The Highway Star — Absolute Magic in Toronto! (2024)

Deep Purple live at Budweiser Stage (Toronto, Canada 2024-08-25)

Deep Purple Concert Review: Toronto, ON, Canada – Budweiser Stage (August 25, 2024)

Set List

Highway Star
A Little On the Side
Hard Lovin’ Man
Into The Fire
Simon’s Solo > Uncommon Man
Lazy Sod
Lazy
Show Me
Portable Door
Anya
Don’s Solo > Bleeding Obvious (!!!)
Space Truckin’
Smoke on the Water

Encores:

Hush
Black Night

What a night full of great music to be had in my hometown of Toronto! My best friend and I got to the venue in time to catch the opener, Hannah Wicklund, who is an amazingly talented singer songwriter and indie artist. I was so impressed with her songwriting and vocal chops (she can really sing!!!! the pipes she has are incredible!!!) that I ended up buying her latest CD at the merch tent later on. Great solo set with just her by herself, and she certainly held her own and the audience loved her. I’ll definitely be seeing her more in the future!

Yes were a blast! Over an hour of Prog epics – I’d never seen them before live, and I liked their music, although in truth I never did much like Steve Howe as a guitar player. That all changed after tonight – finally, I got him, and now I’m a fan! His solos and lead parts were otherworldly!

I got to hear both Roundabout and I’ve Seen All Good People (which is my favourite Yes tune!) and the whole band sounded great (although I thought Geoff Downes’ keys were a bit buried in the mix). The drummer they’ve got to replace Alan White since his passing is fantastic, as is Chris Squire’s replacement. A wonderful set of Prog epics, and more time signature changes and multi section songs than you can shake a stick at! If you haven’t seen them yet, you should!

But what of Deep Purple, I hear you ask?

From the opening notes of ‘Mars, The Bringer of War’, my heart was racing. I hadn’t seen the band since 2006 – and in fact this year in 2024 is the twentieth anniversary of my first Purple show (which also happened to be my first live show ever!) when Steve was in the band. The last time I saw them in ‘06 I believe it was, Leslie West from Mountain (RIP) joined them on stage and played Smoke with them, and they played Speed King and Steve and Don did the most ridiculous duel during that number.

Since then, much has changed – Ian Gillan is now 80 and can’t scream like he could back then, and Steve has left the band and now they have Simon.

From the tour footage I’ve seen of recent shows online, I noticed Ian was struggling in the vocal department – some nights he was great, others he was struggling to sing notes in tune that are well within his new, lower range. I was planning on not going to see them at all – and keep my memories of them in their glory days with Steve (remember, I was born in ‘85 when Perfect Strangers was being toured, so the early Morse years are their glory days to me!) because I was so worried that I’d get Ian on a bad night, and I didn’t want my memories and how I viewed the band to be ruined. I was also wondering if Ian could live up to the amazing performance he delivered in the studio on =1. Live, of course, is the real deal.

Well, I am so glad that my best friend convinced me to go, and I am happy to report that my memories of the band were not ruined by Ian’s vocal performance tonight, because he was near perfect and gave the best vocal performance I’ve seen of him in the last decade, if ever.

From the opening chord that let led into Highway Star, the band was in full flight. Ian was spot on with his singing – no tuning issues whatsoever. When he got to the screams for the chorus, he adapted, and instead of trying to hit notes out of his range, he focused on his upper mid range and adding distortion/vocal fry to give the notes the same weight and gravitas, and it worked brilliantly. Throughout the night, I watched my favourite singer shine, delivering nearly note perfect performance after note perfect performance, and yes he did get a couple good screams in there! Instead of going high in places, he went low, and I watched him make smart choices and I think given his age, he’s adapted brilliantly.

My one concern is Ian did looked strained while singing and throughout the night I noticed him sneaking off into a tent back stage – to do what, I’m not sure, but whatever it is, it helped him deliver a an outstanding performance. I just hope he isn’t pushing himself too hard, and that he is in good health overall!

