Deep Purple + Kansas

In February 1976, Deep Purple rocked the Long Beach Arena for a show that was broadcast by the King Biscuit Flower Hour and subsequently released as a live album on several occasions. Fifty years later, the iconic British rock band was back in the Southern California city, in the shadow of the Queen Mary, for a night of classic rock with Kansas at the new F&M Bank Amphitheater.

Deep Purple's lineup in 2026 looked quite different from the one that performed in the LBC five decades ago (the short-lived Mark IV edition, with Tommy Bolin on guitar) and, in some respects, was more whole. Lead singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, both of whom had left the band's classic Mark II lineup in 1973, were back in their respective roles this time around. Don Airey, who took over on keyboards after Jon Lord retired from the band in 2002, was playing with the jazz-rock group Colosseum II back in the mid-1970s. And Simon McBride, who now plays lead guitar for Deep Purple? At 47, he wasn't even alive for that famous King Biscuit Flower Hour show.

Drummer Ian Paice certainly was. In fact, he's the only member of Deep Purple's current lineup who was onstage in Long Beach in 1976 and again this time around.

The other key consistency between the two iterations of Deep Purple: no Ritchie Blackmore. The band's original guitarist took his initial leave in 1975 before returning in 1984. And though Blackmore shocked the rock world by sitting in for "Smoke on the Water" with Deep Purple at Jones Beach on Long Island this past August — his first appearance with the band since November 1993 — he didn't reprise the cameo in Long Beach.

Instead, the night's guest spot came from the opening act. Kansas violinist Joe Deninzon and keyboardist Tom Brislin joined the headliners for "Perfect Strangers." The song carried some Long Beach history of its own. "Perfect Strangers" is the title track of the 1984 album that brought Blackmore back into the fold, and the reunited band played it at the Long Beach Arena on that album's tour in 1985.

For all its turnover, Deep Purple still came into this show with more stability than their tourmates. No member of the Kansas lineup that took the stage in Long Beach dates back to the band's formation in Topeka, Kansas, in 1973. Founding guitarist Rich Williams, who has scaled back his touring due to macular degeneration, wasn't onstage, and original drummer Phil Ehart has been off the road since a 2024 heart attack. Scott Bernard and Eric Holmquist handled their respective spots, with Zak Rizvi also on guitar.

That left lead singer/keyboardist Ronnie Platt, who joined Kansas in 2014, as the longest-tenured member onstage. Now more than a year removed from surgery for thyroid cancer, Platt was in fine form, from telling stories about the band's history — including how founding guitarist Kerry Livgren's fingerpicking exercise became "Dust in the Wind" — to belting out classic rock staples like "Carry On Wayward Son."

The rest of Kansas' players more than held their own, as well. Dan McGowan, who succeeded the retiring Billy Greer on bass in 2024, added some hefty vibrations to the band's low end, along with lead vocals on the second-to-last song, "Miracles Out of Nowhere." Brislin, who has doubled up on keys with Platt since 2018, commanded a cathedral's worth of keyboards on either side of him.

The star of the show for Kansas, though, was Deninzon. His spectacular work on violin made Kansas' songs sound like, well, Kansas, more so than even Platt's powerful rock vocals. Together, this iteration of Kansas stayed true to the band's arrangements in all their distinctive complexity, including the pseudo-symphonic journey of "Song for America." The set's lone 21st-century selection, "Jets Overhead," came from 2020's The Absence of Presence, recorded with Platt out front.

While the new amphitheater was far from its 11,000-person capacity, those who came, got an indelible dose of nostalgia from both bands. Deep Purple’s entry began with a video intro set to Gustav Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War," after which the band came bursting onstage with "Highway Star." Gillan hit his notes all night while bringing plenty of rock 'n' roll gruff to the mic, which was no small feat for the 81-year-old.

He and his bandmates did well to work in newer material, too, including two cuts from 2024's =1, plus a trio of songs tied to Splat!, the summer 2026 release for which the tour was named. "Arrogant Boy" followed a ripping solo by McBride and kept his guitar wailing over Airey's whimsical keys. "Diablo" rocked hard enough to get heads banging in the crowd before giving way to a mind-bending keyboard exploration by Airey. And "Guinnesis" — a bonus track released only as a 7-inch single in the album's deluxe box set — landed as the second-to-last song of the evening. All three fit comfortably into the Deep Purple canon, with plenty of British rock brashness up top and cheeky humor beneath the surface.

Of course, they delivered all the classics the fans came for, as well. After the Kansas cameo on "Perfect Strangers," the closing stretch saw Deep Purple barrel through "Space Truckin'" and "Smoke on the Water," which Blackmore had come out for a month earlier, before closing the encore with their signature cover of Joe South's "Hush."

For all the weight of the music they brought to life in Long Beach, Deep Purple kept things light in between. Gillan, in particular, spun tall tales about a puma named Kitty Puss Puss, meeting Mitzi Dupree, the exotic dancer who inspired the 1987 Deep Purple song that bears her name, and trying to camp along the L.A. River at the recommendation of Alice Cooper, a trip he claimed ended amid piranhas. During "Diablo," in a clear gag, he retrieved his harmonica from a portly stagehand wearing nothing but briefs, a yellow safety vest, and a helmet. Even Airey got in on the jokes, sipping a glass of wine during one of his solos.

Just because the music is old doesn't mean the show has to be stodgy or stuffy. But the night's real question was what makes a band what it is, half a century on. For Deep Purple, it was a majority of original and nearly original members still sharing a stage. For Kansas, it was a lineup carrying on the band's legacy apart from its founders — and, through Deninzon's violin, still sounding unmistakably like Kansas. When two of those Kansas players crossed over for "Perfect Strangers," both answers briefly shared the same stage.

So as Gillan serenaded the audience with snippets of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene" as the night wound down, he did so less as a farewell than as a 'til next time. Kansas has headlining dates across the U.S. into February 2027, with Cruise to the Edge 2027 to follow in April. In the case of Deep Purple, that means taking their act through Europe and the U.K., which they'll do through late November, before embarking on a string of dates in South and Central America in December.