For the Love of Purple, Deep Purple Tribute

Notes, Newtown

15 July 2011

Review by Vicki Grozdanovski

Photos by Loretta Mihaljek

Upon arrival at Notes, Newtown I wasn’t too sure what to expect. Normally when I go to a gig there is a lot of buzz outside and excitement in the air; tonight however, was a little different.

Walking into the venue, I noticed rows and rows of tables in front of the stage with around fifteen people sitting at a table who obviously booked the dinner and show. A few were at the bar but it was relatively calm at this point. No mosh-pit to be seen, no long haired, leather crazed punters around either. It was definitely a more mature and older demographic tonight.

The band starts at 9:00pm and Brydon Stace on vocals, joins them. So far, so good; they were sounding pretty rockin’, and Brydon’s voice was incredible. It was clear everyone on stage was having a ball with Brydon playing air guitar along with the guitarist and throwing in his vocal gymnastics, it was definitely gelling with the crowd. The fact that it seemed like every song was a marathon however, didn’t bother me so much as it was very entertaining.

Throughout each song, there was a point where the guitarist would do a mini solo and Brydon would start imitating the sounds with his voice.  It was quite remarkable to see and extremely comical. The crowd was enjoying it immensely and I must admit; I too was a little blown away. Once the song finished, there was an eruption of applause.  As the crowd started to quieten down, Brydon takes the mic and says “goodness me, where do we go from there”? It was quite amazing. Brydon was on the ball, not missing a beat and amongst all the fun and antics on stage he remained in perfect pitch.

After a few songs in, Spencer Jones would take the stage and grace us with his rock ‘n’ roll swagger. Both Brydon and Spencer are completely different in every way. Brydon is animated and quite theatrical while Spencer is 100% rock ‘n’ roll all the way. Strutting his stuff up on stage and engaging with the audience, people were singing and clapping their hands in the air and clearly getting into it. It was almost like we were under a spell, the DEEP PURPLE spell.

Looking around at the crowd, I could see camera flashes going off, video cameras on and die hard DEEP PURPLE fans immersed into the band. Each and every band member added their own flavour and brought their A-game to the table. There was a time when I actually thought the keyboard player’s fingers were going to fall off. Not only was he playing fast, he was hitting those keys so hard exuding such passion and certainly getting into it that his emotions just filtered into the crowd.

Throughout the set, Brydon and Spencer would sing a few songs and then alternate. I must say, there were times when I thought that Brydon could give Celine Dion a run for her money; I’m not joking either.

To sum the night up I think it’s safe to say that everyone went home satisfied. The show was amazing with two brilliant vocalists and talented musicians. The night was all about celebrating everything DEEP PURPLE and as a whole the band was extremely tight and 100% delivered what was expected of them.

See all the photos here: http://www.sludgefactory.com.au/gallery-love-purple