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.

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
• 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...)
• Encore:
• 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.)
• 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