DPAS LIVE REVIEW

Deep Purple
Beacon Theatre, New York
1st March 2004

Space Truckers turned Time Travelers

On Monday night the members of Deep Purple transported the 2,800 or so devotees in attendance at the Beacon Theatre back to 1972. This was no magic trick; it was plainly and simply a hard rock musical journey back in time, performing their entire classic Machine Head album mid way through their set after opening with a mixture of new and old material.

Having listened to the remixed version of Machine Head over the last few weeks prior to the show, I was amazed at how well these songs sounded live. It was especially great to hear the "other" tracks Maybe I’m a Leo, Pictures of Home, Never Before and my favorite When a Blind Man Cries.

Ian Gillan’s vocals were ‘superb’, Roger Glover and Ian Paice worked together keeping the heart of this well oiled machine pumping. Newcomer Don Airey, and not so new anymore Steve Morse have infused their adrenaline into the mix and the results have obviously reinvigorated the whole group.

Set List: Silver Tongue / Woman From Tokyo / I Got Your Number / Strange Kind Of Woman / Bananas / Knocking At Your Back Door / Contact Lost / Well Dressed Guitar / Perfect Strangers / Highway Star / Maybe I’m a Leo / Pictures of Home / Never Before / When A Blind Man Cries / Space Truckin’ / Lazy / Smoke on the Water / Encores: Speed King with Jail House Rock (and a little Now or Never thrown in) / Hush

A look at the set list will tell you they know how to please the folks who continue to want to hear the old stuff. I believe they have outdone themselves on each of the last three albums and Bananas has them playing at the peak of their existence right now. So I was real happy with the four tunes from Bananas. Would have loved to hear one or two from Purpendicular or Abandon, but I got over real quick with the first few notes of Highway Star. From that point on the Dewars in my veins mixed with the sweet smell in the air helped to take me on that musical journey back in time when we all came out to Montreux…

review:Gerard Mazzella. Old Bridge, NJ


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