Rock and Roll, Celebration Day, (Bring It On Home intro) Black Dog, Over the Hills and Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains the Same, Rain Song, Dazed and Confused (incl. San Francisco), Stairway to Heaven, Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love (incl. Let That Boy Boogie), Communication Breakdown.
Press Review: Rock Band Led Zeppelin Is Fire of Supergroup
Performance Here Filled with Energy
If Humble Pie comes out "smoking," then Led Zeppelin is the fire. Even on an off-night for superstar guitarist Jimmy Page, the band is still the class of English heavy blues-rock supergroups.
Then in the 10th day of a scheduled 33-stop American tour, Led Zeppelin, featuring Page, vocalist Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham and packed Municipal Auditorium Monday night.
The packed house added credence to the rumor that the reason the Stones didn't stop here last summer was because there wasn't any place large enough for them to play. A pity if it's true...
But that's ok, because if Zeppelin can stretch that kind of energy at every gig like they did here, they will outgross the Stones, whose Mobile concert seemed canned, even to a devout Stones lover.
Backed by towers of speakers and special effects, done superbly by Sound Co. of Dallas whose backstage crew numbers 20, Zeppelin did enough of the old stuff to get your attention and just enough of the new stuff to keep you there.
Cranking up promptly enough at 8:15, it was 1968 and "Lonely, Lonely Town”, with Page, and Plant letting you know immediately why the lights were most always at center stage. Page jerks and shakes all over the stage, brandishing absolutely the lowest-slung guitar in the west and never missing a lick.
But some of the licks weren't quite as sharp as the ones on my stereo. With Jones on bass and Bonham on all kinds of drums, with or without: sticks, the band is so solid you start listening subjectively. But Page is right there with Alvin Lee and Peter Townsend.
Plant was everything the folks expected. His range is just incredible. When he gets way down there on 'Oh Baby,' you think Janis is reincarnate.
But then be flies up about four octaves, with an occasional screech, and its electric time with Led Zeppelin.
A walk backstage will convince you it's a first-class operation. A huge Moog takes up I about a quarter of the stage, and the only place that isn't speakers, amplifiers or lights, was a narrow path to get on-off the stage.
It was also an excellent opportunity to see what kind of girls travel with a class band. Class girls.
After four old and one new number, Plant dedicated 'No Quarter' off the recently-released "Houses or the Holy" album to the French Quarter. Seems the band has taken a house somewhere here and are flying to gigs and flying back, a good deal if it's true. It would be nice if New Orleans was the home of one good rock group.
The Sound Co. took over. As "Quarter" cranked up in a lilting, haunting ballad style, rolls of smoke resembling fog drifted off the stage gagging the policemen directly in its line. They didn't look too impressed with Zeppelin before that.
After "Quarter," another song off "Houses," "The Song Remains The Same" which Plant said refers to people all over the world. They're all the same he says, at least the young ones.
Page would play his guitar with a bowstring once, finally letting us figure out how he and Plant make some of those sounds. Then Bonham got into a drum solo, finishing with just his hands once and sounding like three people.
Someone mentioned during Jones's solo that they thought Plant's voice was weakening. He left the stage while Jones worked, lit a cigarette, drank a coke and then came back to weaken people with "Stairway To Heaven." Maybe because that's a strong favorite or such a good song, but the band sounded better than my stereo then. And the crowd, fittingly, gave them a standing ovation.
Then, again fittingly, it was the swan song, "Whole Lotta Love," and on a great night with a good crowd and band, everybody was bogeying.
They played to one encore, again a new cut, and then left. You couldn't hear for a couple of hours afterwards but you knew you had been entertained. Well.
Their brochure says Zeppelin is the band who replaced the Beatles as the "top pop group in England." Well, if that's true, and you could get some violent argument on it, thanks England for letting us borrow them too, for a while. [-B. Shearman / Times / 5/73]
Press Review: Rock Band Led Zeppelin Is Fire of Supergroup
Performance Here Filled with Energy
If Humble Pie comes out "smoking," then Led Zeppelin is the fire. Even on an off-night for superstar guitarist Jimmy Page, the band is still the class of English heavy blues-rock supergroups.
Then in the 10th day of a scheduled 33-stop American tour, Led Zeppelin, featuring Page, vocalist Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham and packed Municipal Auditorium Monday night.
The packed house added credence to the rumor that the reason the Stones didn't stop here last summer was because there wasn't any place large enough for them to play. A pity if it's true...
But that's ok, because if Zeppelin can stretch that kind of energy at every gig like they did here, they will outgross the Stones, whose Mobile concert seemed canned, even to a devout Stones lover.
Backed by towers of speakers and special effects, done superbly by Sound Co. of Dallas whose backstage crew numbers 20, Zeppelin did enough of the old stuff to get your attention and just enough of the new stuff to keep you there.
Cranking up promptly enough at 8:15, it was 1968 and "Lonely, Lonely Town”, with Page, and Plant letting you know immediately why the lights were most always at center stage. Page jerks and shakes all over the stage, brandishing absolutely the lowest-slung guitar in the west and never missing a lick.
But some of the licks weren't quite as sharp as the ones on my stereo. With Jones on bass and Bonham on all kinds of drums, with or without: sticks, the band is so solid you start listening subjectively. But Page is right there with Alvin Lee and Peter Townsend.
Plant was everything the folks expected. His range is just incredible. When he gets way down there on 'Oh Baby,' you think Janis is reincarnate.
But then be flies up about four octaves, with an occasional screech, and its electric time with Led Zeppelin.
A walk backstage will convince you it's a first-class operation. A huge Moog takes up I about a quarter of the stage, and the only place that isn't speakers, amplifiers or lights, was a narrow path to get on-off the stage.
It was also an excellent opportunity to see what kind of girls travel with a class band. Class girls.
After four old and one new number, Plant dedicated 'No Quarter' off the recently-released "Houses or the Holy" album to the French Quarter. Seems the band has taken a house somewhere here and are flying to gigs and flying back, a good deal if it's true. It would be nice if New Orleans was the home of one good rock group.
The Sound Co. took over. As "Quarter" cranked up in a lilting, haunting ballad style, rolls of smoke resembling fog drifted off the stage gagging the policemen directly in its line. They didn't look too impressed with Zeppelin before that.
After "Quarter," another song off "Houses," "The Song Remains The Same" which Plant said refers to people all over the world. They're all the same he says, at least the young ones.
Page would play his guitar with a bowstring once, finally letting us figure out how he and Plant make some of those sounds. Then Bonham got into a drum solo, finishing with just his hands once and sounding like three people.
Someone mentioned during Jones's solo that they thought Plant's voice was weakening. He left the stage while Jones worked, lit a cigarette, drank a coke and then came back to weaken people with "Stairway To Heaven." Maybe because that's a strong favorite or such a good song, but the band sounded better than my stereo then. And the crowd, fittingly, gave them a standing ovation.
Then, again fittingly, it was the swan song, "Whole Lotta Love," and on a great night with a good crowd and band, everybody was bogeying.
They played to one encore, again a new cut, and then left. You couldn't hear for a couple of hours afterwards but you knew you had been entertained. Well.
Their brochure says Zeppelin is the band who replaced the Beatles as the "top pop group in England." Well, if that's true, and you could get some violent argument on it, thanks England for letting us borrow them too, for a while. [-B. Shearman / Times / 5/73]
Rock and Roll, Celebration Day, (Bring It On Home intro) Black Dog, Over the Hills and Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains the Same, Rain Song, Dazed and Confused (incl. San Francisco), Stairway to Heaven, Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love (incl. Let That Boy Boogie), Communication Breakdown.
