...and man, this was probably the best I've ever seen him.
first, a nod to the other two- the sound was a mess for Thin Lizzy. They were WAY too loud, and the rhythm guitars just got lost in a wall of distortion (didn't even think you could get that sort of saturation from a jcm800, and they didn't seem to be using overdrive pedals, as what few gain adjustments there were seemed to be courtesy of their
volume knobs). I think the vocals were in key, and the solos looked like they might have been cool, but i never caught more than the occasional pinch harmonic. But it felt like a spinal tap show- i have a hard time taking songs about "kings and queens of old" seriously, i suppose...
Deep Purple were solid, and morse was, of course, jaw-dropping- the man alternate picks arpeggios better than most people i know can sweep them. And, despite their apparent age, they put on a good live show and appeared to be having a great time on stage.
I was really there for Joe, though, and he was PHENOMENAL. Probably the best I've seen him yet- uncharacteristically, he drew heavily on new material, opening with "Hands in the Air" and at various points in the night playing "Love in Space," "Up in Flames," "Gnaaah," and i think one more track, but i'm blanking on the name. For older material, there were a number of older staples- "Surfing," "
Satch Boogie," and "Blue Dream," but he also spun some interesting variations on some of the older tunes- his band NAILED the jazz/funk intro he's been toying with lately, just a killer groove and some great jazzy playing that, given the moderate gain and ocvate effect, sounded almost akin to a keyboard solo, given his phrasing. And, during the "rubina's blue sky" tag he's been ending "Always With Me..." with the last couple years, he started plucking the strings fingerstyle (i think), then gradally got a slightly stacatto, double-time feel going. The bass began suggesting a VII-IV-I groove, and i was thinking, "man, that's cool. Too bad they're not going to jam that ending out a bit." Well, they did... probably a solid three minutes of some of the most beautiful, uplifting bluesy guitar I've ever heard from the man, every once in a while returning to the Bsus4-Bsus4/E cadence he ends the studio version with, until he finally resolved back to that for the ending. The crowd just exploded- it was just an absurdly cool end.
Amazing set, wouldn't have missed it for the world.
-D
