Whitesnake - Newport Centre, Newport - 7th December 2011 (Live Review)
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Written by Jon Stickler
I have never seen Whitesnake live. They are a band that have been on my “live list” for quite a while now. Having heard both good and bad comments about the band, I walked into South Wales' Newport Centre last week, Wednesday 7th December, not knowing what to expect from a live show. Being a big fan of their recorded material, however, I was looking forward to a full-on rock show as well as seeing the man, the legend, David Coverdale.
Deciding on an early start, Whitesnake took to a stage laced with Christmas lights just before 9pm and played a fantastic two-and-a-half-hour set of both blues-rock and hard-rock. Not bad for a band led by a 59-year-old eh!
Arriving onstage to the sound of The Who's 'My Generation', Whitesnake delivered, from start to finish, a thoroughly enjoyable show featuring all the favourites. 'Bad Boys', 'Is This Love', 'Fool For Your Loving', the anthemic 'Here I Go Again' and the epic 'Still Of The Night' had the whole house singing along, as well as new tracks 'Steal Your Heart Away' and 'Forevermore' from their latest album of the same name.
During a set that often saw a sprightly David Coverdale interact with the crowd, talking to fans and joking with the band, Whitesnake seemed to be thoroughly relaxed and enjoying their time on stage. Coverdale's voice has faded over the years, however, he can still howl with the best of them, even if those high notes are getting increasingly difficult to hit.
Guitarist Reb Beach, formerly of Winger, entertained fans on his side of the stage while at times casually conversing with bandmate drummer Brian Tichy. Another hugely talented guitarist, Doug Aldrich, now in his eighth year with Whitesnake, had the crowd in awe of some sensational solo work too.
Highlights of the set included an extensive dueling guitar interlude between Beach and Aldrich on the half-way mark. I understand this took place to give Coverdale's voice some recovery time. The crowd were also treated to an even longer drum solo from Tichy who showed off his immense talent of playing drums with sticks, hands, chop-sticks and knives...yes, knives.
Whitesnake added their own touch to the seasonal show with fairy lights and a mini Christmas tree. Even Santa Claus turned up on stage to launch some gift-wrapped tour merchandise into the crowd. There is something very surreal about seeing David Coverdale with his arm around Santa Clause, I'm still chuckling away to myself as I think about it now.
The band decided against an encore, we didn’t really need it anyway, Whitesnake gave us what we wanted and did a fantastic job in doing so. We even had the band deliver an acappella rendition of 'I'm Dreaming of a Whitesnake Christmas' before departing the stage.
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Arriving onstage to the sound of The Who's 'My Generation', Whitesnake delivered, from start to finish, a thoroughly enjoyable show featuring all the favourites. 'Bad Boys', 'Is This Love', 'Fool For Your Loving', the anthemic 'Here I Go Again' and the epic 'Still Of The Night' had the whole house singing along, as well as new tracks 'Steal Your Heart Away' and 'Forevermore' from their latest album of the same name. 
