Location: Graz (Orpheum) / Austria
Concert date: 11.03.2004
Attendance: 600
Ticket price: 30,00€
This was one of those events that fans of the masters of vocal acrobatics simply could not miss. We traveled so laid-back and easygoing that I barely noticed a good two and a half hours had passed since we rolled out of the jammed parking lot of the BTC area, where people were swarming on that fine March Friday. Everyone frantically spending money in the shops! And the three of us heading the other way, out of the hell of shopping frenzy. Frantically too!
As usual, as you can probably guess, we got lost. Only just this time, but still. It was my first time behind the wheel on a trip to the Orpheum, which is surely one of the coziest halls around. Always packed with some kind of positive energy, the sound is usually great, and if it’s a Friday on top of that, the circumstances for a visit are truly ideal. Graz is close, and when you get home around half past one at night, you’ve still got a whole weekend ahead of you. The hall was full of mature dudes, from their late thirties up to a good fifty. Ah, what am I saying, I’m creeping inexorably toward the lower end of that range myself.
Does the name Vollgas ring a bell? Sure it does! Full throttle! Until eight that evening it didn’t mean much to me either. They’re the band that warmed us up before the two legends, a local band, of course. They had a nice hour on stage and came at it relaxed and fully into it. I was shocked. They opened their show with a salvo of Deep Purple songs, and not just any, but two bangers from the newest album “Bananas” (2003). Walk On and House Of Pain. Unbelievable, the singer was fantastic, with a voice made for channeling Ian Gillan. Seriously, you only had to close your eyes, and the feeling in the hall convinced you Ian Gillan was with us. The guys heated up the crowd right away, and the crowd rewarded them with loud ovations. Then they moved on to material I unfortunately don’t know, with the songs sung in Austrian German, and it was amazing how this confirmed my thesis, and many other people’s, that Austrian German is good for nothing but yodeling. Because the contrast this new language unintentionally brought, which just doesn’t fit rock music, was obvious and very distracting. The riffs rolled out great, the Hammond work was tasteful and fitting, the bass line melodic, the drums flashing with life, but what good was it all when the singer’s Austro-German lines wiped it out, even though he tried his absolute hardest and sang flat out. The guys made a bigger blunder by including Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. The singer doesn’t have a poisonous voice, and the guitarist with the red Fender Telecaster quickly picked up the acoustic pre-chorus by ear, which is the most expressive part of the song. So, plainly and simply put, there was no power in the performance of this song. A raw steak would have done them good. The guys are cut from a different cloth, they live for hard rock and they play excellent hard rock. For the big finale they delighted us all once more with the legendary Deep Purple and their Highway Star (Machine Head, 2003). Excellent, perfect, the transitions between guitar and Hammond were played flawlessly and with hair-splitting precision. A gorgeous ending.
Glenn Hughes and Joe Lynn Turner whipped the crowd into a frenzy! Bang! It began! Hold On, one of the loveliest tracks from their new HTP album “2”, opened the show. Glenn Hughes with his bass a bit more to the left, Joe Lynn a bit more to the right, but both at the center, came to create unforgettable magic. There was talk that Turner had a cold and had supposedly struggled with his singing at a few earlier gigs, but you couldn’t tell. Fully into it, smiling, full of positive energy, the two of them hit hard. Keeping them company on stage was J.J. Marsch, who also co-wrote most of the new HTP material and who otherwise plays with Glenn Hughes on his solo albums. An interesting figure with a peroxide-curled hairdo, he stood mostly still the whole time and came across as very reserved on stage. But J.J. played phenomenally, totally immersed. Hellishly fast and clean as a whistle in the solos. He ruled the instrument superbly throughout and had absolute control over it. He soloed fantastically, fully immersed, and perfectly conjured the spirit of Blackmore and Bolin in the Deep Purple and Rainbow classics. Overall he really shone in the HTP songs, of which there were five on the setlist in total. I slightly missed the sound of the Hammond. The keyboard player was barely audible during the whole concert. The sound and feel of classic seventies hard rock is hard to imagine without a Hammond, and that was the only minus of the concert. When the band played the fantastic song Alone I Breath, where Glenn Hughes absolutely dominated on vocals, he glanced to his left at the front rows, where next to Peter stood another fired-up young guy in a Deep Purple shirt. Glenn couldn’t hide his delight at the presence of young people in the hall (“It is so good to see some young people in audience tonight!”)
The highlight of the evening was the performance of Mistreated. Glenn started off something like this: “This song was the first Deep Purple thing Ritchie introduced me to when I joined the band, and it sounded so cool and so very real!” Then J.J. stepped up and treated himself to a spacey solo loaded with a heaping dose of delay effects, and the magic flared up as he opened the track with that mysterious riff. And then Glenn.,….brrrrrrr, I still get chills! This dude sings better today than ever before. So immersed, so delicately subtle, constantly right on the edge between total detachment and presence of mind, with extravagant acrobatics ranging from killer high, clean screams to passionate swaying through the lower sequences. Glenn kept playing with a magic little box under the microphone, which turned out to be nothing other than a wah effect, coaxing contrasting sonic inserts out of his bass. At the end Glenn treated us to a proper soul-gospel finish. And that was the peak of the concert. Glenn completely let go. Relaxed and with a full run-up, he conjured up a kind of magic I can’t remember seeing before. At the same moment a spotlight of white light shone down on him from above. With expressive gestures he thanked his higher power, which watches over him and which gifted him with a godly voice. He always thanks it first in the lyrics, if you ever flip through the booklet of one of his CDs (“higher power”). When it ended he reaped the loudest applause of the concert. People were so thrilled they couldn’t stop applauding. Glenn strode back to the microphone and, together with J.J., staged another classic “fade out”. People just kept clapping and clapping, and Glenn answered with yet another “fade out” and thanked the crowd from the bottom of his heart.
A real concert treat was the inclusion of Deep Purple classics from the album “Come Taste The Band” (1976), namely Gettin’ Tighter and You Keep On Movin’, during which Glenn didn’t forget to give a shout-out with “He is my soul Brother!” to Tommy Bolin, the guitarist who replaced Blackmore in Deep Purple on that album and who died so dewy-young from a heroin overdose. These were the grooviest moments of the concert and a demonstration of the noblest funky moments. The crowd truly enjoyed it, singing along and joining in with the band on stage.
They sang all the songs from the albums “HTP1.” and “HTP2.” together. In the classics Joe got his primacy with the Rainbow tracks, while in Stormbringer and Burn the two singers swapped lines in the verses. Joe also wielded a cherry-colored ESP guitar whose body resembled the Gibson “Les Paul” model, which he first treated himself to in You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n Roll, and it wasn’t missing from the stage during Burn either.
With their unique voices, the two singers created a fantastic contrast, especially in the duets. Both approached it with finesse, giving themselves 100% to their own feelings throughout. Glenn Hughes is especially incredible, with how well-preserved his voice is for his age. Truly unsurpassed. One of the greatest singers in rock, if not the greatest.
So the concert was a must for everyone who misses Rainbow and Deep Purple in their Mk III and Mk IV lineups (the period between 1974 and 1976) on stage. Today’s Deep Purple play only Mk II lineup tracks, maybe the odd Hush, which isn’t originally their song anyway, plus newer material from the nineties to today. For many, then, the revival of the magic with You Keep On Movin’, Gettin’ Tighter, Burn and Stormbringer was an unforgettable event, and the same goes for all four Rainbow songs that rang out that night in Graz.
The whole concert was cranked out at an exceptional level. The atmospheric highlights were all the Deep Purple songs, the brightest among them Glenn Hughes’ soul insert coming out of Mistreated. Then the hall really shook at the sounds of Death Alley Driver, and at Hughes’ scream of “I feel like Stormbringer!” it went totally wild and, together with the two singers, unleashed the most energy of the whole concert with exceptional singing of a classic Purple masterpiece.
We got another energy bomb of exceptional atmosphere in the fantastic encore, which opened with an excellent hard rock banger from the album “HTP1.”, Devil’s Road, where J.J. Marsh shone with an exceptional solo, and Spotlight Kid, with a grandiose “Blackmore-esque” riff and an excellent Joe on vocals. But they saved the peak for last. The band closed the concert at a hellish tempo and in a cathartic mood with a song the entire hall identified with, and which, like Stormbirnger before it, the crowd now loudly backed up the band on stage. That song was Burn. The only thing that bothered me was the keyboards again, which couldn’t be heard, and which in this track absolutely have to be heard, otherwise Burn can’t come off perfectly. But this minus wasn’t so painful after all, since the two singers conjured up unforgettable magic one more time. Glenn Hughes and Joe Lynn Turner simply can’t fake it. After all these years they seem unbelievably fresh and youthful on stage, with voices that only ripen like wine over the years. I really have nothing to add. That’s it. Two men who were on the scene when rock and roll happened. And two men who are rock and roll. Always sincere and devoted to magnificent music with all their hearts. Today’s young bands are no longer capable of conjuring up that kind of magic.
Setlist
01. Hold On
02. You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n Roll
03. I Surrender
04. Loosing My Head
05. Alone I Breath
06. Mistreated
07. Street Of Dreams
08. Gettin’ Tighter
09. You Keep On Movin’
10. Death Alley Driver
11. Stormbringer
encore
12.) Devil’s Road
13.) Spotlight Kid
14.) Burn
