Deep Purple Wow Zagreb on the Road to Infinity (2017)

Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Zagreb / Arena / Croatia
Concert date: May 16, 2017
Attendance: 8000
Ticket price: €42.00 (floor) / €56.00 (golden ring)

The legendary rock giants Deep Purple hit the road this year on ‘The Long Farewell Tour’, which is supposed to mark the beginning of their goodbye after they announced that »Infinite« (2017) will most likely be their last album. They’ve outlasted almost all their hard rock contemporaries, led by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, so it’s kind of hard to believe they’re serious about the announced retirement. Next year they’ll celebrate fifty years since they burst onto the scene with their first single, »Hush«, and if they follow through on what they’ve said, they’ll be doing it at the most fitting moment, having achieved practically everything there was to achieve in rock music over five decades. The health problems of drummer Ian Paice, the only original member left, are what pushed them to slowly wrap up the success story, although most fans of course still hope they’ll change their minds next year. That said, the current Deep Purple lineup, together since 2002, is the most stable of their entire career, so it doesn’t seem unthinkable that the departure or retirement of just one member of this lineup would mean the end of the famous band. On the current tour they also dropped by the capital of our southern neighbors and put on an unforgettable concert spectacle in their typical style.

The good vibes in Zagreb’s Arena were first kicked off by Bosnian heavy rockers Divlje jagode, led by the unyielding guitarist Zele Lipovača, who brought two special guests along for the night: cult vocalist Tony Martin (ex-Black Sabbath) and guitar master Andy LaRocque (King Diamond, Death). The two only joined them on stage in the closing stretch of the set, when they played the energy-charged »Headless Cross« from the album of the same name and the immortal ballad »Dying for Love« from »Cross Purposes« (1994), two Black Sabbath classics from the era with Martin in the lineup. While LaRocque shone on his guitar, Martin’s voice isn’t what it used to be, and he needed plenty of help on the choruses from Livio Berak, the current singer of Divlje jagode. The Bosnian heavy rock champions, who hit their peak of popularity in the last decade of the former common country, were in great spirits and closed their set with the evergreen »Motori«, where Martin also joined in on the chorus, not all that successfully. Even though his singing has declined quite a bit over the years, his bandmates delivered both Black Sabbath classics with confidence, and plenty of people wished they’d heard a few more songs from this unjustly forgotten era of the legendary band that night. As a fun fact, in 1987 Divlje jagode worked with Don Airey, now in Deep Purple and formerly of Rainbow, on their only English-language record.

After Divlje jagode came Canadians Monster Truck, who swear by a pretty loud mix of hard rock, southern rock, blues rock and stoner rock. The relatively young band, around since 2009, confidently played their most representative songs but didn’t exactly blow anyone away, since bands like Monster Truck are a dime a dozen. The energetic Canadians are reportedly quite popular back home, and their music has found its way into quite a few popular video games, especially hockey ones like the popular Electronic Arts NHL series. Most of their songs are cut from ‘the same cloth’, so the whole thing slowly started to get boring, but a lack of energy and commitment is the last thing you could accuse them of. It’s maybe slightly interesting that their music features Hammond organ, which is fairly unusual for bands like this.

Deep Purple surprised us before the band even hit the stage, with an impressive set design featuring three big screens for rich projections accompanying individual songs. First we were wowed by a clever graphic of an iceberg with the band members’ faces carved into it, which was obviously a tribute to their cult album »Deep Purple in Rock« from 1970. The unbreakable rockers finally marched onto the stage and went all in with a new song, »Time for Bedlam«. The legendary singer Ian Gillan was in excellent form that night, considering his age and the well-known fact that he can’t sing vocally demanding songs like »Child In Time« anymore. No less legendary, Roger Glover on bass and Paice on drums were also in great spirits on their instruments, though they’ve never run short of good mood in all these years. Guitar virtuoso Steve Morse and keyboard wizard Don Airey have long been the engines of the current crew, which they proved at every turn, not just during the epic solo spots that never go missing at a Deep Purple show, as tradition demands.

