Adelaide Entertainment Centre. March 4.
Ah, there’s nothing quite like a double header. In rock music circles, they seem to be a rare occurrence these days, but with so much of rock’s royalty touring at the moment (Ringo Star, Kiss, Robert Plant, Paul Simon, and more, all within a month), a line-up such as tonight’s Deep Purple and Journey was both inevitable and awesome.
And so it was that these two rock mammoths were set to play the Entertainment Centre arena in what ended up being a double bill packed with variety from two very different ends of the rock spectrum.
Up first (and starting early) was Journey, a band that’s had a solid following since the late 70s, and if the crowd in Adelaide was anything to go by, a following that’s set to continue for generations to come. After a time of hiatus and a revolving door of singers, they seem to have settled on Filipino vocalist Arnel Pineda, who clearly demonstrated ample stage prowess throughout the band’s set.
The crowd was ever enthusiastic and gave the band a warm welcome for their debut Adelaide show, though I think plenty of show-goers were taken aback by the early start time, since people continued to pour in right throughout Journey’s set. Nonetheless, the band was super slick and polished, mastering the stage and working the crowd with ease. Hits like Don’t Stop Believin’ and Anyway You Want It went down well. There were plenty of guitar solos and similarly soaring vocals rounding out their opening slot nicely.
After a short break, the lights dimmed and an orchestral overture began to play. Part Star Wars, part rock opera (and no doubt a tribute to recently deceased Deep Purple founder, the classically trained musical maestro Jon Lord) the orchestral build up signaled that we were in for something big… guitars riffed, bass and drums thumped, and the band swept the stage with Fireball, opening proceedings with a blast!
The Deep Purple approach was notably different to that of Journey, having a stripped-down stage set and less of a polished finish, but with an attitude solely focused on musical mastery. That’s what I love about Deep Purple. Every show is different, as they duck and weave their way through a multitude of tunes, packing in plenty of virtuosic soloing and improv, along with aloof stage antics that are never overdone and always laid back.
I was admittedly concerned about singer Ian Gillan’s vocals before coming to the show, since Deep Purple are renowned for soaring vocal melodies, but he didn’t disappoint one bit hitting all the right notes and still dueting with guitars. And speaking of guitars, Steve Morse was in fine form, pulling out all sorts of amazing sounds from his axe. In fact, all the musicians were on par, sharing solo spotlights throughout.
Drummer Ian Paice was deservingly well loved for his massive solo on The Mule, and bassist Roger Glover gave a masterclass in how the bass can be used to its full potential. After Jon Lord’s passing, I’d been listening to old live recordings of him with Deep Purple, so in my mind at least, keys man Don Airey had big shoes to fill tonight. He did so very comfortably, particularly on Lazy, where his skills really came to the fore, and even included interludes of Waltzing Matilda!
The band played a mixed set of tunes, old and new, with hits like Strange Kind Of Woman, Knocking At Your Back Door, Space Truckin’, and one of my faves, Perfect Strangers (the classical-inspired bass and guitar riff in the middle of this tune is truly unbelieveable) certainly exciting the crowd to no end.
The main set came to a close with the inevitable but still awesome Smoke On The Water, surely the most coveted riff in rock history. As usual, the tune fell prey to plenty of improvisation, padding it out nicely, and working the crowd into a frenzy, as the band took a quick sojourn.
There’s no way the Adelaide crowd would let Deep Purple leave it at that, and after plenty of cheering, they returned triumphantly for an encore of true classics, beginning with the irresistible Hush, and ending with an amazing rendition of Black Knight.
And so ended a fantastic evening of song (the wine and women came later, after I’d safely driven home!), with my musical mind literally blown. Awesome.
Luke Balzan
When: Closed.
Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Bookings: Closed.
Photography by Tim Allen
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