Deep Purple at Jones Beach: hard rock between the classics and a completely new chapter
Deep Purple arrives in Wantagh at a time when the band is not living solely off its own history. The concert at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater comes in the middle of a new North American tour and only a few weeks after the release of the album "SPLAT!", so the audience can expect an evening in which one of hard rock's most recognizable catalogs meets material recorded by the band's current lineup.
The concert starts at 19:30, with Kansas appearing alongside Deep Purple. That combination makes the evening particularly interesting for an audience for whom "classic rock" is not just a few songs from the radio. Deep Purple brings harder riffs, blues roots, dominant organ sounds and a long tradition of instrumental passages, while Kansas adds a more progressive approach, vocal harmonies and the recognizable melodies of songs such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind".
- Artist: Deep Purple
- Special guest: Kansas
- Venue: Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, 895 Bay Parkway, Wantagh, New York
- Concert start: 19:30
- Format: major outdoor summer concert in Jones Beach State Park
For longtime fans, the appeal is clear: this is a band whose "Smoke on the Water", "Highway Star", "Space Truckin'", "Lazy" and "Hush" have been part of hard rock's essential repertoire for decades. For an audience that knows Deep Purple primarily through those titles, the current tour also offers a good overview of what the group sounds like today.
Ticket sales for this event are underway.
"SPLAT!" changes the context of this tour
The most important difference between this performance and the tours of the previous few years is called "SPLAT!". Deep Purple released the album on July 3, 2026, once again working with producer Bob Ezrin. The band describes it as its heaviest album in a number of years, recorded with an emphasis on playing together in the studio and on dynamics that directly build on the character of the classic Deep Purple sound.
This is not merely a marketing backdrop for another round of concerts. The very first show of the North American leg of the tour already showed that the new songs have a genuine role in the concert program. At the tour opener in Raleigh on August 4, almost a third of the set was connected to the new album, with songs such as "Arrogant Boy", "Diablo" and "Scriblin' Gib'rish".
At the same time, the band has not pushed the older repertoire aside. At the same show, they played "Highway Star", "Into the Fire", "Lazy", "When a Blind Man Cries", "Space Truckin'", "Smoke on the Water" and "Hush", along with material from the 2024 album "=1".
That does not mean Wantagh will get an identical set list. The concert program may change from one evening to the next. However, the course of the tour so far provides a sufficiently concrete indication of its direction: Deep Purple currently does not treat the new album as a brief obligation between the biggest hits, but integrates it into the very structure of the performance.
The current lineup has a character of its own
Today's lineup consists of Ian Gillan on vocals, Roger Glover on bass, Ian Paice on drums, Don Airey on keyboards and Simon McBride on guitar. McBride in particular is one of the key differences between today's band and the Deep Purple audiences were able to see during the long period with Steve Morse.
McBride joined the lineup after Morse's departure and has already taken part in the albums "=1" and "SPLAT!". His guitar gives the band's current phase a more direct, harder attack, while the relationship between guitar and keyboards remains one of the elements that distinguishes Deep Purple from numerous other hard rock groups.
Don Airey, meanwhile, is not merely accompanying the guitarist. Keyboards and organ in this music often have an almost equal status to the guitar, so instrumental exchanges remain an important part of the concert identity. Behind them are Roger Glover and Ian Paice, a rhythm section capable of giving the songs enough room for improvisation without losing their basic structure.
Ian Gillan today naturally does not approach every vocal passage in the same way as on recordings from the early seventies. That is precisely why it makes sense to view contemporary Deep Purple as an active band rather than an attempt to reconstruct its own past. The arrangements, song selection and Gillan's present-day phrasing belong to this phase of their career.
From "Highway Star" to "Arrogant Boy"
The most interesting moments in the current program arise precisely when the decades begin to touch. "Highway Star" can still function as an explosive opening, while the newer "Arrogant Boy" uses a riff-based language that fits effortlessly alongside much older songs.
