Long Live Rock´n Roll



Ritchie Blackmore´s Rainbow played last night in Helsinki,promoter released a statement earlier that the show was sold out.

Ronnie Romero is the lead vocalist, Ritchie himself does the guitar parts, Bob Noveau on bass and David Keith on drums, Jens Johansson on keyboards. Candice Night and Lady Lynn did the backing vocals.

I saw this line up for the first time. I had no expectations for them except towards Ritchie.
Ronnie did vocals parts very well. He reminded me about the  great Ronnie James Dio. Songs like Stargazer, Long Live Rock´n Roll and my favorite Dio era song Sixteen Century Greensleeves sounded brilliant. Ronnie Romero gave the same treatment also for the Purple´s Coverdale era songs Mistreated, Soldier Of Fortune and Burn. Romero also sang his lungs out in Child In Time.
JLT & Bonnet era songs sounded okay but for me Romeros strength was in the Dio / Coverdale era songs. In the end I was pleased the way the band played. Except Ritchie. His playing became more difficult towards the end.


Stage production was very simple. Few amps on both sides of the drum riser. So no wall of  Marshall amps. In the background, there was a big screen on which the cover art of the band was reflected.
For me that worked out well. Rainbow album covers are amazing and looked awesome on the big screen.

I had a chance to meet the bassist Bob Noveau before the show. He asked me that if I have seen any shows during this tour. I replied that I haven´t seen any shows (except in 1995) and I have tried to keep the set list also away from my eyes. Mr. Noveau told that there was going to surprises in the set.
When the band disappeared from the stage after they finished DP classic Burn without saying anything to the audience. The crowd chanted "We want more" for a several minutes. Despite the crowd was giving its best to the band the lights turned on and the show was over.
Then I remembered Bob Noveau`s words and I thought that was this the surprise that they left the encores out.

I was bit confused. On the other hand the production was great, band delivered a good show by playing pretty good. And then on the other hand.... Ritchie is a great player and a great musician. Somehow for me it seems that his playing is not at that level that it has been.
The reason why band stopped playing after Burn and left the stage without any encore remains mystery until someone from the band camp comes out with the truth.



Helsinki 13th April Set list:

Intro
Spotlight Kid
I Surrender
Misterated
Since You´ve Been Gone
Man On The Silver Mountain (incl . part from Woman From Tokyo)
Perfect Strangers
Sixteen Century Greensleeves
Soldier Of Fortune
Difficult To Cure (incl bass and keyboard solos)
All Night Long
Child In Time
Stargazer
Long Live Rock´n Roll
Burn


MH






Comments

  1. It was a great show. But the end was kind of odd. What really happened? Smoke on the water has been heard live many times, but I think everybody would have wanted to see and hear Ritchie to start Smoke for the very last time. (I don't think he will come back to Finland anymore). Just like it was amazing (great and sad at the same time) when Tony Iommi started Paranoid for the last time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Janne for your views, I agree it was a great and a sad moment at the same time.

    MH

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