Also, Ian’s between song banter is the stuff of legends – my favourite was him quipping that Lazy was about “a Zen Buddhist monk and defrocked Vicar getting together” and how ideology is a waste of time – at least you know where the man stands! And, it was very nice of him to give Toronto a shoutout and let the crowd know the new record was recorded here by Bob Ezrin, who Ian said “lives just down the street” and “knows a thing or two about making records”. This, of course, made everyone in the audience feel quite proud, myself included, as I know the studio where the band recorded =1, being a recording artist myself.

Now, if Ian Gillan was one of the star performers the whole night, delivering near flawless singing the whole time, Don Airey was the other star of the night!

Going into the show, I was a bit worried Don’s Hammond would be too low in the mix – this was the case the two times I’d last seen Purple in 2004 and 2006. That was certainly not the case here- the Hammond was SCREAMING, growling and just so damn driven! Don was improvising the most I’ve ever seen him, and during Hard Lovin’ Man he delivered one hell of a solo, making the Hammond snarl and growl! In fact, I’ve never seen Hard Lovin’ Man performed live, and this was a real treat! Definitely a highlight of the show!

Don’s solo spot was filled with all sorts of little nods to various classical composers- Mozart, Tchaikovsky and the like, as well as the intro to Mr. Crowley – and of course, he snuck in O, Canada which had the whole crowd on their feet for the most part (being disabled, I stayed seated) and singing along to the national anthem – a very nice touch! Don was certainly the other standout of the night, and considering he was one of my influences on Hammond Organ along with Jon, I was in Hammond Heaven the whole night!

But what of the other members?

Roger Glover and Ian Pace were locked in all night long, Roger played some very interesting bass lines and was solid the whole night. Paicey, is of course, a thunderous groove monster! My best friend who took me is also a drummer, and he said he always liked Paicey, but until he heard the band live (it was his first time seeing the mighty Purple, though he’s been a fan for years!) he told me how impressed he was by Ian’s deep groove and how powerful he was. Flawless and thunderous as always! in my opinion, Roger and Paicey are the best rhythm section in all of rock n roll, and they certainly proved that again tonight!

And what of our new guitar player, Mr. McBride?

I went into the show knowing it was a new chapter for the band and for myself – I’ll never get to see Steve Morse, my favourite Purple guitarist, with the band again – I regret not going at least one more time, as during Uncommon Man I thought that I would have liked to have heard Steve play it as well.

That said, Simon McBride totally floored me the whole night – chops for days, tasteful melodies, and I absolutely love that aggression and wildness in his playing – total ABandOn! He was getting ludicrous amounts of sustain from his PRS axes, and at one point held the most glorious, feedback note with all this phaser stuff going on (an effect that really hasn’t seen use since the Mk IV days when Tommy Bolin was the axeman!) and it just blew my mind as a guitar player myself (my second instrument, in case you’re keeping tabs)! Simon’s solos were incredible, and especially the one he did before Uncommon Man where he really made it his own (it’s a damn good thing too, I wouldn’t want a Steve clone!) and just went for the jugular during that tune and throughout the whole night.

If I had two minor critiques it would be this: during the new tunes, of which the band played five off the new record, which was a welcome change to the setlist, Simon played his solos exactly like he did on =1, note for note. I get it, he’s new, and I would have preferred him to improvise a bit more. The other critique is that whoever was mixing sound put Simon a bit on the low side while he was playing rhythm, I would have liked to have heard him against Don’s screaming Hammond a bit more.

On the whole, Simon gave us so many incredible solos (he did a killer one in Hard Lovin Man alongside Don!) and was totally solid in the rhythm department. Finally, the drive and danger and wildness that Ritchie Blackmore brought to the band is back, in full force, and I’m glad for it! I will miss Steve Morse and the thoughtfulness and intention he brought with his playing to the band, and, Simon is a most welcome and impressive change indeed! Hopefully once he settles in a bit more, he’ll start improvising and letting loose on the new stuff! All in due time!

