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Hard rockers Whitesnake have been around for almost 40 years, but they looked like a hungry, up and coming band on July 5th in Cleveland, OH at Hard Rock Live located at the Hard Rock Rocksino. Mainman David Coverdale and the boys are touring behind The Purple Album, which celebrates Coverdale’s time in the band Deep Purple and he has resurrected these songs in live form as well.

Coverdale’s work with Purple is a goldmine of tracks just lying there waiting for someone to use them and they wasted no time by firing up “Burn” as the opening salvo. “Burn” is just a great all-time track with the interplay between the guitar and keyboards and the up-tempo rhythm. Long time guitarist Reb Beach and new axman Joel Hoekstra (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Night Ranger) do it justice and really the Snake could have played this scorcher ten times and I would have been happy.

I don’t know if the Purple injection had the effect, but overall this form of the serpent had a harder edge to it. There was more of an attitude to the band and Hoekstra has added a lot of energy and looked like he was having the time of his life up there. Hoekstra also used a lot of sharply designed Les Pauls, including a glittery purple one with the “WS” logo on it that he used for the guitar solo.

The combination of Purple with the Snake tracks proved to be a great mix. On one end you had the classics like “Slide It In” and “Love Ain’t No Stranger” and then on the other end were the gritty and heavy riff based “Mistreated” and the soulful “You Keep On Moving” (dedicated to fallen comrades Jon Lord and Tommy Bolin). It was a shame most people used the latter track as their “bathroom break”.

Coverdale must really love his bandmates too because everyone was able to hit the spotlight with their own solo. Beach was the first to shred it up and then it was Hoekstra’s turn to kill it with the aid of keyboardist Michele Luppi. Drummer Tommy Aldridge (Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore) stole the show though when he foregone the drumsticks in the middle of his bashing in favor of his hands to smack the drums incessantly. His large gray fane swayed like a wild animal and the crowd ate it up. The youngster of the Snake crew, bassist Michael Devin, played with the audience for a bit with his harmonica which then segued into “You Fool No One”. In addition to his bass talents, Devin also sports a soulful singing voice similar to that of Coverdale’s old DP mate Glenn Hughes. Coverdale also made a remark to the audience about Devin continuing Whitesnake once they all go six feet under.

Whitesnake was on fire all night and really the sappy “Is This Love” (I’ll never warm up to this one) broke up the momentum, but it’s a song that has to be played. The serpent squad finished the night with four slices from the iconic 1987 album with the aforementioned “Is This Love” along with “Bad Boys” “Here I Go Again” and the encore closer “Still Of The Night”.

If any fans out there are aching to hear those Mk III Deep Purple era songs live (plus one Mk IV song) then this is the time to do it. With five Deep Purple tracks being dug out (the other being “The Gypsy”) it wouldn’t be prudent to let the snake slither on by without taking notice.