The Song Remains The Same, (The Rover intro) Sick Again, Nobody's Fault But Mine, In My Time of Dying, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, Ten Years Gone, Battle of Evermore, Going to California, Black Country Woman, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, White Summer ~ Black Mountainside, Kashmir, (Out On the Tiles intro) Moby Dick, Jimmy Page solo, Achilles Last Stand, Stairway to Heaven, Rock and Roll.
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Click here to view the US '77 Tour Programme (flipbook) |
Press Review: Led Zeppelin Keeps Audience in Frenzy
If a Led Zeppelin concert is nothing else, it’s a physical assault on the human mind and body.
The British hard rock group, one of the world’s top 10 concert drawing powers, “assaulted” a frenzied Markey Square Arena crowd of 18,000 last night for two hours and 45 minutes with a cranked-up sound and a dazzling light show.
The audience, mostly those in their teens and early 20s, was socked with damaging decibels, flying Frisbees, firecrackers and whisky bottles, eye-burning smoke and eye-popping flash pots and laser beams. One big headache.
But you know what? The crowd loved it!
That’s what Led Zep is all about. The group must have a certain hypnotic effect on its followers. Why else would anybody stand for hours in line to get a show at a stage front festival-seating spot only to be crushed by sweaty, smelly bods the rest of the night?
Perhaps lead singer Robert Plant, 29, is the wicked weaver of the spell with his curly hair, sturdy frame, suggestive body motion and wailing voice.
The best part of the concert wasn’t the audio portion (much of the sound was over amplified and distorted), as much as it was the visual. The stage was flooded with bank lights, some of them pulsating to the drum beat of John “Bonzo” Bonham.
Laser lights made their first appearance during John Paul Jones’ relentlessly long “No Quarter”. The lights shot to the arena ceiling (unfortunately the hall’s catwalk interfered with a portion of the beams) and oscillated with Jones’ keyboard frequency.
The lasers reappeared again during 19-minutes Achilles Last Stand, featuring lead guitarist Jimmy Page. The green beams formed a pyramid around Page as yellow beams jetted out into the arena. When the base of the pyramid rotated around the imprisoned Page, the crowd gasped in amazement.
And then there was Bonham’s drum solo. Didn’t drum solos go out with The Cream? But this was not your ordinary “let the other guys rest while the drummer works his tail off” drum solo. With the help of his own personal moving stage, another splendid lighting effect and some amazing electronics at the soundboard, the talented Bonham had the audience standing for his 14-minute, 8-second bang-bang boogie.
Plant could have offered the hall double its money back to leave without hearing his classical Stairway to Heaven and no one would have left. Even the non-Zep fans must admit Stairway is one of rock’s music top ten all-time greats.
Although the number was altered slightly from its studio version, the crowd did not disappoint. Engulfed in rolling bits of colored light bouncing off a rotating mirrored ball, the audience jumped up for 5 minutes, demanding an encore.
The group returned for another number, Rock & Roll, but much to the crowd’s dismay that was the last song of the night. Left unplayed were some of those old Led Zep biggies such as Whole Lotta Love and when the house lights went up a few boos rose with them.
By Z. Dunkin, Indianapolis News 1977
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Click here to view the US '77 Tour Programme (flipbook) |
Press Review: Led Zeppelin Keeps Audience in Frenzy
If a Led Zeppelin concert is nothing else, it’s a physical assault on the human mind and body.
The British hard rock group, one of the world’s top 10 concert drawing powers, “assaulted” a frenzied Markey Square Arena crowd of 18,000 last night for two hours and 45 minutes with a cranked-up sound and a dazzling light show.
The audience, mostly those in their teens and early 20s, was socked with damaging decibels, flying Frisbees, firecrackers and whisky bottles, eye-burning smoke and eye-popping flash pots and laser beams. One big headache.
But you know what? The crowd loved it!
That’s what Led Zep is all about. The group must have a certain hypnotic effect on its followers. Why else would anybody stand for hours in line to get a show at a stage front festival-seating spot only to be crushed by sweaty, smelly bods the rest of the night?
Perhaps lead singer Robert Plant, 29, is the wicked weaver of the spell with his curly hair, sturdy frame, suggestive body motion and wailing voice.
The best part of the concert wasn’t the audio portion (much of the sound was over amplified and distorted), as much as it was the visual. The stage was flooded with bank lights, some of them pulsating to the drum beat of John “Bonzo” Bonham.
Laser lights made their first appearance during John Paul Jones’ relentlessly long “No Quarter”. The lights shot to the arena ceiling (unfortunately the hall’s catwalk interfered with a portion of the beams) and oscillated with Jones’ keyboard frequency.
The lasers reappeared again during 19-minutes Achilles Last Stand, featuring lead guitarist Jimmy Page. The green beams formed a pyramid around Page as yellow beams jetted out into the arena. When the base of the pyramid rotated around the imprisoned Page, the crowd gasped in amazement.
And then there was Bonham’s drum solo. Didn’t drum solos go out with The Cream? But this was not your ordinary “let the other guys rest while the drummer works his tail off” drum solo. With the help of his own personal moving stage, another splendid lighting effect and some amazing electronics at the soundboard, the talented Bonham had the audience standing for his 14-minute, 8-second bang-bang boogie.
Plant could have offered the hall double its money back to leave without hearing his classical Stairway to Heaven and no one would have left. Even the non-Zep fans must admit Stairway is one of rock’s music top ten all-time greats.
Although the number was altered slightly from its studio version, the crowd did not disappoint. Engulfed in rolling bits of colored light bouncing off a rotating mirrored ball, the audience jumped up for 5 minutes, demanding an encore.
The group returned for another number, Rock & Roll, but much to the crowd’s dismay that was the last song of the night. Left unplayed were some of those old Led Zep biggies such as Whole Lotta Love and when the house lights went up a few boos rose with them.
By Z. Dunkin, Indianapolis News 1977
The Song Remains The Same, (The Rover intro) Sick Again, Nobody's Fault But Mine, In My Time of Dying, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, Ten Years Gone, Battle of Evermore, Going to California, Black Country Woman, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, White Summer ~ Black Mountainside, Kashmir, (Out On the Tiles intro) Moby Dick, Jimmy Page solo, Achilles Last Stand, Stairway to Heaven, Rock and Roll, Trampled Underfoot.
