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First ever show in Wellington
Deep Purple’s first ever show in Wellington! The venue was the Queens Wharf Events Centre on Wellington’s waterfront. Upstairs was full and downstairs about half full. There was a good range of ages here tonight.
The set list was predictable with four new tracks thrown in from Rapture of the Deep and a selection of older classics. I would have liked to have heard Woman From Tokyo and something different from the Purpendicular album in place of Ted The Mechanic and Mary Long.
I’d also like to see the old formula from Steve’s solo through to the end of Don’s solo changed somewhat as they have been using it for quite some time now. But in general it was still a satisfying set list with a mix of new and old.
Of the new material I was particularly impressed with the heaviness of Wrong Man and the title track Rapture of the Deep with it’s Middle Eastern sound and feel, especially the keyboards.
The crowd, initially a little quiet to start with during the newer material came to life with encouragement from Ian Gillan during the second half of the show. During the last five classic tracks there was plenty of loud clapping and cheering providing great atmosphere to the energetic band performance.
At one point Gillan came back on stage wearing an All Blacks rugby shirt which was a nice acknowledgement for the Kiwi crowd. He commented “I’m not worthy of wearing this.”
The band seem to be really enjoying their first show of this leg of the tour. It was just great to see them back in New Zealand. Due to our geographic locality we don’t get as many rock concerts outside of Auckland.
Set list:
Pictures of Home
Things I Never Said
Wrong Man
Ted The Mechanic
Rapture Of The Deep
Mary Long
Contact Lost
– Steve solo –
Well Dressed Guitar
Lazy
– Don solo –
Perfect Strangers
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Space Truckin
Highway Star
Smoke On The Water
Hush (encore)
Black Night (encore)
Ben Doyle
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