Whitesnake @ ThebartonTheatre, Adelaide (31/03/08)

Thu 3rd Apr, 2008 in Gig Reviews

Check out all the photos HERE

This was one gig that seemed to appear completely unannounced and barely advertised. If it wasn’t for complete blind luck, I would have missed it myself. Luckily, enough people did hear about the show because there was a nice crowd in attendance at Thebarton Theatre, which is a fantastic venue for a crowded, old school rock show. I’m not sure if it’s a worldwide phenomenon or just an Australian one, but there really seems to be a resurgence in the classic rock bands at the moment. I’ve noticed that the crowds at these shows aren’t entirely made up of people that are old enough to remember the pre-grunge era.

The night opened with support act Skintilla providing a fairly heavy (and probably in-appropriate) precursor to the Whitesnake performance. Their set was a little heavy for the hard rocking crowd who it seemed would have favoured a smoother support act.

By the time the headliners made it to the stage, the venue had once again been filled with a vibe that can only be found at a classic rock show. Frontman David Coverdale is truly a respected idol within the rock community and his presence was certainly felt on the stage. I was a little worried before the show that he may be getting a bit too old to be strutting around the stage like a sex symbol as he’s been known to do in the past (he is well into his fifties now), but I was relieved to see that he still looks like the David Coverdale that we all remember from the band’s 1980s heyday. The current line up of the band were equally dynamic and seemed as though they had been playing together for their entire careers rather than just the last few, with this fresh line up only being together for a relatively short time.

The band worked their way through the crowd pleasing set which just kept delivering the classics. I had forgotten how many huge anthems they had in their repertoire until I heard them again after such a long time. Although it had been awhile since I had made a conscious effort to listen to Whitesnake; the minute these songs were played, it felt like I had never stopped listening to them. That to me is a good indication of a song’s worth as a classic. The entire venue seemed to be singing along to the majority of the set, especially the highlight hits, Here I Go Again, Still of the Night, Is This Love, and Fool for Your Lovin’.

Included in the set was a new song, apparently from an album which is on the way, and it sounded like an instant Whitesnake classic that had the crowd singing along by the end of it.

When it was all over, I was pretty impressed that Adelaide can still have a huge rockin’ night out on a week night, seeing a band that barely advertised their arrival that hasn’t even had close to a hit record in over 15 years, and cost over one hundred bucks to see. Hopefully we will see more and more of these shows coming our way in the future, and we might even see Whitesnake return after the release of a new album.

Check out all the photos HERE