saturday night:
Hush, Black Night, Highway Star, Smoke On The Water, Lazy, Space Truckin', Woman From Tokyo, Knocking At Your Back Door, Perfect Strangers, House Of Pain, Haunted, Silver Tongue, I Got Your Number.
The band on stage was Deep Purple, the stadium was full and the crowd was on fire. At this point you may find your own conclusions: you know the songs, the band and the Brazilian audience.
It's easy to say good things about this night but I'll try to say a bad thing: right before Smoke On The Water, Steve Morse played a medley of famous songs. One of these songs was Sweet Child Of Mine (BLARG). This is the only bad thing to say about the concert.
Henrique Cunha Mateus

The fifth Deep Purple Tour on Brasil couldn't have a better atmosphere to happen in: brand new album, with a title that has a lot to do with our country - bananas are extremely important here, we are the second biggest world producers of the fruit and the first in consuming it, and for the olders, we have a very emblematic song that makes, let's call, a tribute to the fruit, called "Yes, Nós Temos Bananas", which means in english: "Yes, We have Bananas." So, we are the authentic Republic of Bananas, in the geographic, economic (and perhaps now, on the musical) sense.
The band received massive support by the media, which included several TV appearances, radio interviews, etc, as you read on The Highway Star pages on last days.
Bananas (the album, not the fruit) is selling very well, as you can see on the charts sent by another Brazilian friend.
So, the atmosphere is perfect, the Band is in a very nice moment, let's go to the concert in Pacaembu Stadium (my eleventh since 1991) , along with The Hellacopters and Sepultura....
And, from now on , I must say that I have mixed feelings, and it will be difficult put them in black and white.
The sound was great. The five of them were in great shape, Gillan sang the whole concert and not in a unique moment his voice went down or failed; Glover & Paice were perfect (which is their standard quote, since 1969 I guess) , Steve plays his Ernie Ball as if it was as easier a job as peeling a banana, and Don made Jon's role with competence.
The songs from Bananas were, all of them, fantastic. I missed the title track, but the other six(!) - I am including here "Well Dressed" - were powerful, and worked very well on stage.
But I felt a bit disappointed on other parts of the concert. The classics were there, Highway Star (as the concert kick off - something that never happened on Brazil: it was "Hush" in 91 and 97; "Ted" on 99 and The Concerto in 2000), Smoke on the Water, Black Night, Lazy, Perfect Stangers, etc... and we know they are expected to do them, and that is my point: sometimes they sounded as if they were playing just because they have to, and not because they wanted to. I couldn't see the band's energy on several moments during those songs, which never happened on previous tours (even on the erratic JLT era).
Don, IMHO, just emulates Jon, note by note, with very few (none, to be exact) contributions to the sound of Deep Purple. I don't dislike him, he is a great musician and seems to be a good fellow, but I can't change my oppinion on this. And, playing Star Wars Theme on his solo sounded a bit... unappropriated.
On the other hand, Steve Morse is amazing. By far, the best Steve's performance with DP I have seen here... ( I said my feelings were mixed...). He plays joyfully and smiles all the time, a great part of the set are songs he have penned, and he seem to be the member which is most having fun. And, that is my next question: Where are the Purpendicular classics? At least, Sometimes I feel like Screaming, could not be out of the set. What is a "square" version of Knocking on your Back door, a Blackmore's favourite, doing there instead? But he could have also Ted, Cascades, Hey Cisco, The Waltz....I think any of them represent much more the band today than KAYBD.
Space Truckin' was a good surprise, but it was again a square version, the Machine Head tune, note by note (sorry, I am adicted to 20 minutes versions of Space Truckin', that is why I call it "square"). And again here I appologize for not being able to say if it was nice or bad, I liked to hear the song live, but not the studio version...
Almost no solo from Paice (30 seconds on Black Night), no guitar x organ duelling (I expected to hear Bananas - the track - at the concert, but it didn't make it, as well as Speed King - the all-time vehicle for the duelling), and nothing from Fireball (a surprise, once the band has constantly performed songs from the album on last tours, even the less known ones).
But overall, it was a great night, the concert was superb, apart of my personnal mixed feelings - perhaps my admiration for the band is making me an insatiable, and the perfect concert should last four hours, something that can only pass through a brain which goes Bananas...
Fernando Mattedi

 

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