By Lisa Burke
June 9th 2015, Saban Theatre, Beverly Hills CA: In support of their latest studio effort ‘The Purple Album’, a recreation of David Coverdale’s Deep Purple years, hard rock icons Whitesnake have embarked on an extensive North American headline run. ‘The Purple Tour’ brought them to the Los Angeles area for a gig at the lovely Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. Our writer Lisa Burke was on site to capture the event through her words. Check out her review below.
As I walk into the Saban Theatre for the first time I am immediately swallowed by all things swank. So naturally I proceed to the bar where my bank account is emptied by a $25 drink. Moving on to the part where the rock n’ roll happens, as soon as they stop pumping ‘My Generation’ through the speakers to make everyone in the theatre feel old, Whitesnake takes the stage. David Coverdale is wearing his custom David Coverdale special tour shirts because he’s David Coverdale and he can. I was super impressed with so much Deep Purple love that happened right away. He opened with ‘Burn’ and it blew everyone away. Throughout the set, he and his two newer guitar players made some incredible facial expressions as I couldn’t help but notice because I was four rows from the stage. During the first couple of songs, David tried to do mic stand tricks which fortunately did not end in a David Lee Roth smashed up nose incident. While they are no spring chickens on stage and some serious audience vocal participation was needed so that David could rest his voice, my favorite part of the evening was not the sparkly purple guitar solo, but the amazing on-point drum solo. Leave it to Tommy Aldridge to not only sound good at the ripe old age of what looked like at least 70 but he flailed the sticks far into the audience halfway through the solo and played at least three minutes with only his hands. All of it beat out any attempt Tommy Lee ever had to fuel his own ego with his expensive parlor tricks.
That said, I’m moving on to the three classic Whitesnake songs that everyone must hear when at a Whitesnake concert. It began with ‘Is This Love’ followed by ‘Here I Go Again’ and ended with ‘In The Still Of The Night’, literally, because I’m pretty sure David went to bed right after the show. For the most part these songs were spot on to the original incarnations however there was a couple of botched guitar fills and a bit too much of the silent vocals. I do have to give David some serious credit however because when he did sing he could still hit the high notes and his voice is still amazing. Also, during ‘In The Still of The Night’ their newest guitar member killed all the solos with a very skillfull and talented fast-paced painful death.
I almost forgot to mention the awesomeness that was Glenn Hughes who appeared during their third song which of course was a Deep Purple cover, and then again for one more song. This man fullfilled the legend in every way. His vocals were clean, high, and blew me away. The last time I saw Whitesnake was apparently 2009 at the Gibson followed by Judas Priest. David gave it everything he had back then and there was no silence, however I learned that he threw out his voice that night and had to cancel the rest of the tour. He’s currently in vocal lessons according to his bass player whom I had the privilege of afterpartying with after the show. He meant voice training which is just to keep that amazing sound alive.
If you ever want to get a backstage pass to an afterparty at a hair metal show all you need is tits and a smile. I literally walked up to the door last minute and held out my hand to the guy with the magical party passes. Tawny would be proud of me. And finally the moment you’ve all been waiting for … the set list:
Update: Check out a stunning photo gallery from the show by Carsten Steinhausen here.
01. Burn (Deep Purple cover)
02. Slide It In
03. Love Ain’t No Stranger
04. The Gypsy (Deep Purple cover)
05. Give Me All Your Love
06. You Keep on Moving (Deep Purple cover, w/ Glenn Hughes)
07. Forevermore
08. Guitar Solo
09. Mistreated (Deep Purple cover)
10. You Fool No One (Deep Purple cover)
11. Drum Solo
12. Is This Love
13. Lay Down, Stay Down (Deep Purple cover, w/ Glenn Hughes)
14. Here I Go Again
Encore:
15. Still of the Night
Remaining Tour Dates:
Jun 11th – San Francisco, CA – Regency Ballroom
Jun 15th – Colorado Springs, CO – Pikes Peak Center
Jun 17th – Shawnee, OK – Grand Events Center
Jun 19th – Biloxi, MS – Hard Rock
Jun 22nd – Grand Prairie, TX – Verizon Theater
Jun 23rd – San Antonio, TX – Majestic Theater
Jun 25th – El Paso, TX – Socorro Event Center
Jun 27th – Greeley, CO – Greeley Independence Stampede
Jul 2nd – Rama, ON – Casino Rama
Jul 3rd – Sterling Heights, MI – Freedom Hill Amphitheatre
Jul 5th – Northfield, OH – Hard Rock
Jul 7th – Huber Heights, OH – Music Center @ The Heights
Jul 8th – Wabash, IN – Honeywell Center
Jul 10th – Mahnomen, MN – Shoot Star Casino
Jul 14th – Clear Lake, IA – Surf Ballroom
Jul 18th – Merrillville, IN – Star Plaza
Jul 20th – Greensburg, PA – Palace Theater
Jul 22nd – Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino
Jul 24th – Lincoln, RI – Twin River Casino
Jul 25th – Atlantic City, NJ – Trump Taj Mahal
Jul 27th – Westbury, NY – NYCB Theater at Westbury
Jul 28th – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
Jul 31st – Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theater
Aug 1st – Melbourne, FL – King Center
Aug 3rd – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock
Aug 5th – Hollywood, FL – Seminole Hard Rock Live
Aug 6th – Clearwater, FL – Ruth Eckerd Hall
Aug 8th – Markesville, LA – Paragon Casino Mari Center
Aug 9th – Austin, TX – ACL @ The Moody Theater
Aug 11th – Midland, TX – Wagner Noel PAC
Aug 13th – Tulsa, OK – Hard Rock Casino Tulsa
Aug 15th – Rogers, AR – The AR Music Pavilion
Aug 16th – St. Charles, MO – Family Arena