Rainbow concert review; Oct 4th, 1977 by RicardO

The following is a review of one Rainbow concert, originally posted to alt.music.deep-purple.

From: mikekeo@concentric.net (RicardO)
Subject: RBR 1977 NETHERLANDS REVIEW
Date: 26 Apr 1997 13:08:12 GMT

Well it had to happen sooner or later....This show is not a very impressive one (when compared to the ones I previously reviewed this week). Again the quality is fair and I give the performance (by RB anyhoooo), a fair rating. Dio, Cozy, David Stone deliver good performances. I do not know the bass player here, but he needs some voice lessons if he was the one singing back-up vox for Ronnie. The set is the standard thing from the era...........I do not know why RB did not mix up the set and just play some cover tunes back then, just to add a little flavor to the evening. I am sure he could handle covering a couple of DP tunes. He can really sound like Deep Purple's guitar player at times! :-)

OTR- standard intro and nothing special here....just LOUD!

KTK- This is played too darn fast!~ RJD loses the tempo a couple of times here and Rickie's solo is uninspired and he switches to a slide solo here too. A little different.

MISTREATED (this one)- Sir Top-M Hat gives us a look at how much noise he can generate when he is not up to task and still manages a few good "licks" (guitar talk :-). WOW!!!! Dio is giving his all here and really delivers a powerful performance that rivals the On Stage version. The middle solo by Vader is more noise but the closing solo shows there is a chance RB may get with the program here. This is a good solid effort at the end. Welllll seems I spoke to soon. It just bottomed out. :-(

16th Cent. GS- There is no "traditional" GS intro which leads me to believe that TMIB is not having fun this evening, and we all know, if HE is not having fun, then WE are not having a good show to review. Cozy Powell just slammed a double bass piece down my throat! Great stuff from CP! This song displays RJD's power and range very well and this is truly Ronnie's show tonight.

CTR- The Short One is Mr. Friendly this evening as he talks to the crowd. He is always upbeat when conversing to the crowd. Heck, if he was selling encyclopedias, *I* would buy one from this guy! RB is trying to find his groove again and plays a Bach piese called "JESU, JOY OF MAN'S DESIRE" and a short Chet Atkins style "WHITE CHRISTMAS". The song is filled with lots of dynamic changes and RJD's smooth vocals shine here. RB delivers up a great solo too.

LLRR- Ok everyone put your hands together sand sing along...."ROCK ROCK ROCK AND ROLL YEA!" for the next 10 minutes....... Whoever is singing back ups....SHUT UP! You are way off key and sound like Eyore singing.

MOSM-Boring lackluster LAZY intro, slide solo and lots of noise here. From the sound of RB's strat he also broke a string as the guitar is totally out of tune suddenly. There is a space where there is no guitar and now he is back and this guitar sounds MUCH different than the one he has been playing this set. Nice blues...(Med-eee-val blues :-) and again the organ/drum team jams good here.

SIS- Very interesting keyboard/synth solos through out this one! RB still out to lunch too. There is a brief DTC thrown in but it is not much to sing about either. Cozy takes his spot for a long solo and the show ends.

This was just not a great performance from Blackers, but that happens to everyone. It does seem to happen to him more often than others though! ;-) Is this a must have for the average collector?? Not really. Is it a must have for the RJD fans??? Probably because he was just SO BLOODY BRILLIANT here this set. It is a shame that RB was not up to the task this show or we could have had a magical "kodack" moment!

RicardO