DVD Review: Whitesnake - Live In The Still Of The Night - Page 2

This show couldn't have kicked off in a better fashion. With the lights still out, the band takes the stage playing a long intro that slowly builds energy and anticipation, until Coverdale finally screams, "Are you ready?!", and the light show kicks in. Aldrich then serves up the famous opening riff to the Deep Purple classic, "Burn", which Coverdale originally sang on way back in 1974. Mendoza impressively supplied the Glenn Hughes chorus screams of BURRRRRNNNN! They even tease you with a few verses of "Stormbringer" towards the end of the song. The band sounded huge, especially Aldrich's thick and crunchy Les Paul riffs, and Aldridge's heavy handed drum assault. My initial concerns about Coverdale's aged vocal chords were immediately laid to rest, as he sounded pretty damn close to his prime. Sure he couldn't nail all of the high notes, and he strained a bit at times, but after warming up on a couple of songs, it was like it was 1987 all over again.

The setlist was a decent mix of old and new, going all the way back to the beginning with the Snakebite slow-blues ballad "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City", and as far forward as the Slip Of The Tongue anthem "Judgement Day" from 1989. Wisely, they relied heavily on their hugely-successful 1987 album Whitesnake, performing six of that album's nine songs. Some of the more disappointing omissions were the Slide It In classics "Slide It In" and "Slow An' Easy", but they did bring the house down with that album's biggest hit "Love Ain't No Stranger".

I know of no other band that remakes their own songs to the extent that Whitesnake has - especially when it is done within a span of a few years. 1987's Whitesnake contains metal-tinged updates to both "Cryin' In The Rain" and "Here I Go Again", which originally appeared on their fine 1982 album Saints & Sinners. "Fool For Your Loving", from 1980's Ready An' Willing, got the royal Steve Vai treatment and became a hit again on 1989's Slip Of The Tongue, which was one of the few good things about that album. Each of these killer tunes were performed this night, and they definitely received the more updated treatment.

I had seen every one of these band members perform with other bands - Aldrich with Dio, Beach with Winger and Dokken, Aldridge with Ozzy and Pat Travers, Mendoza with Ted Nugent, and Drury with the Eagles. I was especially interested to see how Aldrich and Beach would handle the twin guitar duties in this band, as their styles are quite different. Aldrich is clearly from the older Jimmy Page/Gary Moore school of blues-based rock guitar. He even has a '58 re-issue Gibson Les Paul that he persuaded Page to scratch his initials into with a fork. Beach is more from the '80s, Van Halen/Steve Vai school of flash guitar, but he can still do it all. Coverdale has clearly given Aldrich the spotlight in this band, as he takes the majority of the guitar solos, and even gets two full songs "Blues For Mylene", and "Snake Dance", which were essentially his solo vehicles. Beach does add some excellent rhythm guitar and the occasional colorful solo, but was much less in the spotlight.

Article Author: Paul Roy

Paul Roy is a network administrator by day and amateur music DVD critic by night. When not attending as many live concerts as he possibly can, Paul likes nothing more than to kick back with a good concert DVD and rattle some walls. …

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