Deep Purple Space Trucks Into New Jersey

Hard rock legends defy age with loud and triumphant set at PNC Bank Arts Center

September 2, 2024 Ron Hart 1 Comment Deep Purple, Don Airey, Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, PNC Bank Arts Center, Roger Glover, Simon McBride, Steve Howe, Yes

Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover onstage at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ 8/31/24 (Image: Ron Hart)

Swiss time is running out on the ability to see Deep Purple in concert.

So in catching the English hard rock pioneers on the summer tour in support of their excellent new album, =1, it was imperative to grab the ticket and take the ride when they space trucked through Holmdel, NJ at the PNC Bank Arts Center on the last day of August.

Bonus points if you like the new record as much as I do, cuz their setlist featured FIVE songs from it. But unlike their previous recent albums, songs like “Lazy Sod,” “Portable Door” and “Bleeding Obvious” stood toe-to-toe with classics from two Purple essentials the group leaned on in – 1970’s In Rock and 1972’s Machine Head.

Credit new guitarist, 45-year-old Simon McBride, for giving the old boys a swift kick in the motor to get them revving again in a way they haven’t sounded since Ritchie got lost at the Renaissance Faire and never returned. The way he breathed new fire into songs like “Highway Star,” “Hard Lovin’ Man,” “Lazy,” “Space Truckin’” and closing number “Black Night” gave them a newfound sense of strength and heaviness Steve Morse, sadly, could never properly replicate. And for all of the technical dazzle McBride put on display this evening, his ability to perfectly nail the iconic riff to “Smoke on the Water,” whose belated 50th anniversary as a single is the basis of the tour, showcases the apt discipline he possesses on the six-string as well.

Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride onstage at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ 8/31/24 (Image: Ron Hart)

Don Airey, who replaced a retiring Jon Lord in 2002 and is the only man to appear on albums by both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Judas Priest, remains one of the most gifted and underrated keyboard players in rock history as he sat at the controls of his station of synths, organs and pianos. Meanwhile, one of rock’s heaviest rhythm sections in bassist Roger Glover, 78, and drummer Ian Paice, 76, kept this train barreling down the tracks with the might of men a fraction of their age. To hear these two legends rumble with such ferocity in their mid-to-late 70s is a true mitzvah to behold.

Then there’s Ian Gillan, who, at 79, looks more like an Italian grandpa who may or may not have been part of an organized crime syndicate than the tough-as-nails frontman of one of England’s loudest bands. But despite his silver-haired crooner veneer, this man has still got it. And naturally, to boot. Nobody will be accusing Gillan of using vocal tracks anytime soon, let’s just put it that way. Long may he run.

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan onstage at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ 8/31/24 (Image: Ron Hart)

Opening for Purple on this tour is Yes, the current iteration of which is absolutely fantastic despite not including a single member from the original lineup of the British prog-rock institution. But what a joy it was to see guitar god Steve Howe, who joined Yes in 1970, play up a storm at the age of 77 across eight classic tunes that pulled primarily from 1971’s The Yes Album (“The Clap,” “I’ve Seen All Good People,” “Starship Trooper,” “Yours Is No Disgrace”) but also peppered in Howe co-writes from Fragile (“Roundabout”), Close to the Edge (“Siberian Khatru”), Going For The One (title track) and the Trevor Horn-era gem Drama (“Machine Messiah”) into the set as well.

Yes onstage at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ 8/31/24 (Image: Ron Hart)

The band, meanwhile, features longtime keyboardist Geoff Downes, bassist Billy Sherwood, drummer Jay Schellen and singer Jon Davison, who at the age of 53 is the youngest member. It might not be the lineup you want, but it’s the lineup you need.

As each passing year finds more and more classic rock acts retiring from the road, it’s astounding that both Deep Purple and Yes continue to play at such a velocity that you’d hardly imagine their primary players are in their golden years. Age means nothing in rock ‘n’ roll, progressive or otherwise.