"SPLAT!" was created around the idea of transformation rather than simple apocalypse. At the same time, the album was not conceived as a calm reflection by a band with a long history. Titles such as "Arrogant Boy", "Diablo" and "Guilt Trippin'" show the current Deep Purple in a more compact, riff-oriented form.
For a concertgoer, this matters because the evening is not designed merely as a chronological overview of the career. An audience wanting to hear familiar songs should get them in significant measure if the direction established at the start of the tour continues, but they should also expect several songs that are only a few weeks old.
That may be the most interesting feature of this tour. Few bands with a repertoire strong enough to fill an entire evening with songs from the seventies would choose to give so much space to new material. Deep Purple is currently doing exactly that.
Kansas gives the evening another major layer
Kansas is not merely an anonymous opening act intended to shorten the wait for the main performance. The American band from Topeka released its first album in 1974 and built a catalog combining hard rock, progressive rock, complex arrangements and large melodic choruses.
The best-known points in that catalog are "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind", but their concert repertoire goes beyond those two radio standards. At the start of the joint tour in Raleigh, Kansas also played "Point of Know Return", "Paradox", "Song for America", "The Wall", "Hold On" and "Miracles Out of Nowhere".
Here too, the Raleigh set should not be interpreted as a guarantee of an identical program in Wantagh. It does, however, clearly show that the guest performance has enough depth to attract an audience that would go to see Kansas independently of Deep Purple.
The combination of the two bands will particularly suit listeners who love the period in which hard rock frequently overlapped with progressive rock. Deep Purple brings a Hammond-dominated, riff-driven sound and blues foundations, while Kansas places greater emphasis on compositional transitions, vocal harmonies and melodic drama.
It is worth securing tickets in good time.
Jones Beach is not a typical indoor concert arena
Northwell at Jones Beach Theater is located inside Jones Beach State Park on Long Island. It is an open-air amphitheater whose history began in 1952, when the venue opened as a place for musicals and other theatrical productions. After later renovations, it became one of the best-known summer concert venues in the greater New York area.
Its coastal location changes the feeling of the entire evening. Instead of an enclosed corridor, an air-conditioned hall and a completely isolated interior, visitors arrive in a large recreational area beside the Atlantic and then enter an outdoor amphitheater.
For a rock concert, that has two sides. The open space gives the evening breadth and a clear summer character, particularly as daylight gives way to evening. At the same time, the sound experience and the sense of proximity to the stage depend on seat location more than a simple description of the venue might suggest. Visitors for whom a closer view of the guitarists, keyboards and performance details matters should pay attention to the section in which they are seated.
Deep Purple is a particularly interesting band for such a setting because a large part of its musical identity arises from the interaction between the musicians. Guitar and keyboard exchanges, Ian Paice's drum fills and shifts in dynamics are easier to follow when the concert is experienced as more than just a sequence of familiar choruses.
Arriving by car and parking
The venue address is 895 Bay Parkway, Wantagh, NY 11793. For drivers, a practical fact is that large parking areas are located directly within the Jones Beach complex.
According to the venue's current information, general parking is located in fields 4 and 5 and carries no additional charge. The parking areas can be accessed via Bay Parkway and Ocean Parkway. Special zones exist for certain types of parking, while motorcycles and vehicles occupying more than one standard space are directed to designated parts of the parking area.
- For navigation, use the address 895 Bay Parkway, Wantagh, NY 11793.
- General parking is located in fields 4 and 5.
- Parking can be accessed via Bay Parkway and Ocean Parkway.
- Expect increased traffic before a major concert and after the program ends.
Jones Beach is a large complex, so the fact that a car is parked within the area does not necessarily mean that the walk from the vehicle to the entrance is immediate. It is sensible to leave enough time to enter the park, find the appropriate parking area, walk and pass through security screening.
Public transportation requires additional planning
Visitors arriving from New York City or other parts of Long Island can use the Long Island Rail Road, but the final part of the journey to the amphitheater itself should be arranged in advance.
For concertgoers, the MTA lists the Freeport and Wantagh stations on the Babylon Branch. From either station, a taxi or ride-hailing service to Jones Beach takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes under normal conditions.
