Deep Purple (w/ Alice Cooper) @ Budweiser Stage (Toronto ON) on September 2, 2017 [Photos & Show Review]

Labor Day long weekend in Toronto and we have the CNE, Air Show, a Soccer Game at BMO Field, a concert at The Air Canada Centre, and the concert everyone else is trying to get to, Deep Purple with Alice Cooper and Edgar Winter at Budweiser Stage. Needless to say, traffic was a nightmare.

We have such an amazing city here but with more than one event in town traffic just grinds to a halt. It took an hour and a half to drive the roughly 200 remaining yards to the venue which caused us to miss the call time to photograph Edgar Winter. Listening to his set while sitting in traffic, he kicked off with “Free Ride” and finished his set with “Frankenstein”.

Next on the Budweiser stage was The Godfather of Shock Rock. No More Mr. Nice Guy himself! When the curtain on stage dropped, Alice Cooper appeared from behind a shower of pyro sparks which rained down from above. By the forth song, “Billion Dollar Babies”, the crowd’s hands were all in the air as Alice was at the edge of the stage with stacks of “Alice Cooper bucks” stabbed through a sword. After thrashing the sword back and forth, “Bank of Alice” bills started flying through the air to everyone’s delight. All I can say is WOW… a theatrical shock/horror rock show production extraordinaire.

After a short set change the legends themselves, Deep Purple, hit the stage. They started their show off with “Highway Star”, which made most forget about their traffic woes from earlier. Considering that these pioneers of rock have been going strong since 1968, they put on a terrific show playing all the classics and everyone’s favourites. This tour is called “The Long Goodbye”, could they be telling us something? Deep Purple is one of those bands that’s just always fun to see. From the smiles on the musicians’ faces as they’re performing, you can tell that they are still just doing what they love. I tip my hat to them.

Alice Cooper Setlist:

01. Brutal Planet
02. No More Mr. Nice Guy
03. Under My Wheels
04. Billion Dollar Babies
05. Paranoiac Personality
06. Women Of Mass Distraction
07. Guitar Solo by the amazing Nita Strass
08. Poison
09. Halo Of Flies + Drum Solo
10. Feed My Frankenstein
11. Cold Ethyl
12. Only Women Bleed
13. Killer
14. I Love The Dead
15. I’m Eighteen
16. School’s Out

Deep Purple Setlist:

01. Highway Star
02. Fireball
03. Strange Kind Of Woman
04. Uncommon Man
05. Lazy
06. Knocking At Your Backdoor
07. Pictures Of Home
08. Keyboard Solo
09. Perfect Strangers
10. Space Truckin”
11. Time For Bedlam
12. Hush
13. Smoke On The Water