Rapture of the Deep
I was not a major fan of Deep Purple till I went to their concert yesterday. I had heard a few of their songs and liked them, but was not a religious die-hard fan of theirs who wouldn’t enjoy a party if any of their songs weren’t to be played. At one point, my wife and I even resorted to tossing a coin to decide whether we should be spending 1200 bucks per ticket. Though the coin suggested otherwise, we decided to go ahead and there are absolutely no regrets for having taken that decision.
The show was opened by a Bangalore based band Gallej Gurus who played for about 30 mins and did a great job. The crowd received them well, and at one point, I even felt if they would be left with any energy to cheer when Deep Purple would actually get on to the stage.
The heroes got on to the stage at about 8 PM. There are too many songs of theirs that can be possibly performed, but I think the band did not disapoint the audience in terms of the number of songs they managed to squeeze in the 2 hours slot. The crowd reacted the best to “Smoke on the water” and “Highway Star” and to Steve Morse’s guitar solos which I don’t think he could have done better. He played a medley of guitar pieces by different bands which was a great showcase of Morse’s fluency with the guitar and he effortlessly segued into “Highway Star” which drew great applauses from the crowd. Gillan constantly kept complimenting the crowd after every song for their enthusiasm. The band members had a great deal of fun on the stage, and their raw energy in no way was any reflection of their age. Even before we realised, It was time for them to sign off. This was Deep Purple’s last concert for this year and for me it will definitely be a show to remember.
Some notes on the location: This was at Cathedral High School grounds on Richmond Road (near Vellara Junction). The gates opened well before 5:30 PM and I think DNA Networks did a fabulous job with the security and the overall arrangements. OK.. There was a breach to the “No Smoking” rule, but I am not complaining. How can you think of having a concert and expect people not to smoke? Traffic and parking arrangements were done well and thanks to a single flat ticket price category, there was no barging and breaking of barricades by the crowd.