Venue: Ljubljana/Križanke
Concert date: April 22, 2007
Attendance: 1200
Ticket price: 30 EUR
It’s been a long time since I last saw Ritchie play. Way back in 1993 in Villach, Austria, where he was performing his final duties as a member of some band called Deep Purple. Since then, the sound of an electric guitar has apparently meant less and less to the little black gnome, as his loyal buddy Gillan likes to call him. These days he’d much rather turn to assorted lutes, hurdy-gurdies and a heap of weird medieval instruments most of us have probably never even heard of; as the concert itself showed, even first lady Candice Night belongs to that lucky bunch. Anyway, the man clearly enjoys what he’s doing more than ever, since this year marks a full ten years since he first showed up on stage surrounded by a pile of hay and a whole stretch of lush undergrowth. Quite the anniversary, then, and he celebrated it in his own style, with a grumpy look on his face and the occasional flash of brilliant playing.
That Ritchie takes his experience of the Renaissance world very seriously was clear from the first glance at the stage, which, truth be told, didn’t differ much from the early Rainbow days as far as set design goes. A kitschier, souped-up version of it, you could say. Flags everywhere giving it a castle vibe that blended nicely with the Križanke ambience, and even a big oil lamp swinging constantly in the light breeze of a cold Sunday evening. Interesting, no doubt. Definitely a set tailor-made for the gothic quartet Gothien. We’re talking four Czech uncles and aunts, utterly devoted to a clipped, at times almost deathly pounding of a drum, accompanied by the droning of some weird pipes whose origin or last year of use you’d have to look for at least 400 years back. Gothic rock ‘n’ roll? Judging by how deep into it the quartet were, you could say so. The only question is whether the audience took it that way. Personally, by the end it all struck me as downright hilarious. What can you do, that’s just how it is. If you want to see Blackmore these days, you have to sit through half an hour of tireless hammering of one and the same rhythmic pattern, then sit through another half hour like a fifth-grade schoolkid, waiting for the big moment when the man in black deigns to appear on stage. Funny enough to die laughing. Almost as funny as the fact that after all these years of medieval strumming into the void, Blackmore still manages to draw three times as many people as Voice Of Rock Glenn Hughes. Well, and to the sound of triumphant fanfares, it finally happened. As purple light floods the stage, a familiar figure suddenly appears in front of us and quickly shakes a few slides out of his legendary Strat, the kind that today’s Deep Purple miss so badly. Enough to make you cry. A touching moment, and a delightful one too, knowing the man still has plenty of true rocker pride, but as the concert went on it remained just a pale memory of past glory. Generally speaking, the whole thing came off splendidly. Ritchie’s crew of two backing vocalists, a keyboardist, a bassist and a drummer ran like a well-oiled machine, excellent and confident, not flinching in the slightest at Black Night and similar provocations from a few brave souls. So, balm for the ears if you’re a Blackmore’s Night fan, but for the rest of us, lovers of Ritchie’s legendary hard rock inventions, looking at the stage got more and more painful as the evening went on. The pain didn’t ease even with the nicely executed Soldier Of Fortune and Child In Time. The latter especially, thanks to Candice’s almost angelic voice and a particularly light-handed performance, turned out to be one of the highlights of this not exactly thrilling event. For the rest of the night we got mostly relaxed medieval hopping around the stage and humor-filled improvised detours that, believe it or not, every so often drew a smile even on Ritchie’s perpetually serious face! Another of the more entertaining moments came with Beethoven’s Waldstein sonata woven into Durch Den Wald Zum Bachhaus, while Križanke showed the most enthusiasm for Under A Violet Moon, Home Again and Renaissance Faire. Where were these people hiding when Hughes was shaking Cvetličarna? I’d rather not ask. In any case, it’s more than obvious that even among old rockers these days, paying for a ticket to Ritchie’s still-so-daft stage experiments takes priority over supporting one of the few surviving heroes of hard rock. Even if he’s a former Deep Purple member. Sad. It would be unfair not to mention the attractive Diamonds And Rust by the legendary Joan Baez, which, wrapped in a mysterious and mystical getup expertly provided by the lovebirds Candice and Ritchie, at least slightly relieved the evening of its exhausting demonstration of every possible ancient playing technique.
What else is there to add, other than that Ritchie Blackmore passed every possible limit of tolerance long ago. Of the long-awaited evening of masterful guitar playing, we saw precious little. Unless you’re an enthusiastic fan of ragged junk and funny knitted booties, you too left Križanke on Sunday night with your head hanging. Or maybe not. One thing is for sure, though. From that Sunday night on, I’d definitely rather go see any future Deep Purple reincarnation a hundred more times. Even if Gillan can only sing through his anus.
PHOTOS: Barbara Milharčič
Setlist
1.Past Time With Good Company 2.Play Minstrel Play 3.Soldier Of Fortune 4.Durch Den Wald Zum Bachhaus 5.World Of Stone 6.Diamonds And Rust 7.Child In Time 8.Renaissance Faire 9.Minstrel Hall 10.Avalon 11.Under A Violent Moon 12.Wind In The Willows 13.Windmills 14.Home Again 15.The Clock Ticks On
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