Deep Purple

Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney – 28th April 2010

It’s been about ten years since I’ve last seen Deep Purple. Even though they make semi-regular visits to our fine city, I haven’t bothered attending since that last time. I always felt that Ian Gillan’s intense voice deteriorated since the 70’s into a disturbing nasal drawl that I sometimes find hard to stomach. Regardless, Perfect Strangers, The Battle Rages On and Purpendicular were fine albums with great vocal performances and stellar instrumentation. Last time I saw them, Ian was wailing through “When a Blind Man Cries” and I walked out to take a piss vowing never to return. The guy just doesn’t have it any more, let’s face it – Chronos takes his toll. I wished they would take a leaf from Robbie Halford’s book and just save it for the few technical songs that really hit home. Priest played it smart by dropping some of the songs requiring painful high-pitched throat only to then knock us on our asses with “Painkiller”. DP could have easily done the same as they have a varied and interesting repertoire that is not confined to wailing rockers, but oh well.

As the band appeared on stage, I was hoping that I would not have to endure hard rock’s version of Whitney Huston’s bad karaoke (as one reviewer put it) and in the end I was not entirely disappointed. The opener “Highway Star” was atrocious though. For somebody who knows every note in a song and where and when it belongs it was difficult to bear. Ian was clearly out of shape and sometimes even out of tune. The band however was as great as ever – hard-hitting and lean. I concentrated on what they were doing for a while. It was nice to see Ian Paice at work behind his unassuming kit again – I mean it’s a top of the line Pearl, but it just looks modest. The guy doesn’t need shenanigans to bust out brutal rhythms. There he was, his purple John Lennon shades and all. John Glover looks like a silvered elder statesman, but I swear his bass is more brutal than ever. He played a great set. Steve Morse was sort of taking a backseat ride for a few songs unless it was time to solo. Finally Don Airey, who replaced the great Jon Lord and is the very same guy that played keys on Priest’s “A Touch of Evil” amongst many others was in fine form indeed. I can just imagine this conversation where DP recruit Don: “Now we want Hammond, you understand, no spaceman stuff, right?” He could not help himself but send the odd Dr Who keyboard ping bouncing around the stereo mix from time to time.

Ian’s performance wavered from good to poor. The slower songs were better. Anything off Machine Head was an immediate write-off. I wish though they did more off Who Do We Think We Are and Purpendicular. Requesting anything off In Rock would have just finished the man off. There were some very pleasant surprises though. The first of these came early on in the set – an old a-side “Strange Kind of Woman” and a track off Perfect Strangers “Wasted Sunsets” then there was “No One Came” which was one of those songs more suited to Ian’s state of throat and something I would never thought I’d hear them do live. It’s a rather humorous number – almost spoken word, that comes from their very underrated Fireball album where Ian rants about short-lived fame. It works on many levels, though you’d have to dig the lyrics to get what I mean.

Of the new numbers they have done, my favourites were the title song from the last album “Rapture of the Deep” which featured a stirring lead line in that weird Egyptian scale as well as “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” which is a melancholy ballad off Purpendicular – once again much more within Ian’s vocal grasp and therefore a lot more enjoyable. There was nothing of the slightly less recent Abandon and Bananas (yep they have an album named Bananas – horns up) and maybe that’s for the best. Each musician was given a bit of time to solo with Steve Morse delivering an amazing guitar soliloquy using a harmonising effect with sampler and Don playing a pastiche of classical pieces – Rachmaninov, Bach as well as Waltzing Matilda to a roaring applause.

The set finished with a decent rendition of “Lazy” ornamented with Don’s attempt to out-do Jon’s ultra distorted efforts on Live in Japan and man it was bloody brutal – organ is such an incredible live instrument! (Ian didn’t hit the ultra-high “You’re LAAAAZEEY!!” – bah) Finally there was “Smoke on the Water”, where once again they might as well not have bothered. I have seen pub bands sing this one better. The encore was short and sweet – another potential bombshell that seemed to hit a swamp “Hush” where Ian forgot the lyrics and “Black Night”. I appreciate the thought, but it was now time to go home.

Whilst it was a decent performance, I walked away with truly mixed feelings. Dismissing Ian form the band will be a gross disservice to this great artist, but at the same time it would make this band so much better. Still, it was nice to see metal’s granddads shake their grey locks and rock hard and hear some classic songs in the original. I won’t be going again but it was worth it nonetheless.

Setlist:

1. Highway Star
2. Things I Never Said
3. Strange Kind Of Woman
4. Rapture Of The Deep
5. Wasted Sunsets
6. Fireball
7. Steve Morse Guitar Solo
8. Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
9. The Well Dressed Guitar
10. The Wrong Man
11. Lazy
12. No One Came
13. Don Airey Keyboard Solo
14. The Battle Rages On
15. Space Truckin’
16. Smoke On The Water
Encore:
17. Hush Blues Brothers Theme Song Intro (Billy Joe Royal cover)
18. Roger Glover Bass Solo
19. Black Night

Reviewed by Vrag Moj