Glenn Hughes @ Jailbreak 2023

Original soldier of fortune brings the storm

This is one of those occasions where one gets reminded of just how awesome one certain period was. And it still holds up even if it happened long before one's birth. (I.e., mine and other audience members' respective births).

We are, of course, talking about the 1973-76 "Mark III" period in Deep Purple's line-up where bass and vocal virtuoso Glenn Hughes, along with fellow aging lesbian lookalike to-be David Coverdale handled certain handicrafts in Purple.

Aforementioned reminder of aforementioned Mark III period, then, consists of some absolutely wonderful tunes. Monolithic opener "Stormbringer", for example, being one obvious such. But also equal parts heavy and catchy "Might Just Take Your Life" along with the melodic yearning of "Sail Away" are nothing short of amazing revisits.

However, this is all the more amazing due to the undisputed main cat of the hour himself. I saw Hughes 12 years ago with the splendid, and later criminally forgotten, Black Country Communion supergroup. And given the man's almost 72 years on Earth, the fact that he's able to sing the way he is, defies not only common sense and knowledge, but possibly also a coupla laws of nature.

And I'm not done praising, we're talking beyond powerful on a normal scale. We're talking level windows-shattering-in-neighboring-villages here. We're talking dogs coming running outta nowhere. We're talking a-great-disturbance-in-the-force level powerful. I mean, fuck. You gotta hear it to believe it.

In fact, the only criticism on my part is that the set is way too short, that the indoor stage is way too small, and that the attendance is way too sparse for an artist of Hughes' format. And for his backing group, for that matter. As should be long known to any and every show attendee, Hughes has long teamed up with local guitar hero Søren Andersen. That guy does wield a proper axe – and demonstrates it not the least of all in ever-blistering closer "Burn".

It amounts to a fine icing on an expensive, but sadly just bite-sized piece of meringue cake. Although I'd have to say I could've done without "Gettin' Tighter". And I did hear "Mistreated" at least a couple of times too much. But then again, it'd be weird if it weren't there. But on the flip side, I don't care that Hughes wasn't in Purple when they released first encore "Highway Star"; if you don't consider that one among the most awesome hard rock tunes of all time, you're a moron.

Anyway, I could easily bitch some more about the set being too short and the crowd too small, but I'd rather end on a high note and focus on the facts that a goddamn legend like Glenn Hughes is not only still around, but that he's better than he's ever been. Mark my words, there's something magical going on around this man. And I'm fortunate to have experienced it in person. (Loading "Soldier of Fortune" joke.)

Rating: 5 out of 6

Genre: Hard rock / proto-heavy metal
Venue: Jailbreak, indoor stage
Date: Fri., 11/8/2023

Setlist:

1. Stormbringer
2. Might Just Take Your Life
3. Sail Away
4. Gettin' Tighter
5. Mistreated
   
   Encore:
6. Highway Star
7. Burn

Photos by Magnus Jørgensen. And it's the funniest thing; none of the others had any copyright on them, but these ones totally do. No, really.