Deep Purple, Dream Theater, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed on this day in 1998 at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey.
According to recollections of this tour, Dream Theater was the opening act. ELP went on next, and Deep Purple finished out the night.
The two ‘D’ bands were at the time touring in support of albums. Dream Theater had recently released the album Falling into Infinity, while Deep Purple had released Abandon earlier that summer. ELP had no albums they were touring for, but had recently written a piece of music for a forthcoming album. There never ended up being another album, but the piece, “Crossing the Rubicon”, found its way into the studio anyway. Keith Emerson used it to become the title theme for Godzilla: Final Wars.
Reviews for the concert were quite strong across the board. A few of the Deep Purple fans who reviewed the set found ELP a bit boring, but I’d also heard in ELP groups that some of their fans would walk out during Purple’s setlist. This was confirmed by a Purple-leaning review I read for this concert. Overall, however, the reviews spread their positivity around for all three bands.
No recording of Dream Theater’s portion has surfaced. ELP’s portion of the concert was recorded and is in circulation online. Deep Purple’s portion of the concert was also recorded, and also is in circulation online.
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