COME HELL OR HIGH WATER

Going on with my search of live Deep Purple albums, I found this one about 3 months ago. I felt extremely seduced by the fact that this is played by the "classic" line-up (Gillan/Blackmore/Glover/Lord/Paice), AND in the 90s (specifically on 1993, parts from two concerts, mostly in Stuttgart, Germany, and other one in England), so I was with lots of expectations about how would it sound, if the magic of the gold years is still there, if the band keep sounding good, etc.

First of all, the first thing I realise is the sound quality is EXCELLENT! The mastering job is superb and I can hear every instrument very clearly, so the production is very good, considering that this is a live album and, what is more, from DP, as you may know a very raw and LOUD live band, specially on the 70s! The playlist is, as I expected, some of the good old classics, like "Highway Star" (very raw this one), "Black Night" (a great moment when the people sing the famous riff of this song, that reminds me of when they came to Argentina just 2 weeks ago now!), "Child In Time" (surprisingly they came up with this one, but despite Gillan can't go as high as he could in the 70s, here this version is decent, and features a nice guitar-keys duel in the middle instead of that superb guitar solo we can hear on "In Rock", or "Made In Japan"), a raw version of "Speed King" (including a mini jam in the middle, with the first moments of the great "Burn") and the obvious to close "Smoke On The Water" (at the end Gillan gives space to the crowd to sing the chorus once and again, just like it happened when they came to my country, something that makes me very happy). Apart from the classics, they played two songs from their (in that time) recent studio album ("The Battle Rages On) called "Anya", which is surprisingly good, with the addition of a nice neo-classical passage by Blackmore, and a rocker called "A Twist In The Tale", also their classic from the 80s, "Perfect Strangers", plus a song I never heard they playing live, "Anyone's Daughter" (from "Fireball"). Other thing I must say is that all the solos are changed and well improvised, some of them very different, like for example on "Child In Time" and "Smoke On The Water".

So, is this loud? Not as loud as "Made In Japan". They still rock? Yeah, definitely! But this is definitely not essential, and a very good live performance from DP with the "classic" line-up on the 90s, and has an historical significance, being one of Blackmore's last concerts with Purple.

Rating: 3.1/5