MORE THAN JUST A TRIBUTE: THIS BAND DELIVERED A TOP-CLASS ROCK SHOW AT THE “KAUE” IN GELSENKIRCHEN

Expe­ri­enc­ing “Strange Kind of Women” live is some­thing tru­ly spe­cial. It is remark­able how these musi­cians not only pre­serve the music of Deep Pur­ple over such a long peri­od of time, but also bring it back to life with fresh energy.

I – along with many peo­ple around me – was absolute­ly impressed by the per­for­mance, the pas­sion, and the musi­cal qual­i­ty of all five artists. From the very first moment, lead singer Ron­nie Grace stood out with an incred­i­ble voice, effort­less­ly cov­er­ing all ranges and nuances. Any remain­ing doubts dis­ap­peared at the lat­est dur­ing the leg­endary inter­ac­tion between her and gui­tarist Eliana (“Sun­shine”) Cargne­lut­ti towards the end of the song “Strange Kind of Woman” – a moment that sent chills down the spine.

Watch­ing Eliana (pic­tured on the left next to lead singer Ron­nie), you get the feel­ing that she and her gui­tar have been one since the very begin­ning. This intense con­nec­tion was present through­out the entire per­for­mance. It is no coin­ci­dence that Eliana Cargne­lut­ti is con­sid­ered one of the ris­ing hopes of Ital­ian blues rock. With her expres­sive play­ing, tech­ni­cal skill, and strong stage pres­ence, she sets clear accents and gives the songs a pow­er­ful and dis­tinc­tive char­ac­ter. Her inter­play with the excel­lent key­boardist Margheri­ta Gru­den cre­at­ed a dynam­ic that imme­di­ate­ly reached the audi­ence and gen­er­at­ed a remark­able sense of closeness.

Drum­mer Chiara Cotug­no also deliv­ered an out­stand­ing per­for­mance. Her pow­er­ful solo and pre­cise tim­ing from the first to the last song left a last­ing impres­sion. And of course, no great music comes with­out a strong bass foun­da­tion: Eleono­ra “Franzi” Mon­tarone played her parts and solo with calm con­fi­dence, yet with a pres­ence that was felt in every sin­gle song.

Over­all, it was an out­stand­ing show in a fan­tas­tic venue in Gelsenkirchen, once again prov­ing that true rock music is timeless.

Thank you, ladies, for this fan­tas­tic evening. I wish you all the best for the rest of the tour – stay fit and healthy, because every­thing else sim­ply doesn’t matter.

Dim­itrios