DEEP PURPLE, KANSAS, JEFFERSON STARSHIP In Ottawa, Canada

60 Years Of Making Their Mark: Veteran Rockers Bring The Color To The CTC Center On August 19, 2026

Legendary!
Progressive!
And a combined total of about 170 years of music industry experience!

There’s no avoiding the fact that this triple billing of classic rock is vast in its many years of musical familiarity, but yet, at the same time, this was a triple billing that has otherwise brought together three of classic rock’s most enduring names together for the first time. 

And, yes, it took place out in that literal oasis known as the Canadian Tire Center located in that vast suburban desert known as Kanata.

Upon arrival following a last-minute offer of a ride to CTC by my sister who’d been planning to go towards that direction anyway, I’d immediately went to confirm where the nearest chartered city bus back downtown would be departing after the show. Then, after chatting with a couple of friends who’d come for the show, ranging from Streng from high school who’d taken his daughter Chloe to the gig and ROCKIN’ ENGINE bassist JP attending with friends, I’d grabbed my refreshments and found my seat just in time for Bay Area high flyers JEFFERSON STARSHIP to land in and open with the prophetic-sounding “Find Your Way Back”. As the name implies, the band – whose current lineup includes guitarist Jude Gold, vocalist/guitarist Cathy Richardson, drummer Donny Baldwin and bassist/keyboardist Chris Smithall joining longtime founding member/guitarist/frontman David Freiberg–were honoring its entire history, ranging from their hippie Fillmore Street heyday of the 60’s to the mainstream success of the 70’s and 80’s and an added bonus in the form of a new single titled “Jet Pack”. It was free-sounding, liberating, and, while not an immediate classic, it fared better than the amended version of “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from that stiff ’87 movie Mannequin. In fact, pretty much their 60’s/70’s catalogue were the top performances of the night. Cathy Richardson, who’s no stranger to the peace and love era herself as she’s also toured with the current version of BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING COMPANY by covering JANIS JOPLIN’s vocals, belts out a sick-sounding Grace Slick whether she’s narrating the apocalyptic storytelling of “White Rabbit” or duetting on the glossy pop of “We Built This City” – and in keeping with Grace’s social activism views, she even apologized on behalf of the US for, evidently, Donald Trump without mentioning his name. Would’ve been the perfect follow-through moment to sing “Volunteers Of America” perhaps, but why interrupt a good concert flow by bringing in politics? Plus, that would’ve meant dropping their bouncy 1979 hit “Jane” from the setlist, and none of us wanted that, judging by the large groups of concertgoers dancing in the aisles.
 
All in all, while a rather brief moment of airtime, JEFFERSON STARSHIP navigated a local crowd well enough to earn their wings that night without mentioning the tariff war.

Setlist:

“Find Your Way Back”
“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”
“White Rabbit”
“We Built This City”
“Jane”
“Jet Pack”
“Somebody To Love”

https://www.jeffersonstarship.com/
https://www.facebook.com/officialjeffersonstarship/
https://www.instagram.com/jeffersonstarship/
https://x.com/JStarship

Wayward sons!
Finger-picking exercises!
Longer setlists!
Longer songs!
And also the youngest band on the whole bill by about a decade!

When it comes to creating big choruses and large sonic tapestries of orchestral maneuvers, arena prog rockers KANSAS do not fiddle about, having played the touring circuit game both this night and every night since their inception in 1973. And, yes, the fiddle – well, really, a violin – has always been a major factor to their sound. 

In any case, for as long as they’ve been labelled as a prog rock band, KANSAS, while commonly known more for their hits such as “Carry On Wayward Son” and “Dust InThe Wind”, owe much of their sound towards the music of the heartland than to contemporary classical or even jazz compared to many of their 70’s prog rock equals. Otherwise, they’re fairly far apart from early prog rockas they could possibly be, with the odd exception of 10-minute opuses such as “Song For America” which gets a fairly proper reception for its fine violin solo courtesy of late original violinist Robby Steinhardtand currently being performed by Joe Deninzon (STRATOSPHEERIUS).

With almost twice as many songs on their setlist than JEFFERSON STARSHIP had played, KANSAS were, in fact, easily the surprise standout band of the night. Much of the audience were really more familiar with their standard hits but by the third song, the band had easily won even the staunchest critics over. Current frontman/keyboardist Ronnie Platt (ex-SHOOTING STAR), who’d been touring with the band for well over a decade, covers the Steve Walsh era nicely and also exchanges vocals and sharp ivory solos with second keyboardist Tom Brislin on other numbers such as “Play The Game Tonight”, “Fight Fire With Fire” (which would be a good karaoke song to do, mostly to totally confuse the audience as you ask them “any fans of 80’s METALLICA?” before launching into this less thrashy, more tame-sounding song instead), the “new” (well, released in 2020) song “Jets Overhead”, “The Wall” (another karaoke favorite to attempt just to confuse any PINK FLOYD fans), “Portrait (He Knew)” and, naturally, “Dust In The Wind” and “Carry On Wayward Son”. One has to admire the confidence that Platt carries himself with when engaging with the audience in a market that’s otherwise not immediately familiar to him or most of the current KANSAS lineup. His previously aforementioned band SHOOTING STAR has shared their fair number of stages with the band in the past, so he has that aura of familiarity stemming from past history to go on. But it’s the overall comfortable stage banter that he particularly excels at, from introducing the current band members to paying homage to original violinist Robby Steinhardt to even narrating the history behind the band’s hit “Dust In The Wind”: The finger-picking exercise that original guitarist Kerry Livgren was practicing which became one of the most enduring and identifiable acoustic ballads of our time. And being the co-headliner with both the longest setlist and longest songs with a vast history about life, death, spirituality and the heartland without preaching or the inclusion of politics, KANSAS may have been playing in Canada that night and reconnecting with many of its fans, but they remain, musically, in a proverbial state of their own.

