The highlight of the show comes from the title track of the forthcoming new album, Long Live Rock 'N' Roll. The performance kicks off with some bluesy Hammond organ and guitar interplay between Stone and Blackmore, before launching into the song's now legendary guitar riff. I had only seen this song performed live by Dio a few times, but this Rainbow performance is so much more bluesy and powerful than what I remember, with the imposing organ riffs and Blackmore's amazing guitar work laying the foundation. This scorching rock & roll anthem has remained a Dio concert staple ever since, and his commanding performance this night leaves no doubt why he is considered to be one of the greatest heavy metal frontmen of all time.
I was wondering how a meager eight-song set could produce over 100 minutes worth of concert material, and the final three songs are the obvious reason why. "Man On The Silver Mountain" a mere four and one-half minutes long on the debut album, is transformed into an almost 16-minute behemoth, thanks to some fantastic improvisation from Blackmore. Before launching into the song's monster opening riff, Blackmore first teases the crowd with a few chords of "Lazy," noodles around with a little bit of chicken-picking, and then fires off some dazzling blues licks. The middle section of the song features another killer Blackmore guitar solo, where he even plays some Taurus bass pedals with those giant, white, platform shoes he was sporting, and then the song morphs into an extraordinary, slow-blues jam, before closing with the original theme.
With more and more vintage concert performances from the likes of Deep Purple, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, KISS, Jimi Hendrix, and other 60's and 70's rock icons, becoming available on DVD, it is becoming painfully obvious just how sloppy some of these guitar legends actually were in the live arena. With modern shredders such as John Petrucci, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani able to spew forth hundreds of notes per minute with the precision of an accomplished brain surgeon, watching some of these early performances by legends like Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore can be downright cringe-inducing. But then again, many of us prefer an all-over-the-place, wildly improvised Blackmore solo over some boring, robotic guitar solo from one of these new generation shred gods.
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