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Excellent show at Wantagh, NY
Deep Purple Live at Jones Beach Theater, September 1, 2024
– reviewed by The Highway Star reader Albania. Photo: DP WebCrew.
The guys were on fire and delivered an excellent show at the iconic Jones Beach Theater on New York’s Long Island on September 1, 2024.
Having been on the road for the prior two days at a soccer tournament for my 11-year-old, going to the September 1 show was going to be a showtime decision for me. After a four-hour drive from MA to CT, I got home at a somewhat reasonable hour to be borderline willing to buy two tickets last minute, pick up a friend nearby and drive together an hour and a half to the Jones Beach show.
YES had played a couple of tunes by the time we got there. They sounded great and are highly skilled as musicians. The current singer sounds a lot like Jon Anderson. Steve Howe is very impressive as a guitarist and harmonized very well with the singer.
After a two-year, $20 Million renovation, The Jones Beach Theater reopened its doors in July of 2024. It is an impressive venue with a capacity of 15,000. The uppermost tier was empty; my guess is that there were around 12,000 people there. It was a mix of ages, with a somewhat noticeable middle age component present.
DEEP PURPLE sounded great and came across as energetic. They were sharp and exciting. Little Ian and Roger were tight and thunderous. Simon feels even more at home than the first/prior time I saw him with DP in East Brunswick, NJ, in February of 2023. Big Ian was wonderful overall. He exuded happiness and was charismatic and sharp, especially with his in-between-song stories/anecdotes. Don was solid as ever and delivered the mighty wall of sound that has for some time now become his signature with the Purps. The new material (see setlist below) sounds great live and went down well.
The Purple show moved at a fast pace, especially compared to YES (at least the YES part that we were able to catch). Within the opening notes of Highway Star, the crowd got on its feet, but, to my dismay, most people gradually sat down out of respect for those that preferred to stay seated. That is understandable. Every now and then you could see pockets of people that were itching to get and stay up, but chose the opposite so that they would not block the view of seated folks behind them. This all changed with the opening chords of SOTW, with pretty much the whole crowd staying on its feet for the remainder of the show.
After the uncertainty related to the prior few days’ long-distance driving, the so-so food, and some sleep deprivation, I am glad that in the end I was able to muster enough willpower to go to the September 1 gig at Jones Beach, NY. It was an excellent show and the guys did not disappoint. I am now counting the hours until the September 3 gig at the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, CT. This time it will be five of us, including a first-timer.
Here are three words for those that are in doubt: GO SEE THEM.
SETLIST (Jones Beach Theater, NY, September 1, 2024)
Highway Star
A Bit on the Side
Hard Lovin’ Man
Into the Fire
Guitar Solo
Uncommon Man
Lazy Sod
Keyboard Solo
Lazy
Show Me
Portable Door
Anya
Bleeding Obvious
Space Truckin’
Smoke on the Water
Encore:
Green Onions
Hush
Black Night
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
This is an incredible band. Five new songs in the setlist. And they can afford to drop off songs like Perfect Strangers, Fireball, No One Came, Pictures of Home, When a Blind man Cries, Speed King, Bloodsucker, Woman from Tokyo, Sometimes I Feel like Screaming, Loosen My Strings, Ted the Mechanic, Rapture of the Deep, Time for Bedlam, and about twenty other masterpieces.
September 4th, 2024 at 09:38Great that finally Perfect Strangers is out… Never liked the key change on the song on recent years.
September 6th, 2024 at 15:38That key change from organ intro to song was musically brutal and lacked elegance, horrible.
September 25th, 2024 at 15:31