Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow: Memories in Rock—Live in Germany

Legendary Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore fronts his latter band before happy audiences of pop-metalheads at outdoor German venues in Loreley and Bietigheim in June 2016. The 14-song set offers a mix of dullness and moments of inspired nostalgia. Aided by his front man vocalist Ronnie Romero—a reliable conjurer of yesteryear's prog-rock glory—Blackmore opens with the Deep Purple classic “Highway Star,” which captures a whisper of that long-gone group's mystique. The elongated blues of “Mistreated” features a roaring guitar solo, while “16th Century Greensleeves” snakes along in more sinister tones. The largely expressionless Blackmore leads the way in the pleasingly pop-ish “Since You've Been Gone” (with its “Sweet Jane”-like chord structure), which is followed by the unfortunately empty “Man on the Silver Mountain.” Much better is a cover of Deep Purple's “Perfect Strangers” that is slow, mysterious, pulsing, and bruising. A far-too-long “Child in Time” finally gives way to “Woman from Tokyo,” but everything ends satisfactorily with FM radio catnip “Smoke on the Water.” Bundled with a pair of audio CDs featuring all of the songs plus four alternative bonus tracks, this is presented in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1 and LPCM stereo on Blu-ray. A strong optional purchase. (T. Keogh)