Well, well.. That was more than enough excitement for one evening! Not to mention that the following day I went to Page & Plant concert! Read all about it too, by clicking previous link, but now back to DP & SQ. The concert was held in Prague's standard rock-concert hall at Vystaviste (Fair) and it started at 8pm.  I knew well from the moment I read when the concerts starts that something's wrong - there was a warm-up Czech band playing at 8. They would play at least 45 minutes, and then another 15-30 minutes to set up the stage for SQ, then SQ wouldn't play for less than 1.5 hrs, then again 15-30 minutes break, then again 1.5 hrs for DP, then they should return at least once more for a couple extra songs, add another 20 minutes... That was... (anyone calculating?) well, around midnight, anyway. I'm writing this because Czech law states that all concerts must be finished at least 15-30 minutes before midnight, because public transport (metro) is working until midnight + 5 minutes, so all the people that went to a concert can catch last metro. At least, that was the case until now on all the concerts I visited. Let's get back to the concert for the time being...

started around nine p.m. They just walked to the stage, there was no surprising appearance or anything like that. They started by playing a couple of songs I didn't know (I guess not many other people knew either), and the audience reaction was ok for the first "unknown" song, but then it started to cool down. When they finished second song, the singer (hell, don't know his name) wished everyone a good evening and made a joke which only foreigners and English speaking Czech (if any) could understand - it is funny that 10 years after the "revolution" Czech still can't speak English. His words were "Everybody that understands English raise your right arm!" - and then one quiet "oh, shit!" when almost nobody did. So, they couldn't communicate with audience, they had to play...

Luckily, almost everybody understands Rock 'n' Roll, so... The concert went right back on track when they started playing "The Wanderer" and other known songs. They played "Rocking' All Over the World", etc. but the biggest moment of the concert was when they played (what else) "In the Army Now". It was pretty much OK, really nice atmosphere, no jumping and screaming but really nice rock atmosphere (Well SQ's music isn't actually for jumping and kicking). They sound a bit different live then they do in studio, especially their recognizable guitar sound - I guess it's not easy to match a 100% studio sound, but if they didn't play songs I knew and I didn't know I'm listening to SQ, I'd never guess it's them by their "sound" only.  They returned to play some extra time and played a rock medley with all classic rock 'n' roll songs (which kind disappointed me because they didn't play all of their known songs). But, all in all, SQ was a great warm-up for 

that was celebrating it's 30th birthday on concert in Prague (1968-1998), that's why they had SQ playing with them. I listened SQ from the center of hall, but since the hall was full (I've never seen it this crowded, except maybe at the AC/DC concert) I just couldn't stand it anymore so I moved to sit. I had a clear and close view at the stage, if a bit sideways (it was too close to the stage, on the left side), but it had it's advantages - because I could see what is happening behind the stage!

All in all, the concert was great, it was fun, Gillan and Glover turned out to be best showman of 'em all. You know when singer goes behind the stage when the band plays instrumental for a while? Well, Gillan went behind stage a lot (which of course I could see, sitting a bit at the side) but he didn't go there and sit and have a drink - he continued jumping and dancing, although only 50 to 100 of us were able to see behind the stage. Now, that guy either loves music, or is an incredible showman! Concerning visual effects and the stage, I think their last concert I saw (think it was "The battle rages on" tour), was much better in visuals and light show, but Deep Purple are not Pink Floyd, so... It's enough to listen to them!

Deep Purple finished playing a bit before midnight, and then after 5 minutes of screaming and kicking and jumping and applauding went back to play one more song - "Highway Star" (funny, last time I saw them in Prague, they started the concert with "Highway Star"). They finished at quarter past twelve, so I had to wait for the first night autobus until 1:07 a.m. Doesn't  matter - it was worth it.