Live report DEEP PURPLE, Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, 02.06.2017

The title of Deep Purple’s fantastic new album “inFinite” leaves quite some space for speculation and interpretation, especially considering the capital ‘F’ as part of the album name. Does this mean that the iconic pioneers in rock will come closer to an end? Or will they go on forever?

What is a fact though, “inFinite” is a brilliant album that presents the best what you can expect of a band that’s in business since almost 50 years. To support this longplayer the band embarked on a long tour, covering many parts of this planet. One stop on this trip was Amsterdam with playing a show at Ziggo Dome, on of the biggest concert venue in the Netherlands.

After Canadian hardrockers Monster Truck played a solid support slot it was time for Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Steve Morse and Don Airey to enter the stage. The setlist was built on two main components. As not expected differently the new album played an important role that night and in combination with the old evergreens, the night in Amsterdam became an impressive journey through five decades of classic rock.

It was the opener of the new longplayer that also acted as kick-start for the show. “Time of Bedlam” is a great rock song, which includes some mechanical vocal parts in beginning and end, and it has been the In Gillan’s robot-like moves that visually supported those very well. What made the set to a thrilling one was the constant jump between new and old. Instead of funneling the new songs in the beginning, Deep Purple played old and new in a constant alternation, which means that with “Fireball” and “Bloodsucker” two classics followed the opener. The awesome “Strange Kind of Woman”, also from the “Fireball” album, was the bridge to some new songs. Three songs from the latest release showcased again the newer Deep Purple before the real classics filled the venue with pure rock'n'roll magic.

As soon as the first tones of “Perfect Strangers” left the speakers the audience shifted gears from ‘enthusiastic’ to ‘madhouse’, ending in a more than 10.000 people choir singing the iconic chorus of “Smoke on the Water”. This moment gave everybody in the hall the shivers and showed again that this song is THE hymn when it comes to rock music. It was a furious closure of the regular set, followed by a few minutes break in which the quintet left the stage.

Two more ‘musts’ have been part of the encore. “Hush”, the Joe South cover, was a swinging first part of the encore, before Roger Glover demonstrated the power and groove of the four-string guitar if handled with experience and competence. Excellent work. Maybe another song, taken from the rich Deep Purple discography, would have been better. However, the solo was a nice bridge to the closer of this night in rock. An impressive version of “Black Night” rounded of a concert that showed again, why Deep Purple belonged and belongs to the heavy influencers in rock. These guy are the spearhead when it come to hardrock and it’s awesome with what kind of energy the guys can easily handle an almost two hour show. Rock’n’Roll obviously keeps you young and vital – no doubt after having seen this show tonight.

Next to the well-chosen setlist it goes without saying that the sound was excellently done from the first to last song and also the band itself seemed to enjoy every single minute of this show. Each of the five band members added with their field of expertise the necessary puzzle pieces to the whole to make this night to a celebration in rock. Deep Purple stood there as a unit that had fun and pleasure of what they are doing – entertaining fans of which most of the ones being at the Amsterdam show probably accompanied the band from their very beginning. My personal conclusion after this impressive night is very clear. Hopefully the ‘infinite’ part is much more leading than the ‘finite’. This band can’t stop, especially not when releasing this kind of  excellent longplayers followed by jaw-dropping good live show. Keep on rocking.

Setlist:

1. Time for Bedlam
2. Fireball
3. Bloodsucker
4. Strange Kind of Woman
5. Johnny's Band
6. Uncommon Man
7. The Surprising
8. Lazy
9. Birds of Prey
10. Hell to Pay
11. Keyboard Solo
12. Perfect Strangers
13. Space Truckin'
14. Smoke on the Water
15. Haush (Encore)
16. Bass Solo (Encore)
17. Black Night (Encore)

Location: Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Date: June 2^nd, 2017

Deep Purple, Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, 02.06.2017

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