DPAS LIVE REVIEW

Halle Münsterland, Münster, Germany
28th June 2003

Lynyrd Skynyrd kicked off their gig precisely and delivered a tight set. The highlight of the "official" set was a very moving performance of "Simple Man". Good to see ex-Blackfoot-leader and Lynyrd Skynyrd founding member Ricky Medlocke on stage (he quit after the release of their first 7")! All in all nine people on stage – and they delivered one hell of a show! The real highlight was the memorable finale of the encore "Freebird" – in a truly amazing overture the band burst out and jammed for about 12 minutes – WOW – stunning! Deep Purple would have to work hard after this!

Well they did work hard in the late afternoon by signing "the golden book of the city" – which got a massive press coverage in the local newspapers – I counted six articles (with pix!!) in two local papers! They kicked off the concert with "Highway Star" ... surprise, surprise. And this is what bothered me most about the concert. The band was very tight, and technically stronger than ever – but they ran through the same old repertoire. This was my third Deep Purple gig, and every time I get to hear the same songs!!

The only really new item was "Haunted" – which didn´t leave me haunted at all ... "Haunted, is that what you wanted" – come on guys – you can write better lyrics than that!!!! 36 years in the business and Ian Paice doesn´t even get a drum solo! Even if Big Ian is a reluctant to perform much material outside of "In Rock", "Fireball", "Machine Head", "Who Do We Think We Are", and "Perfect Strangers", he should at least let Little Ian have some snippets of BURN or STORMBRINGER within a decent drum solo .

Same goes for Steve Morse. That guy is very good indeed! (and loud!!) – What about letting him do a musical journey through the band's back-catalogue? Nobody is expecting Big Ian to sing stuff that he doesn´t like – BUT: musically Deep Purple are musically more than just Mk2!!! I´d love to hear the "Burn" riff once again – Steve didn´t even include it in the intro to "Smoke On The Water". Shame, shame, shame!

On to Don Airey – who disappointed me a bit this time. I usually have a soft spot for him, ´cause he has played so brilliantly on so many good albums, but in Muenster he sounded a bit flat, and obviously lost a "duel" with Steve Morse!

This, together with that uninspiring set list, made quite an unadventureous concert – not to say boring - because you knew what you would get – without surprises. They shortened some of the songs, which gave me the impression that they don´t like to play the same songs over and over either!!

As I said earlier – tight band, good deliverance but PLEEEEASE change that setlist – you have so much good stuff out – rejuvente it! Better luck next time?!

review: Marcus Meyer – Muenster


deep purple 2003 reviews