Written by:	Dinko Metalac
Published:	December 21, 2007
Event:	Deep Purple: Europe Winter Tour
Location:	Setra, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Deep Purple in Sarajevo


I need time to sum up all emotions that rise from the days after the concert. I'll try to be objective in grading it as fairly as I can, if it is possible to be objective at all. First, I have to say that these guys are professionals. They weren't late at all, so the concert started exactly at 21.00. Mr. Paice started a very known drum solo and everybody knew what comes after: one of their most underrated songs from the Machine Head album, Pictures of Home (I'm saying this since everybody loves Smoke on the Water and Highway Star). It sounded much heavier which suited me very well since I prefer Heavy Metal (and heavier, mainly Thrash) rather than Rock. It was also very amazing to see a bunch of grandads still driving the audience crazy after 40 years or more. The rest of the setlist went something like this:

Things I Never Said
Into The Fire
Strange Kind of Woman
Rapture of the Deep
Mary Long
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Well Dressed Guitar (with amazing Steve's solo at the begining)
Knockin at Your Backdoor
Lazy
Perfect Strangers
Space Truckin'
Highway Star
Smoke on The Water

and ending the concert with:

Hush
Black Night

There were also some solos by Morse, Paice, Glover and Airey but I don't know where to put those into the list.

I always asked myself how much DP lost with Mr. Blackmore's departure. In my opinion, they benefited. If you listen to Blackmore's Night (his current project) you realize that this guy lost his track. Steve Morse is much more versatile and he shows his potential in every song he plays. Of course, he is not Blackmore, his style is different. His solo also included great Led Zeppelin - Lynyrd - G'n'R - Classical Music medley. So, all of you DP fans, do not underestimate Steve Morse, he was great last night. Some old songs sound much better with his arangements (Highway Star, Pictures of Home). I think this is clear for now.

Don Airey also showed that he is a magician, he was god-like. His solo started with something baroque (with some Mr. Crowley notes), went to something oriental (he also included a few notes from a very popular Bosnian folk song), and after something very Chopinish finished with some weird synth sounds (in few moments he sounded like Jean Michelle Jarre). All songs were also well with Airey's keyboard lines.

I still can't believe that Ian Paice can play drums like that at the age of 60. He was so fast on his drum solos, even death metal drummers would be amazed. Roger Glover was just another proof that DP is actually more a Heavy Metal band than a Rock band. His bass line has almost the same position in DP like Steve's (Harris) bass line in Iron Maiden. You can really hear bass guitar which sounds very good. On Space Truckin' and Black Night he was just like Steve Harris in Wrathchild.

I was little disappointed with vocal abilities of Ian Gillan. But, it's very hard to keep the voice in tune for 40 years by now. For that reason, Child in Time is not played on tours for a long time. Doesn't matter.

The audience was just superb (as Gillan said ten times too many, plainly his byword). The hall was crowded and it was great to be part of that audience. Almost every song was sung by the crowd. Only band like Deep Purple can have such atmosphere. I'm just wondering, isn't it fantastic to be in a band like that in front of such great fans?

My recommendation is, if Deep Purple comes to your town (or somewhere near) don't miss it. Sarajevo is very poor when it comes to concerts. We had U2 back in 1997, Kreator and Destruction in 2002, Vader and Behemoth were here recently. But, it's just not enough. Unfortunately, the problems are very big and I don't want to discuss them here...

So, my final grade is SPECTACULAR, 10+. Visit it, enjoy it.