“The light show and graphics, Ian Gillan’s voice and the virtuosity of his bandmates demonstrated with each song and solo moment made this concert very special. Ian Gillan didn’t mention anything about this tour being their last public appearance, but given the age and medical issues of some of the members, it’s likely that their presence in large-scale live concerts will be increasingly rare.
Again, just like their 2014 Bucharest concert, the big absence from the setlist was the song “Child In Time”. Although requested by fans, Deep Purple did not include this song in the concert. However, other beloved and well-known songs were not missing: “Strange Kind Of Woman”, “Johnny’s Band”, “Uncommon Man”, “Lazy”, “Hell To Pay”, “Perfect Strangers”, “Space Truckin’” and “Smoke On The Water”, where the audience had their own solo moment. Ian Gillan played with his voice and the audience, he had a few solo moments to jazz beats, much appreciated by the audience.
The solo moments were top notch, Ian Paice, Roger Glover and Steve Morse showed how well they master their instruments, but Don Airey won over the audience not only with his virtuosity, but especially with the fact that, once again, he included in his repertoire excerpts from George Enescu’s “Romanian Rhapsody”. (iConcert.ro)
“Time for Bedlam,” a track from the new album, opened the concert. And they went wild. Hard to believe that the five musicians are all hovering around the honourable age of 70! After 50 years, Deep Purple has the same unmistakable sound – whether it’s guitarist Steve Morse, who sometimes comes close to the legendary Ritchie Blackmore, who left the band in 1975 to form Rainbow, or the panache of Don Airey, who replaced Jon Lord in 2001 and who enchanted the Romanian audience, just as he did three years ago at the Sala Polivalentă, performing passages from “Romanian Rhapsody” in a personal way.
Fireball”, “Uncommon man” and “Strange kind of woman” followed without interruption. It’s true that Ian Gillan’s voice isn’t what it used to be, he certainly doesn’t have the high, unmistakable tones that made him famous half a century ago. But he still manages – helped by the instruments of his colleagues and with a few small, audience-inscrutable pauses – a nearly two-hour concert. And what really matters is that he still finds (and conveys) joy in everything he does.
There was no shortage of “Perfect Strangers,” “Lazy,” “Space Truckin’,” “Hell to Pay,” “Smoke on the Water,” and the five musicians were visibly delighted by the warmth of the audience. “Superb!” was Ian Gillan’s conclusion before the encore, which included three songs, “Highway star”, “Hush” and “Black night”. Missed, again, was “Child in Time”.
The flawless sound and the exceptional Events organisation contributed to a successful concert – perhaps Deep Purple’s last in Romania, which rock lovers will remember. ” (Adevărul.ro)
