I was 15 that night, some 30 years ago, and some how I had talked my parents into letting me go to see Led Zeppelin with my best friends Steve and Doug. I think the fact that tickets had gone on sale on my birthday the month before had helped. It was my first rock concert. I had no idea what to expect. I was so excited that day that I could barely stay on the ground. Steve was late picking up Doug and I, he was out scoring a lid for the concert. It rained, poured, as we drove the 30 minutes from suburban Lake Minnetonka to the Met Center. Accidents all over the place, as stoned Zepplin freaks played bumper cars with each other on the interstate. Finally, we arrived. We went to the special door for those who held main floor seats. We had row 15, dead center. We went through about 8 levels of security, with each ripping another piece of the ticket. Today all that remains of that ticket is a little stub, with my hand written "Led Zeppelin" on the back.

It did not matter much that we were late getting to the arena, the band was far later. Seems the weather that had made our approach by car slow had delayed the bands flight from Chicago. I believe it was around 9 PM when some guy annouced that their plane had landed and that they were on their way. Thankfully the airport was just across the highway. I have no idea what time it was when the lights went out and the crowd roared to life, maybe close to 10 PM. I instantly recognized Page's tuning for Song Remains and while I smoked pot for the first time that night, I was floating on a high from being so close to my heroes. My bedroom walls consisted at that time of those giant posters, huge concert shots of the band. Between posters were hundreds of pictures cut out of Creem, Hit Parader, Rolling Stone and various other magazines. My room was a shrine to Led Zeppelin. The lights burst on there they were. Page looked so cool as he played the opening notes on the double neck. I borrowed a camera from some one sitting next to me and went up the isle to the front row and leaned against the barricade. Jimmy came over and did one of those "bend forward with the guitar while bending backwards" moves. I don't think now that he could see me, but at the time, I thought that I had a shared moment with Jimmy.

I can not comment on the quality of the performance, the sound quality or any such standards of a review, as to my memory everything was perfect. I had nothing to judge the show by, having only seen shows with my parents that consisted of performers like Liza, Frank and John Denver. How can you compare seeing Led Zeppelin when you are 15 to having seen Frank Sinatra? I remember little details, the incredible pyramid of laser light that surrounded Jimmy during his solo. The lasers when they were shined up on the ceiling made patterns of dolphins and other such things. I remember that during Kashmir Plant did some Karate moves. And for some reason, people back in the mid to late 70's brought fireworks to concerts. I did not understand then what the hell they were thinking and I do not now. I believe that Robert made some comment about the show being much better if people would stop throwing the fireworks around. There was huge applause.

I can not believe that some thirty years have passed since that night. I stopped listening to Led Zeppelin in about 1980. I gave all of my memorabilia away to some one in my dorm. I considered them dinosaurs, compared to the new wave and punk music I was listening to. It would be another ten years or so before I started listening to them again. I still listen.