DPAS LIVE REVIEWS

Spektrum, Oslo
25th November 2003

I did not expect this to be a Deep Purple show to remember, but it was probably the best, or at least the most entertaining Morse era gig that I've witnessed.

SET LIST
Highway Star / Strange Kind Of Woman / Silver Tongue / Knocking At Your Back Door / House Of Pain / Lazy / Bananas / Contact Lost / guitar solo ~ Doing It Tonight / Space Truckin' / I Got Your Number / guitar solo ~ The Well Dressed Guitar / keyboard solo ~ Perfect Strangers / Smoke On The Water / Hush (incl. drum solo) ~ Hit The Road Jack, Gunga Din etc ~ Black Night (Incl. bass solo)

The set list was as expected: a mixture of old classics and the new Bananas stuff: It's difficult to say what made this show better than the others, but I got more of the feeling I had when I saw the Deep Purple mk II band back in '87 and '93.

The sound was thunderous and loud but still clear and well mixed (we could hear the Hammond!). And even the banana decoration on the stage looked good! The light show was better than the last time I saw them. All in all a good production.

The lowpoints for me were the repeated guitar alone solo spots, too many of them in my opinion. I think one is enough. Maybe Gillan needs the breaks, but it would be better even if the band just jammed instead of the widdlywiddly-eighties-stuff.

Gillan's voice was ok for the whole show. Highway Star as the opener again was great. The show was almost sold out this time, when even the '93 gig with Blackmore was in a half full hall - (it was the same venue). Even the newspapers here in Norway liked what they heard!

Cheers!

review: Eirik Solum


deep purple, european bananas tour 2003