Hard rockers Deep Purple as headliners at the Notodden Blues Festival – strange? Not at all. Throughout the band’s more than 50-year lifespan, they have flirted with elements of the blues, and when they released Turning to Crime in 2021 – an album consisting entirely of blues covers – the festival received a number of requests from fans wanting to see Deep Purple on the bill.

Despite the band having a Long Goodbye Tour under their belt, it is evidently hard to pull these rockers out of the arena. This year saw the release of the album =1, and with it came yet another tour across Europe and the Americas. Two of those shows made their way to Norway: Notodden and Bergen.

New album – and not least a new guitarist in Simon McBride – notwithstanding, what the audience at Notodden primarily got was a glorious deep dive into the band’s rich catalogue. After a flashy opening with digital graphics and spaced-out soundscapes, the old-school “Highway Star” kicked off the show, and over the course of the evening we were treated to classics such as “Into the Fire,” “Anya,” and “Lazy” (hello, blues riff!) – and of course “Smoke on the Water,” complete with full crowd singalong.

McBride deserves a mention: talk about a vitamin shot! The playful and improvisational way he handles the guitar – closer to Ritchie Blackmore’s style than Steve Morse’s technically brilliant but more rehearsed approach – has injected a new vitality into the band. To be sure, Mr Glover is bassing and clowning around like never before, and Ian Paice keeps the fires burning behind the kit, but it was undeniably McBride in tandem with keyboard wizard Don Airey who delivered the true power performances on the Notodden stage.

We were treated to long instrumental sections from both of them, alone and together, in intricate – and grinning – call-and-response exchanges. The audience also got a workout through interactive sing-along interplay with McBride’s guitar.

The biggest charm offensive, however, came from Airey in his solo spot, where he moved through just about every style imaginable, from classical to futuristic, before suddenly conjuring up Grieg with both “Morning Mood” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” Huge enthusiasm in the crowd – which, according to the organisers, must have approached the permitted 8,000 (ticket sales had to be halted). With so many venues available on site, not everyone was inside Hovigs Hangar, even if it certainly felt like sardines in a can.

Ian Gillan, turning 79 in a week and a half – does he still have the voice to front such a powerful band? I briefly dipped into doubt when I – optimistically, I admit – assumed he wouldn’t perform live unless everything was in order. His famous five-octave vocal splendour is, of course, no longer what it once was, but seasoned as he is, he navigates around the most demanding passages. With charm and stage charisma in abundance, it took no more than a song and a half before I, too, was convinced.

Deep Purple in 2024 is a bunch of old friends who are simply having a fantastic time together on stage – tight as hell, and radiating a contagious joy in being able to keep making music well into their later years. When the encores “Hush” and “Black Night” echoed through the hangar, that sense of joy was hardly the worst thing to be infected by, if you ask those who were there – dancing, singing, grinning, clapping!