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What an “Experience”!
Deep Purple live at Fremont Street Experience (Las Vegas, USA 2014-08-15)
My wife and I made the trek to Vegas for Purple and we were rewarded with a great show.We usually head to LV once a year so it worked out that we could catch the band there as well. We took off Thursday morning and headed north up the I15 Freeway and saw the first billboard promoting the show going through Apple Valley CA in the High Desert.Nice.About 3 and a half hours later we arrived at The Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino on Freemont Street to find even more billboards and banners for the gig and checked in for the weekend.We were 2 blocks away from where the show would take place.Spent most of Friday at the pool but got cleaned up and I decided to check out the stage and see what was going on when lo and behold Don is sound checking his keys when he sees me watching from the side and tells his tech to come get my Now What cd book for him to sign for me.How cool. About 7:30 they opened up the area for the concert but the front section was fenced off for special guests and radio people . Freemont was jammed by 8:30 and about 5 minutes before showtime a lady asks me and Lisa if we’d like to be in the VIP section up front.Hell yes we would! My Burn retro tour shirt might have caught her eye but it was more likely my beautiful wife who got us in there.We end up about 4-5 people deep from the stage where RG and IP will be.Lights go down and the guys come on and right away I’m nearly floored by Paicey’s first kick of the bass drum.It was LOUD and you felt it from head to toe . We were in for a good night.Highway Star gets things going and Gillan is sounding good.Steves guitar is piercing but just right and the whole sound is perfect.Into the Fire and Big Ian nails it! Crowd is eating it up and loving it.Set is the same as Costa Mesa but tonight we get the added bonus of The Mule about mid set . I’ve never seen them do this so it’s the highlight of the show for me.Paice put his all into the solo and is given a healthy applause from the crowd.I preferred Don and Steve’s solos at Costa Mesa but that’s a minor complaint.Lazy went down a storm! The majority of the crowd sang the verses and chorus with Gillan while the band was locked in and rocking this version.Wonderful stuff.Encore time and the guys come back out and go into a little Vegas lounge cabaret music.Too funny.Green Onions leads in to an extended Hush then Black Night finishes it off .Walking around Freemont Street afterwards and we keep hearing people who had never seen Purple talk about how awesome DP were and I was proud to be fan for the last 30 plus years.Thanks to Ian, Roger, Ian, Steve and Don and come back soon guys.
Steve Hunt
review by Steve Hunt
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Old Rockers Die, They just “Not” fade away..General Douglas MacArthur..haha…
August 18th, 2014 at 12:44Thaks for the Good Review….
Nice review. My friend Paul S should have been there as he is a photographer for ‘Vegas Rocks’. I’ll ask him for his thoughts and maybe some shots he took of the show.
August 18th, 2014 at 16:14Pretty good luck getting into the VIP section .Thanks for your thoughts on the show . Too bad they’re going back at the end of the month .May be a long time until we see them in the U.S. again .
August 18th, 2014 at 20:47What is on Steve’s Right Hand. He’s wear some kind of brace. Does he have arthritis, tendonitis or Carpal Tunnel????
August 20th, 2014 at 03:49Scott @4 See my video of the 8/8/14 show here at comment #29:
http://www.thehighwaystar.com/reviews/2014/08/12/the-loudest-band-in-the-world/#comment-262556
August 20th, 2014 at 16:14He wore that brace that night in Lincoln too. I mentioned it in my review.
My wife and I also made the trip from SoCal to Las Vegas for the show and we had a great time. I sat in the outdoor bar at the Four Queens and was no more than 15′ from the stage.The band was loud, powerful and precise as they went thru a set list with lots of old songs that sounded wonderful. Fremont Street was packed, with a estimate from security of 15,000 to 20,000 people who cheered, yelled and sang from start to finish. It was a great, great time for us and the band really seemed to be having fun, no doubt because of the party atmosphere and the large crows. Great place to see a world-class band and hopefully next year they will come back.
August 20th, 2014 at 18:27Tom,
August 20th, 2014 at 22:41That’s awesome you got to sit in the outside bar.I looked into that but was told it would cost 50 bucks.Is that true? Anyway it worked out for us getting into the VIP.I thought the crowd was big, I’d never seen so many people on Freemont before and we go there often.Yes the sound was perfect wasn’t it? The bass drum kicked you in the gut but didn’t drown out the rest of the band.
Cool Experience. Deep Purple at The Fremont Experience.
August 21st, 2014 at 06:47Here are some pictures from the first night.
http://citywestvideo.com/
Steve- It did cost $ 50.00 for the wrist band but with my bad knees, it was well worth it. Besides the VIP section looked pretty packed . Downtown is a great venue for live music and the crowds are always in the mood.
August 23rd, 2014 at 16:37