Setlist:

“Point Of Know Return”
“Paradox”
“Play The Game Tonight”
“Fight Fire With Fire”
“Jets Overhead”
“The Wall”
“Song For America”
“Dust InThe Wind”
“Hold On”
“Down The Road”
“Portrait (He Knew)”
“Miracles Out Of Nowhere”
“Carry On Wayward Son”

https://kansasband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/KansasBand
https://x.com/kansasband
https://www.instagram.com/kansasband/

Eventually taking the stage amidst a flurry of noticeable studio album covers – all 24 of ‘em – on a giant LED screen in the background, headliners DEEP PURPLE rev up their highly-anticipated performance with opening number “Highway Star”. There’s no mistaking the powerful octaves of longtime frontman Ian Gillan on the song as he still has the fiery vocal range even at 81 years old. And, like their co-headliners before them, they’re also making their setlist a lot more interesting by including some new music amongst the classics. Their latest studio album SPLAT! has been described as “a metamorphosis beyond physical existence” according to Gillan in the liner notes and is represented in two songs in the night’s setlist: “Arrogant Boy” and “Diablo” – the latter featuring backup vocals by esteemed JEFFERSON STARSHIP stagecrashers David Freiberg and Cathy Richardson before Gillan jokingly declares “That’s enough of that!” before he waves them off the stage. Backing him up throughout the show are 2/5ths of the legendary lineup in the form of Roger Glover (bass) and Ian Paice (drums) as well as legendary keyboardist Don Airey and newly-acquired Northern Ireland-born guitarist Simon McBride (ex-SWEET SAVAGE) to round out the performance. This would be my second DEEP PURPLE concert in which neither guitarist was Ritchie Blackmore(my first DP live experience being in 2012 when then-guitarist Steve Morse was in the band) but Simon was a consummate player in his own right. Sure, he could honor Blackmore’s powerful solos on DP classics such as “Into The Fire”, “When A Blind Man Cries”, “Perfect Strangers”, “Space Truckin’”, “Smoke On The Water” and the aforementioned “Highway Star” practically note for note, but it’s on the band’s latest material from SPLAT! was where his solos and rhythm playing really made their mark, so to speak. Its odd title aside, probably suggesting that the band probably recruited Don Martin of MAD magazine for album title ideas, SPLAT! is right up near the top of the list in being one of DEEP PURPLE’s heaviest-sounding albums in a while, forecasting its primary blues influences within its sound, and this being the second studio album he’s played on with the band, McBride showcases a lot of those same influences both on vinyl and on stage.

And, next, we shall speak of Don Airey’s inception into the band, for which he’s been manning that legendary DEEP PURPLE Hammond organ sound for about a quarter century following the retirement of original keyboardist Jon Lord. Metal fans will know his work from his towering organ intro on OZZY’s “Mr. Crowley” to his spooky-sounding keyboard flourishes opening on JUDAS PRIEST’s “A Touch Of Evil” (and also handling bass duties on pretty much all of Painkiller when Ian Hill was reportedly too ill to record the album at the time). He also collaborated and played on a song called “Love Shine A Light” for 80’s pop band KATRINA & THE WAVES and even conducted the orchestra performing the song at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, earning the band and the UK their first Eurovision win. And these were at least three of the song intros I’d recognized during his grand keyboard solo, which was practically a performance within itself as he covered every aspect of his 60+ year old music career. From blues to neo-classical to rock and pop and then back to classical before he brought the droning opening keyboard intro to “Perfect Strangers” to life, Airey bowed to the crowd before he sipped happily from a glass of wine randomly handed to him and let the concert proceed once the remaining band members joined him back on stage. It was a nice subtle way of his to say thanks to us for coming to taste the band. 

And probably the best part of the performance overall? “Smoke On The Water” NOT being played as a predictable encore, with that distinctive honor going towards “Hush”, the band’s funkified first hit from 1968 which was an old blues cover by Joe South. And Don Airey serenading the crowd with “Happy Birthday” for Ian Gillan’s 81st spin around the fireball, which many in the crowd didn’t forget as we also chanted the words to him. It might have had as much to do as well with close friend Tony Iommi mentioning Ottawa in his own Facebook birthday greeting to Gillan, but nevertheless, in marking six decades as one of hard rock and heavy metal’s most esteemed founding forefathers of both genres, DEEP PURPLE definitely made a deep impression upon the CTC gathering that evening as much as Ottawa made an impression on them.

Setlist:

“Highway Star”
“A Bit OnThe Side”
“Into The Fire”
Guitar solo
“Arrogant Boy”
“Lazy Sod”
“Lazy”
“When A Blind Man Cries”
“Diablo” (w/David Freiberg and Cathy Richardson on vocals)
Keyboard solo
“Perfect Strangers”
“Space Truckin’”
“Smoke OnThe Water”

Encore:

“Guinneis”
“Hush” (Joe South cover)

https://deep-purple.com/
https://www.facebook.com/officialdeeppurple
https://x.com/_DeepPurple
https://www.instagram.com/deeppurple_official/