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Things I Never Said – Mannheim
This is the most professional show of the new line up and it features the best balanced set they have ever played. (I think I can say that, as I have seen the band on all their tours in the last 10 years.) If you have the chance: Do yourself an immense favour and go and catch a show!
Most evident is, that there are two huge screens left and right of the stage. The show starts with a short film (it’s very funny, so I’m not going to spoil your fun!). During the concert they show mainly the particular protagonist who’s doing a solo. There even is a picture of Frank Zappa at a given moment (what do you think, in which song?).
Next thing is, that there are 12 upright spotlights (how do you name them?) behind the band. During the show they are flashing in all different colours. The third new element are two digital screens on stage. During the songs they feature different impressions and visions (For example, you can see notes during Don’s solo). As I said before: Everything is very huge and professional. Big Ian has introduced a new gimmick: He is playing Airey-Keyboard…
Now to the show: The set list has been told in other reviews, so I won’t repeat it here.
Things I Never Said is a very good tune with a catchy chorus. I heard it the second time tonight, because I have also been in Stuttgart a few days earlier and the melody still is in my head. If it were on the new album, it would be one of the best songs! I have to get the special tour edition of the album just because of that song alone! I can’t understand why they didn’t include it on the European version of Rapture Of The Deep. It’s a superb live song, it really is!
It is very nice to have another oldie in the show, that has never been played live before – Living Wreck. Don’s organ howls just like Jon’s organ on the In Rock album. Unfortunately the song doesn’t work so well as a live song, so I think that they will drop it sooner or later.
Rapture Of The Deep is a classic in the making! It has almost the potential of (for example) Perfect Strangers. Arguably the best song of the new line-up since Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming, maybe even better. Before Time Began is a nice song but doesn’t work so well on stage. How about including Money Talks instead?
I witnessed in several shows now, that Steve’s Well-Dressed Guitar is a crowd-pleaser par excellence! The cheers in the crowd never reach the level again for the entire show. That happened several times now, so I guess, here we have another classic.
Junkyard Blues was dropped (as it was in Stuttgart), so I guess it is out of the show now. IMHO the song is the weakest number on Rapture Of The Deep, so I think that’s O.K., but I read in other reviews that they played the song very well and did a lot of solos. So who knows? Maybe they release a live album of the tour, so we all get a chance to hear it.
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye is a good song but I’m sure it will be dropped at the end of the tour. It sits uncomfortably between Perfect Strangers and Space Truckin’.
Highway Star kicked off with a very nice duett between Roger and Steve. I just gets faster and faster. They didn’t play Speed King (like they did in Stuttgart), but replaced it with Hush. Both songs are nice and both songs feature little Ian’s drum solo (one handed drum roll included), but I just prefer Speed King. It featured longer solos and big Ian’s nonsense part, where he even started to recite his self written poem My aunt nelly’s got a big fat belly and tits tied up with string. She sits on the grass with a finger up her arse singing help God save the queen.
Black Night’ was the last encore and the 1 hour 45 minutes show was over.
Deep Purple seem to get better and better! It’s as simple as that
Harald Liesk
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing