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antaine's Journal
the ranting and raving of an irishman
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Purple Waltz
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July 28, 2008, 10:38:am
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I was in Germany over the weekend for the Deep Purple gig, it was fantastic!
Well I won't get over-excited just yet, the day of the gig itself was actually somewhat mixed. There were four bands on the billing: Deep Purple, Little Feat, Gotthard and The Hooters. We arrived just shortly after the gates had opened and were waiting only until about half an hour until the first band came on, we didn't recognise them at all so I could only assume they were The Hooters. However I wasn't all that impressed and what was tolerable for the first hour or so suddenly became unbearable as the time went on. They played for TWO HOURS and by the end of it I was only too glad to see them go. Their music just had no drive or bollox to it and what really shocked me was just how long some of the songs were, they insisted on inserting several guitar solos per song. Someone once said that long guitar solos are fascinating in the hands of an amazing guitarist, pointless in the hands of an average one and awful in the bands of a bad one and this certainly held through at this gig. Seriously it was the kind of pentatonic stuff I've long since mastered myself and it was done without and power or conviction in it. They even rolled out the mandolin and slide guitar for one song and I can tell you that even only after a month or so of slide lessons I would have been more than able to lay down what they were doing. Also for some reason they had a black fella on congos and not to be cynical but it seemed to me that his only function was to be the token black guy, I mean what the hell? He even sang one song and although his voice had a nice deep blues growl to it, this was more than nullified by the completely lifeless instrumentation. Oh and when they did launch into a blues number it was awful, when I think of blues I'm thinking of something raw and powerful, this was neither! They also had a female singer who would bash on a tambourine when not doing anything who, although having a "powerful" voice, was singing on songs with next to no melody. Ugh, good riddance to them.
If that was Little Feat I'm incredibly dissapointed (I've never seen them live either) but for the moment it seems as if they just didn't turn up because the next band on was Gotthard. They were a bit more interesting as at least they had a bit of crunch to their guitars and all that, certainly more fitting as an opening band to Deep Purple. However they had a distinctly 80s hard rock feel to them which isn't exactly my favourite era for the genre. Although their music is hard there is an unshakeable feeling of it being slick and commericial at the same time, its an interesting notion. In any case they imployed as many rock cliches as possible from the long drawn out solos to playing guitar behind their head to doing call and response things between the vocals and the guitar. Now don't get me wrong these are all incredibly cool things, I love these kind of things buuuut... to me it just seems like a band aping a TRUE hard rock band, if that makes any sense. It seemed very by the numbers, rather than the music completely taking these guys over and leading them to these things. This is the complete opposite of a band like The Answer say, because with them I get this sense that they really are so into it that they just can't help but shake about like crazy guys and jump down into the crowd at some point. I suppose The Answer's guitarist does have a bit of that poser sense about him, but the difference is his playing has plenty of vintage hard rock edge to it and in fairness, hes just sort of indulging himself rather than putting on a show.
In any case Gotthard get off and then we're waiting around for Deep Purple. Thinking that Little Feat were still to play I didn't make my way to the stage until the last minute and I was seriously annoyed because I planned on being as close to the lads as possible, grrr. In any case I was able to get reasonably close, I was able to see everything going on the stage pretty clearly and all of that. If I had have been at a club I probably would have been at the back, you get a good view of everything going on but there isn't quite the same intimacy as being closer to the front. Still there were people much further behind me who I certainly didn't envy, not to mention that it rained incredibly hard most of the day. There were these gigantic umbrella type things around the stage but they didn't cover the whole place, I was lucky enough to manage to get under one.
Deep Purple certainly blew the other bands away, I was kind of wondering what the gig would be like, afterall Jon Lord is gone and Ritchie Blackmore's replacement Steve Morse's style just dosn't quite fit into what I think of when I think of Deep Purple. However I was pleased to see that Lord replacement Don Airy managed to keep his trademakr cheesey synths to a minimum and instead slipped into the role that Jon Lord offers in the Purple formula, in other words classical sounding piano with plenty of rock n'roll feel. The only times Don indulged in his synth fiascos was for a short period when he had a little solo section to himself and also at the beginning of Space Truckin'. If anyone here dosn't know, Don was responsible for the synth stylings on most of Ozzy Osbournes albums :P
Steve Morse also seems to be fitting better these days, certainly better than what I heard on the "Live at the Olympia" album, which dates from about 10 years ago. He's getting more of a feel for how you should play in Deep Purple I think, but his main problem is when he does his faster runs. Yes Blackmore did fast runs and sometimes they were incredibly controlled and precise, but at the same time Blackmore also had a good feel for rock n'roll which always stopped him from being TOO technical. When Morse plays fast its high speed and near perfection and this is just... well its far too perfect for Deep Purple, it just dosn't work for me. However his slower playing now has much more feel for the songs etc. so overall I guess I had no major complaints, the guy can't help his fast style really.
Ian Paice was amazing on drums as usual and although I couldn't hear Roger Glover that well he seemed to be doing his job well enough on the bass and even did an awesome solo on Fireball, which they opened the set with. Ian Gillan was actually really good too! I mean with his voice problems over the years he just isn't hitting the notes like he used to, but I think this was mainly down to the fact that he was trying to do things he was no longer able for and having difficulty facing this, hence some unpleasant screams. However now he seems much more comfortable in what his range at the moment is and his voice has a nice warm quality when he sticks to it. He also seems to have a new method for screaming because he did the scream at the start of Highway Star to near perfection! XD
As for the set list I was mostly happy. Like I said they opened with Fireball which got things off to a rip-roaring start, not to mention they stuck in old favourites of mine like Highway Star, Space Truckin' and Into the Fire. They even played The Battle Rages On, which is one I think rocks along really ferociously and I didn't think I'd hear. More surprisingly was that they played Mary Long of all songs! I mean its off what some consider to be their worst album, not to mention that the lyrics are just... well look for yourself, the chorus goes: "Whered you loose your virginity Mary Long, where'd you get your stupidity Mary Long" XD ah well, it was interesting to hear it anyway. They played Rapture of the Deep too from the newer album and also Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming, which I vaguely remembered when I heard it at the gig and liked it, but have now realised I heard before on my Olympia album.
They of course played Smoke on the Water and I couldn't help but think to myself "I'm at a performance of Smoke on the Water!" XD its almost like a rite of passage for any hard rock fan isn't it? :P The night ended on a high note of Black Night and all in all Purple not only met my expectations but actually somewhat exceeded them. This is what rock n'roll is all about and my only remaining hope is that I might get to see them here in Ireland sometime and not have to trek all the way over to Germany for 'em :P Ah well, at least I have the t-shirt as proof 
Mood: buzzing
Music: Deep Purple
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Scrape away the excess
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April 25, 2008, 02:39:pm
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I got a new guitar today ^^ a Les Paul, just like I always wanted. Only "catch" is its the Les Paul Studio  that basically means no glossy finish, no shiny controls or anything like that. In fact all it has is a pure wood look, I actually quite like it (if I had gotten the Casino I was thinking of the pure wood finish) so I'm not put out at all. I reckon I'll get a good many years use out of it and sure the guys in the shop were very nice. My guitar teacher told me just to tell them that he sent me and that I'd "be looked after" XD
Diarmaid came in too as a friend of his works there so just to give me even more leverage with the staff afterwards we hung out a bit and even bumped into Ritchie at one point. Nice day really, just gonna take it easy for the rest of it, but starting tomorrow I gotta get deep into the practicing, got me recital comming up next week!
Anyways, just thought I'd share that with yis, I'll post a few pics of me and the new guitar maybe when I get a chance. Later!
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a fucking medal?!
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February 04, 2008, 01:15:pm
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I got a letter in the post today that says I am basically recieving a medal for doing really really really well in my folklore classes O_o wow... I mean... I knew I was doing well and all and that my lecturers were pleased and that but like.. a MEDAL? Jaysus...
Really just can't believe it x_x
Mood: disbelief
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