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Southern Germany rocks
A short report from the gigs in Ravensburg (Saturday, August 2nd) and Benediktbeuren (Sunday, August 3rd):
The sound was excellent, in Ravensburg/Oberschwabenhalle quite bearable regarding volume, at least my ears didn’t ring afterwards although I didn’t wear earplugs (so either my ears are so jaded meanwhile or it was more quiet as usual). In Benediktbeuren (Open Air in the court of the abbey) was significantly louder, but here the open courtyard had to be filled.
The ambience in the abbey of Benediktbeuren of course was extraordinary. But the surroundings were unprofessional. The box office was after the security check! The men’s restrooms were outside. To eat they offered only sausage, cheese or fish rolls (we expected roast pork), to drink they had beer, apple juice and mineral water – no Weizen, no Cola. I expected the abbey kitchen to be much better, and the Lenten season is long over.
The opening band in Ravensburg was not – as announced – Gotthard (for whom a lot of Swiss fans waited in vain), but Andrew Paul Woodworth from Los Angeles. A name you don’t need to remember. I myself will try to forget it asap. Drums, bass, keyboards and acoustic guitar. The style, well how should I call it, Softrockpop? Elevator music might fit best. It was not really bad, but didn’t fit as opener for hard rock at all. And didn’t go down well for the audienc. But at least Mr Woodworth had a good voice.
In Benediktbeuren the opener Feedback was a real highlight. There plays abbot Notker Wolf, the highest man in the Benedictine order. He is a convinced hard rock fan and plays transverse flute (Locomotive Breath) and guitar. Their own songs were straight hard rock, style partly like AC/DC, Status Quo, Purple and other classics.
Deep Purple themselves were in excellent playing mood, in R. almost 2 hours, in B. a bit shorter, because at 10 pm it is sleeping time in the abbey. In R. Ian had a wonderful voice, many screams and duets with Steve, like the good ol’ times. In B. it was much harder for him. Due to the choice of songs and Steves long solos he had a lot of time to recover his voice. Because of that the whole gig was very guitar bound. Steves solos in the songs and his solo pieces were (as usual) first class.
For SOTW abbot Notker came on the stage again and played the famous riff (with a lot of help from Steve with the timing). Both obviously had a lot of fun, and the abbot was absolutely happy and proud to stand on stage together with his idols – who would hold it against him.
Altogether two great evenings, and the long travel froom Stuttgart (and the way back in the night) was worth it.
Little anecdote besides: after the gig in Benediktbeuren the boys disappeared directly from stage into the bus and left everybody waiting for a backstage meeting out in the rain (well not really, it was blue skies, perfect open air weather). The official explanation said that the travel to the next gig was so long and they had to leave immediately.
I heard directly from the tour assistant, that the boys simply wanted to avoid the expected traffic jam around the abbey and wanted to drive as fast as possible to the hotel. However the next gig is in Copenhagen – two days later.
The setlist:
Fireball –
Into The Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Demons Eye (Ravensburg only)
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (Benediktbeuren only)
Contact Lost with solo Steve Morse
Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
Wring That Neck
Well Dressed Guitar
The Battle Rages On
Don Airey Solo
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin’
Jam of Roger and Steve, leading into Highway Star
Smoke on the Water
Encores:
Speed King with duel between Steve and Don, Solo Roger and another jam with Ian G. (Ravensburg only)
Hush with Solo Ian Paice
Black Night (in Benediktbeuren Solo of Roger as intro)
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
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