Deep Purple • USA tour Aug 2014

August 10, 2014 – Snoqualmie Casino, North Bend, Washington, USA.

On a perfect Summer Sunday evening with temperatures in the high 70’s, my wife Rita and I drove to North Bend, just 15 minutes east of Seattle. Deep Purple’s first return to Seattle since 2004.  We’ve seen them seven times since 2004 but all shows were out of state or out of the country! I call it our 40th Anniversary Show because 3 months after we were married, Rita and I drove to Kansas City, Missouri and saw Deep Purple Mark III in August 1974 during the Burn Tour. Now 40 years later, both Deep Purple, Rita and I are still together. Harry Heathman III

There was no warm up or back up band. Around 7:30 pm, Deep Purple hit the stage and played a non-stop 100 minute hard rock performance. I was wearing an Ian Paice shirt and after Smoke On The Water, Paicey threw his drumstick right at me. I also got a Steve Morse pick. What an anniversary gift!

Highway Star / Into The Fire / Hard Lovin’ Man / Strange Kind Of Woman / Vincent Price / Contact Lost / Uncommon Man / Well Dressed Guitar / The Mule / Lazy / Hell To Pay / Don Airey Solo / Perfect Strangers / Space Truckin’

Encore – Green Onions / Hush / Roger Glover Solo / Black Night

August 6. 2014 – Orange County Fair Costa Mesa, CA USA

Went to the 8,000 strong, nearly sold out, show in Costa Mesa Wednesday night with my wife and some friends. Blue Oyster Cult got the night started with a solid 45 minute set with guitarist Buck Dharma ripping off some impressive solo’s. Purple came on next to the familiar strains of Highway Star. Gillan kinda struggled on this as far as the screams but sang great. However during Into The Fire he nailed it ,with the crowd loving it. Hard Loving Man was fantastic with Don’s Hammond leading the charge. A funny moment occurred after the solo’s when IG approached the front of the stage and banged a mini gong then bowed to the crowd. Brilliant. Steve was in fine form and his solo spot with Contact Lost leading into Uncommon Man was beautiful; a definite highlight of the night. Glover and Paice are locked in like no other rhythm section. The bottom end was ferocious. Airey however is something else. This guy just blows me away every time I see them. His solo spot was quite impressive moving from organ to synth to piano with ease and throwing in some Beach Boys for the Southern California fans. Would’ve liked a quick solo from Paicey but with time constraints at the venue the band had to be done by 10:30pm. That said we still got a 90 minute set.

Afterwards we were lucky enough to get backstage through my friend Dave Linck and met Roger, Steve and Paicey. All three were as nice as could be talking with us and posing for pictures. Steve was impressed I knew about Flying Colours and their upcoming gig in nearby Torrance, CA. Ian commented that seeing the large crowd was great and their reaction gets the band fired up, however Roger felt the previous night’s crowd in Ventura was even better. Lisa and I are off to see them in Vegas next week.

Steve and Lisa Hunt