An important detail is that the special NICE bus service for concerts no longer operates to and from Jones Beach Theater. This should not be confused with bus connections that may serve other parts of Jones Beach State Park during the season. For an evening concert, the plan should be made specifically according to information for the amphitheater.
Especially after the concert ends, it is useful to think about the return journey in advance. A large number of people leave the same coastal complex within a short period, so the final part of the trip between the amphitheater and the railway station is not something that should be left to chance.
Bag rules can save you a trip back to the car
Northwell at Jones Beach Theater applies a clear-bag policy. Clear plastic or vinyl bags no larger than 12 x 6 x 12 inches are permitted, as are small clutch bags up to 6 x 9 inches. A small clutch bag does not have to be transparent.
Other types of bags that do not comply with the rules must be returned to the vehicle. For a visitor who has already walked from a more distant part of the parking area, such a return can be very impractical, so this is one piece of information worth checking before departure.
Venue rules may change, which is why it is useful to check the current instructions on bringing in items, access and security procedures again immediately before the concert.
Who will enjoy this concert most
The clearest audience is longtime Deep Purple listeners who want to hear the band's great catalog once again as performed by the current lineup. However, this concert makes more sense than simple nostalgia precisely because the band is arriving with a completely new album.
It is also appealing to younger fans of guitar rock who know the riff from "Smoke on the Water" but have never seen how Deep Purple builds a concert around guitar, organ and a live rhythm section. Songs such as "Lazy" or "Space Truckin'" reveal considerably more instrumental character in a concert setting than can be heard in a few of the best-known studio recordings.
The third group is Kansas fans. Since the current joint performances show a repertoire extending from "Point of Know Return" and "Song for America" to "Dust in the Wind" and "Carry On Wayward Son", their part of the evening carries concert weight of its own.
- For fans of classic hard rock - because of Deep Purple's catalog and current lineup.
- For progressive rock listeners - because of Kansas and its more complex arrangements.
- For audiences interested in today's Deep Purple - because of the significant presence of material from the album "SPLAT!".
- For visitors who enjoy outdoor summer concerts - because of the amphitheater's distinctive location inside Jones Beach State Park.
How to organize the evening without unnecessary rushing
The simplest plan depends on how you arrive. Drivers should factor in traffic toward Jones Beach, entry to the parking area and the walk to the amphitheater. Rail passengers should coordinate the LIRR with additional transportation from Freeport or Wantagh to the venue.
Since the program is listed as starting at 19:30 and Kansas is part of the evening, arriving only when you expect Deep Purple to appear may mean missing an important part of the program. Kansas is not a secondary addition on this tour, but a band with a repertoire that independently fills a substantial concert block.
It is also worth keeping in mind that this is an outdoor venue by the coast. Clothing and personal belongings should be appropriate for evening conditions on Long Island, and it makes sense to check the weather forecast immediately before departure rather than relying on a multi-day estimate.
Deep Purple arrives in Wantagh very early in the North American leg of the tour, only a few days after it began. This means the audience gets the current version of the program immediately after the first performances combining old songs, material from "=1" and the completely new "SPLAT!".
That is precisely where the greatest reason for interest in this concert lies: "Smoke on the Water" and "Highway Star" remain unavoidable references, but Deep Purple in 2026 still insists on showing what it is doing now alongside its past. At Jones Beach, Kansas joins them, while the open-air amphitheater by the coast gives the entire program a concert setting very different from a standard indoor arena.
Sources:
- Deep Purple - information about the album "SPLAT!", the current lineup, the North American tour and Kansas appearing as a guest
- Kansas Band - confirmation of the Wantagh performance and information about the band's history and key repertoire
- MTA - information about the Long Island Rail Road, the Freeport and Wantagh stations and transportation to Jones Beach Theater
- Northwell at Jones Beach Theater - address, parking, venue access and current bag rules
- Ultimate Classic Rock - report from the beginning of the joint tour in Raleigh and the Deep Purple and Kansas repertoire