Both The Dead Daisies and Glenn Hughes are no strangers to the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois, each having played the storied venue numerous times over the course of their careers, sometimes with each other and sometimes apart. This particular evening, however, was special for more reasons than one. Having had to dash an entire year’s worth of dates due to a sudden health scare, Hughes was eager to take the Arcada stage for a one night only event that saw him reuniting with his old pals in the Daisies: The supergroup whom he’d departed from a few years earlier. Together, Hughes, alongside golden god axe-slinger Doug Aldrich, head-Daisy David Lowy, and journeyman drummer Tommy Clufetos (whom I last saw playing an English football stadium to the luckiest 45,000 metalheads in the world) treated the near-capacity Chicagoland audience to not one, but two special sets.
At promptly 8 PM, the band took the stage and blazed through 10 songs of their own, or rather 9 originals and a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son”. Having seen the Daisies numerous times with John Corabi at the forefront, it was cool to see Hughes take over vocal duties for a change, and even cooler to hear him give his own take on Corabi’s vocal stylings with songs like “Long Way to Go” and “Resurrected”. Even cooler was hearing songs off the two Hughes-era albums, Holy Ground (2021) and Radiance (2022), which I’ll have to revisit further. Maybe it’s just me, but when executed live, many of these songs leaned closer to doomy, groove-laden, borderline sludgy Sabbath worship as opposed to standard bluesy hard rock. Needless to say, the walls of the Arcada were shaking.
Come 8:45, Hughes announced to the crowd that they’d be taking a “quick break, even though they didn’t have to”. He wasn’t joking, because the majority of the audience couldn’t even sneak in so much as a bathroom run before the sound of thunder echoed out of the Arcada PA. As the screen behind them proudly displayed, for one night only, The Dead Daisies were now “The Purple Daisies”: Taking us on a heavy rockin’ trip back in time to the days of cheap gas, strong pot, and California Jam. I was curious how these classics would be executed without a keyboardist in the ranks, and even wondered if Hughes would go so far as to bring his own for the occasion. He did not, and instead, Jon Lord’s iconic organ passages were supplemented largely by Aldrich: A true six-string wizard if there ever was one.
From blues to metal and everything in between, this guy can play it all, and paid homage to Ritchie Blackmore right, laying down the whole set on an old school Fender Strat as opposed to his usual gold top Les Paul. The tribute extended beyond the musical performance itself, with Aldrich hitting Blackmore’s signature outstretched leg pose and throwing his Strat up in the air at the end of the evening’s festivities. As for Hughes, what can be said that hasn’t been said already? This legend continues to defy nature and logic, making it look easy when he hits those high notes on “Mistreated”, “Stormbringer”, and “Space Truckin'”: A song that Hughes said he and David Coverdale weren’t familiar with until Blackmore forced them to learn it for California Jam. Talk about baptism by fire!
While 2026 was supposed to be an off year for both Hughes and the Daisies, each party gave the Arcada faithful a year’s worth of high volume energy with this incredible show: A spectacle I’d rush to see if it were to come my way again. Hughes thanked the audience up and down for coming out in droves. The audience thanked Hughes in their own way, with screams, whistles, and Dio horns proudly to the sky. Hughes is a man who belongs onstage, sharing his prolific catalog to headbangers of all ages, all over the world. I hope for his sake that 2027 will see him doing exactly that, and perhaps even extending his reach to those maniac martians on Mars. A little Space Truckin’ goes a long way!
Setlist
Set 1
“Unspoken”
“Resurrected”
“Chosen and Justified”
“My Fate”
“Fortunate Son” (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
“Born to Fly”
“Rise Up”
“Radiance”
“Hypnotize Yourself”
“Holy Ground (Shake the Memory)”
Set 2 – Deep Purple
“Stormbringer”
“Sail Away”
“Space Truckin'”
“Gettin’ Tighter”
“Might Just Take Your Life”
“Smoke on the Water”
“Mistreated”
“Highway Star”
Encore
“Long Way to Go”
“Burn” (Deep Purple song)
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