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This year's "Ted's Tour" was hitting only four
shows. The actual plan, namely doing the whole German leg and maybe some
more, had to be cancelled, due to the family's financial minister.... So,
you'll only find information here about the gigs in Dresden, Mosbach, Bonn
and Nürnberg.
This time I don't want to stretch out your patience
with too much text information. It will be mostly pictures. I'll only
mention some special details instead of describing every single
song.
The venue in Dresden was right at the banks of the river Elbe. Across
the stage was a nice historical building (don't ask me what it was). The
stage was right next to the water and, later when it got dark, the opposite
bank and all the buildings there were illuminated. Very nice scenery. |
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We all know that Jon wasn't able to play these shows,
due to a knee injury. Speaking of, our best wishes for a quick recovery,
Jon ! When I first heard about that, which was before the European leg
was supposed to start, I thought: "Oh God, they're going to cancel. Number
one: where would they find a replacement so quick, number two: even
if, who can fill *these* shoes?". Well, thanks to the Rock'n'Roll God,
and there must be one, there is a guy named Don Airey walking around on this
planet.... And, not only was he available and willing to help them out, he
did a *great* job. Thank you, Don ! Also, and that surprised me positively,
all the audiences welcomed him very warmly. There was (barely) any yelling
for Jon, nevermind any aggression against Don, unlike what happened to Tommy
or Steve when they were new to the band. I was very happy that no such things
happened and it seemed like Don was also having a lot of fun with the
Purps.
I know this belongs to every serious review, so here it is (and it
was the same on all the other gigs, so I won't mention it
again),
The setlist:
-
Woman From Tokyo
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Ted The Mechanic
-
Mary Long (*finally* I got to see that one live ! A long
time dream of mine because I always liked that song better than the public
opinion did. Thank you guys !)
-
Lazy (Don did a great job here, never thought somebody other than
Jon could play that one....)
-
No One Came (not my favourite live track, but I'm not discussing
"why did they play this, why didn't they play that one instead" here... although
I still think it doesn't quite work out live. The audience always acts a
bit confused with it. But - I won't even go there, discussing their choices
of songs for a set. You would get about 786.532 different setlists anyway,
if you'd ask the fans. So, they decided to still play it and they played
it well, of course with a dominant mix on Roger, as the song requires it.)
-
Fools (what a wonderful decision to bring that one back on the
setlist. And what a drumming job Ian does on that one... if you ever get
the chance to see that live, pay attention to what he's doing there, listen,
I mean *listen* to it. It's amazing. Also, especially this song is very different
every night, maybe because it leaves so much room for improvisations.)
-
The Well-dressed Guitar (Ian said it's not finished yet. Well,
so we'll wait and see how it's going to sound when it's done.... We heard
that one before on the Orchestra tour, and it worked out well there, I'm
just not sure yet if this is also true concerning a five-piece band (or four,
if you wanna be anal, since it's instrumental)..... anyway, I think it requires
the orchestra, and also needs, like Ian said, some more "writing" to make
it a real piece.)
-
Perfect Strangers (with a fabulous keyboard solo from Don as the
introduction, and, like always over here, an audience catcher)
-
When A Blind Man Cries (still one of my favourites, and it still
gives me the goose-bumps, what a song - but only when Steve plays it....
he puts the right feeling in it, unlike others before. Sorry Satch, but you
shouldn't have touched *that* one.)
-
Guitar Parade (you know what I mean... the "tune up" for Smoke,
with riffs from different bands, different ones every night, and I'll *never*
remember them all.... so I gave up trying.)
-
Smoke On The Water (it *still* gets the crowd going nuts, and
probably always will until hell freezes over. They still can't drop that
one from the set, because of all the fans who are not constant followers
like us. And we don't want to be selfish, so keep on playing it for those
who have maybe never seen it live before. It still rocks the arena and it
won't kill us either to hear it the 85th time.....)
-
Speed King (incl. various old Rock'n'Roll goodies, and Ian even
forced The Reverend to sing along...)
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Encore:
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Black Night (another one which they cannot drop, at least not in
Germany. The audience is always starting it before the band ever gets a chance
to do so.)
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Hush (here the organ died, in the middle of the song. What
a dilemma, since the song really requires it. Well, most people didn't
really realize, it did not ruin the show. For those who are interested in
the interna: Don was playing Jon's organ as a matter of fact. But, since
the lady has *some days* on her shoulders, she's not the most
reliable anymore. And the moody old thing just decided to be tired that
night - which didn't happen for the first time, by the way, so they had to
send her to a hospital to get her fixed. For the next gig, in Mosbach, they
rented a different one, to give the old lady a break and Don was so impressed
by the substitute that he even considered buying it. He said it was the best
one he ever played on. Anyways, old lady was back for Bonn and worked just
fine there.)
-
Highway Star
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The bottom line about this gig:
The venue left some wishes open, namely food-, drink,- and toilet logistics.
Although the infrastructure, signs to guide you to the gig and such, was
perfect. Promotion (posters to announce them) weren't visible on our ride
to there.
The show was good though. Little problems in the beginning
such as adjustment, especially mixing-wise, but then it kept on rolling.
Outside of the organ problems, there was nothing you could ask for, and as
a bonus we got The Reverend singing lead vocals on that (yeez, I wish I could
remember the title..... Rog, help me out!) anyway, that country-kind-a-type
song during Speed King.
The only tiny little damper was: there was no such thing as
a backstage area. So we had passes to go to a place that didn't exist....
Anyway, that didn't mean too much to us, as we made up for that later, but
that doesn't belong here.
A wonderful night, but it should get better during that tour. Please
read on, following the links below. |
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Feel free to e-mail
your comments
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