For my first concert in Atlantic City this year, me and another photog made our way to the Tropicana Showroom where this would be my first time ever shooting in this beautiful 2,000 seat acoustically perfect theatre. With a sellout crowd and having not seen Deep Purple in quite a long time, I was ready to shoot and enjoy the show. 
        Opening the show were Ernie and the Automatics, who boast some notable players: former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau and drummer Sib Hashian (who both played on Boston's first two multi-platinum albums) and saxophonist Michael Antunes of the Beaver Brown Band. The band closed its set with a rousing medley of Boston classics.
        After a short intermission, all the ingredients were in place for a perfect evening for classic-rock fans. Deep Purple and an orchestra of about 25 musicians were dressed in evening clothes for the occasion. Taking the stage, singer Ian Gillan, guitarist Steve Morse, keyboardist Don Airey, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice opened their set with "Highway Star", amid a dazzling light show followed by “Hard Lovin' Man,” a cut from Purple's 1970 In Rock album that few but longtime devotees would recognize. Next came "Maybe I'm a Leo", "Strange Kind of Woman", "Rapture of the Deep", and "Woman From Tokyo", "Contact Lost", "When a Blind Man Cries", and Morse's signature solo intrumental "The Well Dressed Guitar" before the crowd gave a much deserved applause. The orchestra remained onstage for the entire evening but sat out several songs. Alittle distraction from the show was Gillan's voice, where he seemed to be struggling on those high notes and screams and skipping a few lyrics to conserve his voice. He departed the stage frequently during solos. But that didn’t stop the show as they continued to roll through more classic hits such as "Lazy" and "No One Came" before Don Airey's keyboard solo that started out sounding like the intro to "Mr. Crowley" from Ozzy's band for whom he was a keyboardist. Then they "Perfect Strangers" and ended their one hour forty-five-minute set with "Space Truckin'", and "Smoke on the Water" that now had all the seated crowd up on their feet and pumping fists to the songs.
        After a very short five-minute break, the band returned and finished their two-hour show with "Hush." Now the crowd was rushing the isles and as the house lights went up, it was Roger Glover's turn for his bass solo that led into the final song, "Black Night", another one from their 1970 album In Rock. As I watched the band standing onstage throwing guitar picks and drum sticks out into the crowd, I thought, how can some 60-plus-year-old guys play for two straight hours and when I go see these younger bands, they’re saying goodnight after an hour and a half. Guess that just tells you who’s got the Rock 'n' Roll blood in them. To see more pix of the band go to Coconuttimes.com.