3 Events
·🎤Concert/Live3
I was hesitant to go to this concert until the very last minute. That's because I thought Deep Purple without Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord was like "coffee without cream." Ultimately, I decided to go because Don Airey was on keyboards. Seeing Don Airey would mean I'd seen all the members of Rainbow from the "Down to Earth" era, which was my gateway into HM/HR (Heavy Metal/Hard Rock). So far, I had seen: The late Cozy Powell: August '84, Osaka Nanko (Whitesnake) Roger Glover: December '93, Osaka-jo Hall (Deep Purple) Ritchie Blackmore: November '95, Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium (Rainbow) Graham Bonnet: May '07, Shibuya O-EAST (Solo) And now, Don Airey today, completing the set over 25 years. Sorry for the long preamble. Regarding the Deep Purple concert, since the main members are over 60, I decided to appreciate the fact that they were even performing, rather than focusing on the details of their playing. The audience's age range was also quite high. The setlist was roughly like this: Highway Star Into the Fire Strange Kind of Woman Hard Road (Wring That Neck) Mary Long The Battle Rages On They also played some songs I didn't know (probably newer ones). After Don Airey's amazing keyboard solo, they transitioned into Perfect Stranger, then Space Truckin'. During Space Truckin', Steve Morse tripped, and his guitar stopped working. It wasn't fixed by the end of the song. I was wondering why the next song wasn't starting when another guitarist appeared. It was none other than Yngwie Malmsteen. Apparently, Yngwie's collaboration with Deep Purple was only for today. After a guitar duel between Steve and Yngwie, they launched into Smoke on the Water. Midway through the song, I looked at the keyboard booth and saw a white-haired old man besides Don. He looked exactly like Jon Lord, but who was that??? After a very exciting rendition of Smoke on the Water, the main set ended. The encore consisted of two songs, Hush and Black Night, concluding the concert. Before it started, I honestly wasn't expecting much from their performance, but it was better than I thought. There were other songs I wanted to hear, like Speed King or Knocking at Your Backdoor, but asking for that might be too much to expect.
