Concert Review for Over The Rainbow at the Music Pier in Ocean City, New Jersey on July 6, 2009

This was a Rainbow reunion of sorts. Over The Rainbow was to feature Rainbow alumni from three different decades, but Tony Carey, the sole representative of the 1970s, left the band after a few gigs. Paul Morris was called in to take his place. He and Greg Smith fulfill the 1990s quota while Joe Lynn Turner and Bobby Rondinelli were in the band in the 1980s. Finalizing the group is Jürgen "J.R." Blackmore, the son of founding Rainbow member, Ritchie Blackmore … who better than the next of kin??

The band hit the stage about ten minutes after eight and opened up with the very well-received “Tarot Woman”. This was followed by another song from the Ronnie Dio-years, “Kill The King”. Next up, Joe Lynn Turner, wearing his signature shades and biker gloves, got to sing a track from his era of the band, “Street Of Dreams” … this song featured an outstanding keyboard performance by Paul Morris and great background vocals by Greg Smith. The next two songs were true Rockers … “Man On The Silver Mountain” and “Death Alley Driver”. The band continued on with “Eyes Of The World” from the Graham Bonnet-era. Two songs from the 1990s were performed next: “Ariel” and “Wolf To The Moon” … nice to see these added to the setlist as their inclusion gave hardcore fans a genuine career-spanning experience of Rainbow tunes. Next was the Russ Ballard-penned, “I Surrender” followed by what appeared to be an impromptu instrumental as Joe Lynn Turner left the stage for a few minutes … as far as the setlist is concerned, it is not certain whether this instrumental was planned or unplanned. Joe Lynn returned to the stage with “Can’t Happen Here” and afterwards he said the song is as relevant now as it was back then and briefly discussed the current state of affairs in the world. The very groovy “Jealous Lover” (said to have been added to the set due to many requests) was next in line followed by a drum solo by Bobby Rondinelli ending with the sound of the gong leading into the powerful epic, “Stargazer” … Jürgen Blackmore brought out the strat for this one! Although the audience was neither bored nor tired at any time during the show, the crowd was truly energized for the final song of the set, “Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll” which also had a bit of the Deep Purple classic, “Lazy” incorporated into it. The band left the stage only to return minutes later. The first encore was a medley of “Since You Been Gone” and “Stone Cold” – the former being performed in its entirety while the latter was nearly complete itself. The second and final encore was the Rocker and party anthem “All Night Long”. The concert was over at about 9:50 so the band’s set was over 90 minutes.

This concert was a real treat for Rock and Metal fans as many of these songs have not been performed in this area in years and these songs deserve to be heard. It was an awesome performance. The band members appeared to be having a lot of fun on stage and Greg Smith particularly looked to be enjoying himself. It was a smaller crowd (100 or less people), but the reception and participation by the fans made up for the lack of numbers. Members of the band were seen walking around Ocean City’s boardwalk later in the evening. The setlist for the night is as follows (“Power” was performed in Russia earlier in the year whereas “Stone Cold” was not so there was a bit of a change in the setlist):

01. Tarot Woman
02. Kill The King
03. Street Of Dreams
04. Man On The Silver Mountain
05. Death Alley Driver
06. Eyes Of The World
07. Ariel
08. Wolf To The Moon
09. I Surrender
**. Instrumental
10. Can't Happen Here
11. Jealous Lover
**. Drum Solo
12. Stargazer
13. Long Live Rock 'n' Roll/Lazy/Long Live Rock 'n' Roll
-------------------------------------
14. Since You Been Gone/Stone Cold
15. All Night Long

For statistical purposes, here is a breakdown for the number of songs played from each album (as can be observed, every album from Rainbow’s catalogue was represented):

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975) - 1
Rising (1976) - 2
Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978) - 2
Down To Earth (1979) - 3
Difficult To Cure (1981) - 2
Jealous Lover (1981) - 1
Straight Between the Eyes (1982) - 2
Bent Out Of Shape (1983) - 1
Stranger In Us All (1995) - 2

Band members:
Joe Lynn Turner (vocalist of Rainbow from 1980 to 1984)
Bobby Rondinelli (drummer of Rainbow from 1980 to 1983)
Greg Smith (bassist of Rainbow from 1994 to 1997)
Paul Morris (keyboardist of Rainbow from 1994 to 1997)
Jürgen "J.R." Blackmore (son of Rainbow founding member, Ritchie Blackmore)

Now for the concert photographs (all taken, cropped and uploaded by the author):





















Here I am with Jürgen "J.R." Blackmore:


Bobby Rondinelli autographed the ticket stub for me:


This is a very important tour for Heavy Metal historians and it is highly recommended for everyone out there to see Over The Rainbow at one of their remaining gigs.
--------------------------------------