Rockphiles regular, Paul Neve, attended the June 29th Whitesnake concert at Sheffield City Hall (UK), and turned in the following review. Thanks, Paul!
"9:00 pm sharp, and the Snakes Burn! their way on to the stage at Sheffield City Hall, emerging against the famous serpens albus backdrop in a blaze of lights and a flurry of movement led by David Coverdale, the snake charmer himself, who greets the entire audience (ages pre-teen through 'don't ask') as if they are long lost friends, and the small venue (2200 seats) his own backyard. The intimate setting allows David to interact with his audience, which serves the show very well, and he obviously thrives on the feedback from the audience.
Love Ain’t No Stranger provides the catalyst for the legendary "Whitesnake Choir" (a group of die-hard fans who rush down to the front of the stage) to join in the refrain and stay there for the remainder of the performance, providing an enthusiastic vocal accompaniment.
On the tongue-in-cheek Slide It In, Coverdale naughtily entices selected female audience members to sing into his mike. The tempo changes with the power ballad Is This Love?, and by now most of the audience is happily mesmerized, clapping and singing along. Ready and Willing completes the initial assault on our collective senses.
Despite the passage of time, the ‘Deadly Cobra’ retains his gifted vocal chops, stage presence and totally disarming smile. DC is every guy’s secret idol and every girl’s rock star fantasy, and he clearly plays to everyone's dream of being a rock god.
He also surrounds himself with outstanding musicians to complement his own abilities. Remember "Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure"- learn guitar and save the world? Well, they must have had Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach as their teachers. The Aldrich solo Blues For Mylene, supported by Timothy Drury on keyboards, is nothing short of sensational. New bassist Uriah Duffey, complete with flashy blue lights in his fret board, looks likely to settle in as an able replacement for Marco Mendoza.
Crying In The Rain allows Tommy Aldridge (think ‘Animal’ !) to perform a remarkable drum solo during which he casually launches his sticks far into the audience, then carries on using his bare hands, before picking up a new set of sticks to end the performance with.
At this point in the show, one fan touchingly presents DC with a Saltburn tee-shirt which he accepts with genuine pleasure.
The power ballad Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of the City is a vocal tour de force featuring David and the "choir." Just when the Whitesnake Choir thinks it’s winning the singing duel, DC slaps them with clever reverb magic, to remind them who is the real vocal master.
Give Me All Your Love follows a similar pattern of invited audience participation, and the anthemic Here I Go Again, with the houselights on, provides a fitting finale to the set.
The audience bays for more, and Whitesnake happily obliges with an encore of two numbers in which the band steps up yet another gear. Take Me With You allows each member to shine in turn as a soloist, while Still Of The Night first takes the roof off and then brings the house down at 10:45pm. Suddenly, it’s all over. We are transported sharply, and all too soon, back to the world of reality.
Apart from Slide It In, the performance follows much of the new Whitesnake Live DVD. The DVD is really excellent but can't totally capture the energy of the live act. These guys really love what they do and so does the audience!
Bad parts? Not many. I missed not hearing the classic Fool For Your Loving and, in my opinion, the all-seater stall area rather cramps the movements of the front row ‘choristers’.
A special highlight of the night for me was seeing DC take the trouble to shake hands and josh with a wheelchair-bound fan. Nice touch, I thought!
Heavy metal tends to have a bad reputation in some quarters because it is seen as coarse, rebellious, demented and intimidating. But these Snakes are of the non-venomous variety; a joyous band who play their chosen blend of music for the sheer pleasure of it, with a charismatic front man who is really a smiling kitty cat who won’t bite.
It was really all good clean (well, almost clean!) fun, coupled with extraordinary musicianship and great performances. The crowd were able to thoroughly enjoy themselves without resort to drunken behavior and bad manners. Having never seen Whitesnake live before I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Given the great show on Thursday, I'm sure I’ll be seeing them again. "
Here's a link to the Whitesnake official site - more tour dates, music, fan community, band news and great t-shirts at a reasonable price!
Paul bought this one. He also noted that he saw a lot of fans wearing t-shirts from other bands - so now's the time to stock up on Whitesnake gear, people!
As mentioned before, Tom Petty has a new CD out, Highway Companion - thumbs up, highly recommended, yeah, yeah, yeah! 
