DEEP PURPLE COLORS HUB HAPPY
It may be 30-plus years since the band’s heyday, but from the look of things Tuesday night at the Bank of America Pavilion, Deep Purple has aged well. Despite a few more gray hairs, lead singer Ian Gillan still looks athletic in his jeans and T-shirt. And the band’s arena-monster sound is pretty much intact. In fact, Deep Purple is one of the few veteran bands whose latter-day personnel changes have sped it up instead of slowing it down.
Ex-Dixie Dregs guitarist Steve Morse breathed some new fire into the band when he joined a decade ago, and his million-mile-an-hour solos were still in good form Tuesday night. It took more time to get used to recently added keyboardist Don Airey, who has a less funky approach than founding organist Jon Lord. But he and Morse had some tasty exchanges, and Airey is learning the Purple approach: overplay, but do it with style.