Deep Purple quickly went back to ‘the good old days’ and thrilled us with roaring versions of the evergreens »Fireball«, »Bloodsucker« and »Strange Kind of Woman«. The latter was accompanied in the background by a fairly erotic ‘video’, which added an extra spark to one of their biggest hits. This was followed by three newer songs, »Johnny’s Band, »Uncommon Man« and the prog rock treat »The Surprising«, which for many is the highlight of their new album »Infinite«. Gillan, who took off his jacket and his slightly goofy glasses after the first song, cracked more jokes than usual that night and occasionally, between the evergreens, took a trip down memory lane to younger days. »Lazy« was, as is pretty much tradition for them, properly stretched out, this time with the help of a pompous keyboard intro. After two modern standards, »Birds of Prey« and »Hell to Pay«, came Airey’s solo spot, which was, as always, full of delightful improvised surprises, followed by a triumphant segue into the classic »Perfect Strangers« from the reunion album of the same name. Interestingly, there was no Morse solo this time, but nobody really missed it, since he got more than enough chances to show off his admirable virtuoso skills.

The always breakneck »Space Truckin’« also turned out brilliantly that night, with Gillan squeezing out every last vocal ‘atom’ he had, while the high point and close of the main set was, as expected, Deep Purple’s biggest hit, »Smoke on the Water«. It was accompanied in the background by wonderfully vivid and almost moving projections of Frank Zappa, smoke over Lake Geneva, a burning hall, and an image of a sheet of paper with the hastily scribbled lyrics of this huge hit. There was no long wait for the encore, since this is a band that never played ‘hide and seek’ with its fans, but always valued its loyal audience and knew how to reward it properly. Deep Purple returned to the stage with the always vocally demanding »Highway Star«, which Gillan pulled off pretty well, while »Hush«, their first hit, was once again the only song from the rare periods in their history when Gillan wasn’t behind the mic. For the finale came a somewhat surprising Glover solo spot with improvisations on bass guitar, and the more or less expected classic »Black Night«, which sealed Deep Purple’s show in Zagreb in a very successful fashion.

Številnim

Plenty of people in Zagreb’s Arena were sorry to see the show by these indestructible rock veterans fly by in a blink, lost in the joy of Deep Purple’s one-of-a-kind evergreens. The seasoned masters proved once again that nobody can touch them when it comes to creating an exceptional concert atmosphere. Deep Purple filled the hall with such incredibly positive energy throughout the show that even the writer of these lines almost got cured while watching them, having been laid low by a nasty stomach bug and fighting off an annoying fever the whole time. Deep Purple confirmed once again that they belong to the elite of bands whose music has a healing effect on body and soul and is best experienced ‘live’. Once upon a time, in the early seventies, they were considered the best live band in the world, and even now, after almost five decades, very few of their musical peers can come close on that front. The sound was very decent throughout the show, so there’s no reason for any complaints there either. Of the bigger hits from the classic era, only »Speed King« and, for understandable reasons, »Child In Time« were missing that night, while there were no major surprises except maybe »Bloodsucker«. Of the newer material, with the focus on »Infinite« and its predecessor »Now What?!« (2013), they picked some of the best stuff, so nobody complained about there being too much of it. The old was blended with the new extremely well in terms of song selection, while the ‘old cats’ were bursting with vital energy, so it’s really hard to accept that the current tour is probably their last.

Setlist

DIVLJE JAGODE:
1. Let na drugi svijet
2. Divlje jagode
3. Želim da te imam
4. Ciganka
5. Kap po kap
6. Headless Cross (Black Sabbath cover)
7. Dying for Love (Black Sabbath cover)
8. Motori

MONSTER TRUCK:
1. Why Are You Not Rocking?
2. Old Train
3. Don’t Tell Me How to Live
4. The Enforcer
5. She’s a Witch
6. For the Sun
7. Sweet Mountain River
8. The Lion

Photo gallery