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Fantastic (farewell?)
Deep Purple live at Fox Theatre (Detroit, USA 2019-10-15)
After last nights performance I can’t help wondering (perhaps hoping) if there maybe yet another leg of this long goodbye tour. The energy , the quality of the show all around was among the top performances I’ve seen from these gentleman! One moment at the end of Perfect Strangers, the band silhouetted by back lighting, Ian with arms outstretched , it felt timeless. Neither young nor old, just pure joy in the music. Space ‘truckin was another highlight as they waved the crowd to “Come on!” With smiles on the whole band. The entire show was filled with great moments. Don and Roger gave incredible solos, Paicey drove space truckin into an intensely amazing place, Steve’s solos were alternately fun and beautiful, Ian having a great time and when they did “Sometimes I feel like Screaming “ , well I was a bit emotional don’t mind saying. Thanks gents, for all the decades of music and great shows! Who knows? Maybe one more goodbye?
review by Victor
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Finally,some reviews !
October 18th, 2019 at 14:16Thanks to Victor,and everyone who posted.
It still stings a bit that Canada didn’t get any shows,but I’m glad this US trek seemed to go quite well.
Please include The Great White North next time……if there IS a next time.
Thanks for the great review. Happy to hear they’re doing SIFLS again. One of the greatest Morse era songs. I’d love to hear them playing Loosen My Strings as well.
October 19th, 2019 at 10:32It’s practically a given that when the group finally make ‘that’ decision, the final shows will be in the UK, with the last probably in London.
October 19th, 2019 at 15:29It’s my 20th time I’ve seen Deep Purple I’ve seen them 3 times with Ritchie the rest with Steve they just keep on going as good as it gets
October 20th, 2019 at 14:51@ 4……I agree. I Have seen Deep Purple 235 times live ,and they have never disappointed.
October 23rd, 2019 at 12:35Great review!
October 23rd, 2019 at 19:24I was at the 10/16 show in Cleveland and I can say the energy and performance in the room that night matches with Victor’s review of the night before.
I have seen them many times since their days on the Perfect Strangers tour through now.
This show and the time I saw them on the Purpendicular tour at the EJ Thomas Hall in Akron, OH rank as my favorites.
The final show of the US tour in Minneapolis (Oct 19, 2019) was a high energy performance by the five virtuoso musicians who clearly look like they are enjoying playing together for us. The big surprises were Demon’s Eye, which I hadn’t seen performed before, the guitarist from the opening band joining in on Smoke on the Water, and an extended encore of Hush and Black Night with a medley of jams leading into each. This was the 9th time that I’ve seen the band and 4th time during the Long Goodbye. If this really is the last time that I’ll see them live then they went out winners at the top of their game, and it doesn’t get any better than that.
October 25th, 2019 at 03:18Deep Purple (Born Again) at The Beacon, October 8, 2019
First off, sorry for the delay in sharing my humble thoughts…
I was so pumped after the show that during the ride home to CT I was trying to formulate the right words and thoughts to describe the amazing performance that I had just witnessed, but life got in the way with family, work, travel, etc., etc., etc….
The Beacon is my favorite venue in the states and it suits my favorite band very well, especially from the perspective of sheer acoustics and intimacy. And, boy, did they deliver?!?
Playing to a sold out joint, it didn’t take long to figure out that our boys were in top form. They stormed the stage with Highway Star and for the rest of the show did not bother to look back.
With egos clearly checked at the door, my heroes were completely in charge of the moment playing with both reckless abandon and, at the same time, fully at ease with their history and themselves.
Yes, the songs included mainly older material, but it was evident from the performance that the guys were not going to rest on their laurels. The energy was high, the music was intensely dramatic, and the craftsmanship was simply superb.
Each member was in top form, especially big Ian, who was loving the crowd’s reaction. Quick side note. I saw the Stones at the Meadowlands in August and was impressed by Jagger and the band, given their respective ages. But, again, when counting the backups and various musicians, etc., the Stones were a total of 12 musicians onstage…versus our five.
Back to big Ian…It is not realistic to even try to use his heyday as a benchmark, so I will stay out of that luring trap. He sounded great, and was in complete command. I can’t think of many, if any at all, other singers that are his age and that can still perform the same demanding material anywhere near as well as our big Ian did.
It felt like this band in Born Again. Luckily, I have seen and met them a few times, including a few years back at Jones Beach with Alice Cooper, where big Ian sounded a bit strained. I had read somewhere that he had a cold, which made sense.
They played Jones Beach the following year with Judas Priest and big Ian sounded better than the year before (with Cooper). But if the Beacon show is any indication, big Ian sounded so good that my fear of them suddenly riding into the sunset is, hopefully, totally unjustified.
I won’t go into the set list as the entire show was top notch, but Demon’s Eye was a highlight for me.
Forget about the shaky , low quality YouTube videos that surface here and there. These guys are hot and they seem to immensely be enjoying playing live. With age an unpredictable factor, i hope they stay healthy as long as possible to keep doing what they did at the Beacon.
DP still deliver, big time. In today’s day and age, their seems to be a dying craft. Forget about Made in Japan! There will never be anything like it again.
Go see them if you get a chance. Keep your expectations reasonable, and enjoy one hour and a half of a musical experience that I doubt any other band can deliver with DP’s authenticity, authority and craftsmanship.
I did.
October 26th, 2019 at 03:16I saw them on October 12th in Indianapolis. It was my sixth show and I was initially reluctant to go fearing they might show their age, but I could not have been more wrong. The show was filled with energy and although I was about 20 rows back, I could see they were enjoying themselves and the crowd was enjoying the performance. “Demons Eye,” was a welcome surprise as was “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming.” The band was very strong with Airey being the lynchpin much of the night. I’m a Lord devotee, but Don showed he has the chops and is no longer just a replacement, but a full-fledged member. It’s my hope they make(at least) one more run through the American Midwest. I have no doubt it takes a tremendous amount of stamina to perform for 110-minutes, and the crowds may not be what they once were, but the people that do come are fans of a unique style of music-that which is played on real instruments by people with tremendous heart and ability. If it is in fact they’re last time around, DP added to their long canon of memorable performances.
November 2nd, 2019 at 18:26