In The Still Of The Night Tour
The anticipation before the show could be felt in the nervous chatter echoing about and the fact that the audience stayed firmly put in their seats the whole time during the change over after the opening act. The huge Whitesnake banner had been on the stage the whole time and seemed to lend it’s own hand in working up the crowd. As could be expected, the larger part of the sold out audience was made up of males in their 40’s (or pretty close to it)… those old enough to have witnessed the glory days of the mighty Whitesnake!
Minutes before the show, the whole band could be seen warming up in the area besides the stage. Then right on time, at 9 o’clock, the band hit the stage, opening with “Burn.” It wasn’t until the fourth song, “Bad Boys,” that the audience got the drift and started singing along. It took a couple of tries before Coverdale understood that the audience did not know the lyrics to the lesser known songs, nor did the people on the side seats take him up on his “Everybody get up!” commands, so he soon gave up on them. Doug Aldrich looked a bit frustrated at the start of the show because the audience did not act very enthusiastically. Luckily, these seemed to be only starting hiccups.
After “Bad Boys,” the hits from recent compilations started pouring out and the sing along parts took hold. “There Ain’t No Love In The Heart of The City” got an extra 5 minutes longer thanks to the crowd that wouldn’t stop singing.
Right from the first minutes it was clear that Coverdale hasn’t lost any of his stage charisma. This man is the master of mike stands! And what about that voice?! He may not be able to reach all the high notes anymore, but he still can sing with the best of them. And what about those songs? It’s pretty impossible to ruin such classics as “Fool For Your Loving,” “Is This Love,” and “Love Ain’t No Stranger,” just to name a few. Almost the entire set was comprised of classic hits from the former years.
Still, though, there was something missing. That important “X-Factor,” the special “something” that makes the difference between a good show and an excellent show was sadly not present here. Although the whole band looked good and acted like a real band rather than just bunch of hired hands, this wasn’t the classic line-up. Doug did the main solos, leaving the rest for Reb… they both did a good job, but didn’t manage to spark up the audience as one might expect.
Tommy Aldridge, on the other hand, managed to impress everyone with his drum solo… he played half of it with his bare hands after throwing his drumsticks into the audience.
The most impressive part of the show was when Coverdale asked what the audience wanted to hear and someone kept yelling “Soldier of Fortune” in a Finnish accent, which Coverdale couldn’t understand until an American gent in the front row interpreted the request for him. Coverdale said “okay” and sang half of the song “a cappella” — just him and his voice.
Like the keyboard player, Timothy Drury, who looked like he was really having fun, but still holding back a bit behind his keyboards, the whole band seemed to be just stretching like a lazy panther who you knew was capable of springing into action when it wanted to, but was content in just strutting along for now.
The show ended with “Still of the Night,” and the goofing off during the final bows after the actual show was complete left the audience in good spirits. We were treated to a tape playing “ Wish You Well” as the audience made its way out of the hall.
Finnish band, Peer Gunt, who opened the show, seemed a bit out of place and played a hurried show. It seemed like these veterans were there to just offer a distraction to the audience who were all just waiting for the main band. Twist Erkinharju’s drumming is always a pleasure to watch, however. This man makes playing drums seem so effortless and easy, which is a sure sign of a real master. Unfortunately for Gunt, the night and the audience belonged to Whitesnake.
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