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Friday night in Rio de Janeiro…
As perhaps the international rock act that has visited us most times in the recent years, Deep Purple once again arrived in Brazil for the third visit in the rather long Rapture of the Deep tour.
A Deep Purple gig is always something very rewarding. The band clearly love what they do, with 40 years of experience on their back, and oozing technical skills and feeling in equal proportions. The repertoire has been mounted on a well balanced mix of classics and newer stuff, as already reported by others in this forum. The classics couldn’t be left out of the concert, like the indefectible “Highway Star”, “Black Night”, “Strange Kind Of Woman”, ”Space Truckin’”, “Lazy”, “Pictures Of Home” and “Smoke On The Water”. It is clear that at least here in Brazil the Purps managed to “renew” their public, and lots of teenagers are seen in the audience, most of them probably seeing the band live for the very first time. This surely helps a lot to build the excitement.
In any way, for the old hardcore fans (amongst whom I include myself) a couple of unusual songs are always inserted for good measure. This time, the selected few were “Into The Fire” from “In Rock” and “Mary Long” from “Who Do We Think We Are”, along with “The Battle Rages On” from the album of the same title. A song that has become a classic and is always sung in unison by the public, “Perfect Strangers” couldn’t be left out as well. It has achieved a “classic” status here in Brazil, and Gillan’s voice was sometimes inaudible due to the audience’s reaction and singing (no complains there!).
From recent years, no big surprises, and instrumentals such as “Contact Lost” and “The Well-Dressed Guitar” were included in the midst of Steve Morse’s solo and riff parade. From “Rapture of the Deep” the choices were the same as in previous years: “Things I Never Said”, “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” and the great “Rapture of the Deep” and its oriental-music-based melodies, almost sounding like Morse-era’s “Perfect Strangers” in terms of style and “stage effectiveness”.
Some details, though, diminished the full enjoyment of the experience this time. The opening act was correct and solid but nothing more than that, a Brazilian hard rock band called Inquisição (yes, you got it, “Inquisition”). After that, a huge delay followed allegedly due to problems with equipments being stuck in São Paulo, before coming to Rio.
Only after 11:30pm the Purps came on stage, looking a bit tired and playing a somewhat bureaucratic set. Hence the reduced setlist: “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” and “Hush” (and Paicey’s drum solo) were sacked. Well, at least we didn’t lose “Loosen My Strings”, a song that at least I was expecting to see performed live here.
That said, Deep Purple in their not-so-good days are still able to play a very good show, and so it happened. Gillan’s voice was good but he was clearly avoiding the high notes. I guess age made him wiser in that respect! Always fun, though, to see him on stage, a man of great charisma indeed. Morse and Airey playing was as always in top form, and the same can be said about Glover and Paice, but being honest, now I am looking forward to a new studio album and a new setlist, as everything begins to become a bit obvious and this is clearly contradictory when it comes to Purple!
Setlist:
– Pictures Of Home
– Things I Never Said
– Into The Fire
– Strange Kind Of Woman
– Rapture Of The Deep
– Mary Long
– Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
– Contact Lost
– Steve Morse guitar solo
– The Well-Dressed Guitar
– The Battle Rages On
– Lazy
– Don Airey keyboards solo
– Perfect Strangers
– Space Truckin’
– Highway Star
– Smoke On The Water
Encore:
– Roger Glover bass solo
– Black Night
For those who already lost track, this was the eighth time the band came to play here, and it is worth mentioning that during the last five years they came a total of four times. Considering that Purple had never visited this neck of woods until their first South American tour in 1991 (“Slaves & Masters” tour), it is quite an achievement. The other visits happened in 1997 (“Purpendicular” tour), 1999 (“Abandon” tour), 2000 (“Concerto” tour), 2003 (“Bananas” tour), and then 2005 and 2006 (both as part of the “Rapture of the Deep” tour).
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Well Rodrigo, why did you change the meaning of your review when you translated it to english ? The short review of the opening act band performance would be a lot more pleasant if you just translated it literally from what you wrote in portuguese for Whiplash. Have you noticed that ?