Setlist wise, the band put in quite a few nice surprises in the set – Hard Lovin’ Man, as previously mentioned, Into The Fire and Anya were very much welcome additions in my books – I hadn’t seen any of them performed live before! The biggest surprise however, came much later in the might.

Throughout the show I was writing down the setlist for this review, and after Don’s Hammond Solo, I wrote down Perfect Strangers, thinking of course they’re going to do it – what Purple show doesn’t have Perfect Strangers?!

Well, wrong I was!

Instead of launching into the Hammond riff we all know and love, instead the boys pulled a bold move and launched into Bleeding Obvious off the new record! I was pleasantly gob smacked, taken completely by surprise (or perhaps it was The Surprising?) in the best possible way! Out of all the tunes I wanted to hear off the new record live, this was the one I wanted to hear the most – other great new tunes included Show Me, which went down really well, A Bit On The Side, Lazy Sod and Portable Door (which, according to Mr. Gillan, they had just such an item for sale over at the merch table in one of the more memorable Gillanisms of the evening). I was really impressed that we got five new tunes in total – I’ve never seen Purple do five new ones before! If I might be just a tad greedy, might I suggest throwing in I’ll Catch You somewhere into the set? It would make a great addition to an already stellar set (and I will admit, my favourite tune off the new album)!

Then it was time for the classics – Space Truckin and Smoke on the Water were of course very well received – singing along to Smoke never gets old, and neither does the riff! It was also nice to hear Simon reproduce Ritchie’s original rhythm guitar part in the verse of arpeggiated power chords – a very nice touch indeed. I don’t listen to Smoke all that much, but when they played it tonight, I felt like I was 19 again and seeing them for the very first time! Absolute magic!

However, the fun was of course not done!

For the encores, there was no Green Onions – just straight into Hush, and for me, it was the highlight of the night! Tons of jamming, tasty solos, very inventive bass lines by Roger, and what for me was the highlight of my evening – the most INSANE guitar and organ duel I have ever witnessed between Simon and Don! The duel between Steve and Don that I saw during Speed King back in ‘06 was a very close second, however, this took the cake!

The fluidity, speed, and just sheer bonkers inventiveness of the lines Simon and Don threw at each other was just beyond belief – as a student of both guitar and Hammond, I was beyond my wildest dreams at this point in terms of what I was witnessing – just when I thought they were done, they kept one upping each other in spectacular fashion, and the inner teenager in me who fell in love with Jon and Ritchie doing the same thing was suddenly very, very happy!

Black Night ended proceedings, as always, and I enjoyed singing Simon’s licks back to him in the middle (I played a nice little game with myself to see if I could hit the ever increasing high notes Simon threw at us on pitch, and somehow I managed!) – and as quick as you could blink an eye, the show was over.

My best friend and I left the venue feeling really excited by what we’d just witnessed: a band that could have and likely should have been well past their prime hitting it out of the park, absolutely murdering it on every conceivable level. The second show I saw in ‘06 with Morse will always be my favourite Purple show – I won’t ever get to hear Speed King, Ian Gillan doing those fantastic screams or seeing Steve Morse and Leslie West from Mountain trade licks on SOTW ever again – however, this is up there with it, and one of the best concerts I’ve ever witnessed live. All in all, a very nice 20th anniversary present for myself, and an incredible first show for my best friend!

The band has been reborn a second time (I mean, maybe more like eighth or ninth considering all the lineup changes over the years), thanks to the wondrous talents of amazing axe slinger Simon McBride, who has a very bright future ahead of him with the band. I think in recent years, the band had gotten a little tired and were about ready to pack it up and go home, probably in no small part due to getting older – that’s life, after all.

However, just like Steve saved them in ‘94 from the clutches of near collapse from Ritchie’s shenanigans, Simon has saved them again, this time from the claws of complacency, and given them fresh blood and new life. If this is Purple’s final chapter, it’s going to be a damn good end to an incredible story and career! Absolute magic! Long live Deep Purple – and bring on the McBride era!

Mk 9, I’m with you all the way to the end. Let’s go!

-Mike Nagoda

review by Mike Nagoda