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Press Review: LED ZEPPELIN – The Coliseum – April 27

It took those over two years to do it, but Led Zeppelin finally reached a Cleveland area stage once again last Wednesday night at the Coliseum. This show in particular, as well as their current tour in general, is nothing less than a re-assertion of their status among the Rolling Stones, Who and any other acknowledged deities of rock. It presents a challenge – as well as a set of standards to equal – to new wave heroes such as Aerosmith, Frampton and Blue Oyster Cult.

Zeppelin’s three-hour set passed with flying colors my personal shorthand estimation of a concert’s quality. It didn’t seem that long. The amount of material played, the musicianship involved, and the internal and external (special effects) manifestations of their music merged into an impressive, at time awe-inspiring, whole. The width of styles, moods and atmosphere, paired with consistent authenticity, crossed one of the widest spectrums of which any current combo seems capable.

Zeppelin’s show,  considerably revamped since their ’75 appearance in the same arena, was in general an effective mix of blues-ended structures such as In My Time of Dying, Nobody’s Fault But Mine and Since I’ve Been Loving You. The maximum amount of instrumental stretching-out however came on No Quarter. Working from both electric and acoustic pianos, John Paul Jones again impressed with his general versatility. Jimmy Page later joined in for what to me was his apogee of an evening’s worth of standout soloing. It was one of the best rock jams I’ve ever witnessed.

About midway through, Zep revived something they haven’t done in concert since the early 70s – an acoustic set. The founders and main perpetrators of the heavy metal music form sat themselves down and ran through delightful versions of Battle of Evermore, Going to California and Black Country Woman, even reviving the rockabilly Bron-Y-Aur Stomp from Led Zeppelin III (with Jones on stand-up bass).

Some more electrically oriented playing led into the visual highlight of the evening; a rotating, smoke-filled laser light cone surrounded Page as he spun out his famed violin bow work, with lasers behind him shooting arrow-straight beams at the ceiling at well-timed intervals. The show wound up with more conventional crowd-pleasers such as Kashmir and the Zeppelin signature song, Stairway to Heaven (with the biggest mirrored ball in rockdom used to wind it up.

John Bonham consistently kicked ass on drums, Robert Plant was 100 percent improved in voice and stage demeanor  since their last time here, and a warm, lucid in-group chemistry projected even across the Coliseum’s vast terrains. A surprisingly sedate and mature crowd did their part to create something I had previously thought was unique to small-hall presentations – a general warmness and intimacy of feeling emanating from the band and its reception by the listeners. It’s an attitude much more difficult to project over 20,000 seats than it is over 3,000. Such was the strength of Led Zeppelin’s performance, an in-person proof of why they still rank as one of the top viewing experiences in rock. (C. Michalski / Scene April 1977)

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Press Report: ‘Brilliance, confusion’ mark Zeppelin show

 As Led Zeppelin neared the end of its three-hour set Wednesday night, lead vocalist Robert Plant dedicated a song to “the atmosphere we’ve reached here tonight.” He was referring to the fact that no plate glass windows had been smashed and only ,one firecracker had exploded up to that point at the Coliseum concert.

All too often, the same fans that come to hear Plant and Zeppelin sing about lovely ladies with flowers in their hair and the pleasures of a walk down a country lane, end up throwing rocks at windows and policemen and tossing bottles and fireworks among their “brothers” in the audience. But Wednesday’s capacity crowd was fairly well-behaved and appreciative of this English band that is approaching a decade in existence. It even allowed the Zep to sit down and perform a tasteful acoustic set, unmolested by the usual burnt-out screams of “rock n’ roll!!” and “play ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ man!!”

Jimmy Page, master of any instrument that has strings on it, donned a mandolin; John Paul Jones handled acoustic guitar, John Bonham banged on a tambourine; and Plant, whose voice is a formidable instrument in itself, sang with a piercing clarity and confidence reminiscent of years gone by.

The acoustic set included admirable versions of “Going to California,” “Black Country Woman,” “The Battle of Evermore” and “Bron-y-aur Stomp.” In the midst of it all, Plant remarked, “This is beginning to feel good, man.”
This veteran of four Led Zeppelin tours was glad to see the group abandon the greatest hits concert format of 1973 and 1975, in favor of a well-rounded display of both commercially successful and fairly obscure selections.
Plant told the-audience, “We’ve been looking at some of the stuff that we didn’t feel we could do on stage in the past and have decided to have a go at it this time.”

Unfortunately, a muddy, blaring sound system ruined many of the electric rockers of the evening. The band opened the concert with a perfectly dreadful version of “The Song Remains the Same,” which was sabotaged by a distorted mechanical delivery.

Zeppelin later beat “Achilles Last Stand,” a driving piece from “Presence,” into the ground. However a powerful rendition of “Kashmire,” perhaps the best executed song of the night, and Page’s masterful slide on “In My Time of Dying” balanced the band’s performance.
 
Other rockers that stood out where “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” and “Sick Again,” which featured some classic Plant sexual gyrations and lusting vocals about “L.A. queens” and 16-year-olds with “lips like cherries...locked up in the hotel room every night.”  

Later, as an eerie cloudlike fog encompassed the stage, “No Quarter” showcased the keyboard and synthesizer expertise of Jones. The laser show which featured during “No Quarter” proved to be one of the more advanced displays on the rock stage today.

“Bonzo” Bonham also delivered a driving freight train type of drum solo, running his skins and tympanies through a synthesizer. It climaxed with an attack on a gong standing behind Bonham’s drooglike body. Overall, Zeppelin’s performance alternated between periods of brillance and confusion. The group’s unique concert format did illustrate that the Zep epitomizes a dying breed in the world of rock n’ roll for large audiences— a band that can sit down and play sweet acoustic music and then stand up to hit you in the face with blistering rock n’ roll.  [By L.RODGERS / Stater]

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