Silvio
March 6th, 2008 at 13:39Silvio says:
Well Rodrigo, why did you change the meaning of your review when you translated it to english ? The short review of the opening act band performance would be a lot more pleasant if you just translated it literally from what you wrote in portuguese for Whiplash. Have you noticed that ?
Silvio
March 8th, 2008 at 03:19March 6th, 2008 at 13:39
Hi Silvio,
March 11th, 2008 at 15:43Hope this finds you well.
I made some (small) changes in my review when translating it to English as you could notice just for the sake of having it more focused to the international readers. Well, changing “solid and vibrant” for “solid and correct” doesn’t really implies in a very different meaning, does it? Let’s face it, it wasn’t even really a review of the opening act, just a few words… I suppose you play with Inquisição and if for any reason you think I deliberately said anything bad against your band, I apologize for that but in fact I didn’t.
All the best,
RW
Oi rapezes tudo bom.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:24eu quero muito de assisto show com DP em Rio. Talvez proximo vez.
Just one little thing to comment on the setlist: Sometimes I feel like screaming was NOT in the setlist for this concert, it was included ONLY in São Paulo.
March 16th, 2008 at 20:12Hi Zito,
Yes, exactly as written above. 🙂 I wonder where did you read on this report that SIFLS was played…
Cheers,
Rod
March 19th, 2008 at 13:37Excellent review, I was there and it happened exactly like that!!! DPurple, please come back soon!!!!!
March 20th, 2008 at 00:48I said SIFLS was not on the setlist because you wrote: “Hence the reduced setlist: “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” and “Hush” (and Paicey’s drum solo) were sacked.”
SIFLS was not “sacked”, it wasn’t supposed to be played at all, only Hush was sacked because of the tech problems or whatever.
March 20th, 2008 at 13:40“it wasn’t even really a review of the opening act, just a few words”
Lol..of course ‘im fully aware of that and I thank you for spending a short time writing it.
And no I was not talking that simple change of words but this :
“Some details, though, diminished the full enjoyment of the experience this time. The opening act was correct and solid but nothing more than that, a Brazilian hard rock band called Inquisição (yes, you got it, “Inquisition”)”
The way it’s put in english makes us one of the factors that in your opinion has diminished the full enjoyment and so on but in Portuguese you said:
“Alguns aspectos, porém, diminuíram o brilho do espetáculo, dessa vez. Após a abertura dos trabalhos pela correta e vibrante banda Inquisição, os alto-falantes anunciaram um problema com equipamentos que teriam ficado retidos em São Paulo, e dessa forma chegado com atraso ao Rio”
For a good reader it made the meaning change a lot. And what about the ” nothing more than that” ? Lol. Was it really necessary ?
All the best
May 15th, 2008 at 19:30Hi Zito,
Nope, I saw the setlist printed and it did include SIFLS. I also talked to the band afterwards and they told me exactly what I wrote here… I rest my case! 😉
Hi Silvio,
Well, it seems that although you say otherwise, my opinion matters a lot to you. 😉 I think you should perhaps perform more live and gain more confidence. I wish you a lot of success in the coming future mate!
All the best,
Rod
May 31st, 2008 at 02:03LOL !!
September 25th, 2008 at 03:02No it really doesn’t ! Believe me ! lol
I’m dealing with it in a very friendly way !
I’m no kid !! lol Maybe if you knew me you would not waste your time with sarcastic thoughts…lol
I’ve been thru many things ……
Don’t make me think you’re just another product of the so called digital inclusion !! Please !
September 25th, 2008 at 03:24Don’t need to worry about the band. They’re fine !
September 25th, 2008 at 03:34From this end we are the ones who think you should practice more your writing and translation ..lol
You see ! It’s all just a matter of direction !
Hi “Silvio”,
September 25th, 2008 at 10:58Well, the “real Silvio” contacted me personally and stated you’re not him, so… Let’s leave it that way! 😉
Have a nice life mate, all the best,
Rod