PP Review

["Dan Barron" <dbarron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This appeared in _The_Philadelphia_Inquirer_ today.

Review: Music

Page and Plant and purposefulness

By Tom Moon
Inquirer Music Critic

Friday night at the CoreStates Center, Robert Plant introduced=20
the rural blues "Gallows Pole" as a song that "goes back 250=20
years, just before we got together." He offered the obligatory=20
senior-citizen jokes about lullabyes and Geritol. More than once,=20
he glanced at what looked like a TelePrompTer.=20

The geriatric rhetoric was a smokescreen: It's been a long time=20
since the arenas of America have been rocked this way, with the=20
blend of feral intensity and spring-loaded tension that marked Led=20
Zeppelin in its heyday.

For nearly two hours, Plant, 49, and guitarist Jimmy Page, 54, and=20
a muscular backing trio blasted through an agreeable selection of=20
old warhorses and the more imaginative compositions on the current=20
_Walking_Into_Clarksdale_. The music was executed flawlessly, with a=20
purposefulness missing from previous post-Zep tours: It was as though=20
Page and Plant listened to the material they had recorded more than=20
20 years ago for the BBC -- released in 1996 as BBC Sessions -- and=20
were reminded of an elemental, groove-first approach they'd lost=20
somewhere along the way.

Friday, as the Promise Keepers prattled on across the street at the =
Vet,=20
Page and Plant dedicated themselves to a lofty goal of their own:=20
recapturing the raw energy of long ago. They did it not just by offering=20=

safe, faithful renditions of old songs, but by thoroughly reinventing =
them,=20
stripping once-mammoth productions down to their essence, and=20
reconnecting with the urgent spirit that initially drove the songs.=20
"Heartbreaker" became a snakelike moan, "No Quarter" a ritualistic=20
chant that originated way down deep in Plant's gut, "How Many More=20
Times" a rousing roadworthy boogie. Even "Whole Lotta Love" was=20
transformed, by a slightly agitated, hip-hop-influenced rhythmic kick =
that=20
scattered the familiar undulating pulse in several directions.

Many songs started small and blossomed into extended suitelike=20
explorations: "Gallows Pole" began as a downcast juke-joint blues and=20
ended up as a furious gospel shout. The new "Most High," meanwhile,=20
suggested that Zeppelin's integration of Eastern devotional music and=20
the blues remains fertile ground for experimentation: Atop a grand=20
processional tempo, Plant sang long, sloping phrases that tugged against=20=

the harmony, while Page whipped up a billowing guitar drone and=20
keyboardist Phillip Andrews shadowed with wheezing bagpipes and other=20
ethnic signifiers that transported the vintage Zep swirl of sound to new =
exotic=20
locales.

Included a small picture of the lads standing up, Robert looking off to =
his
right, Jimmy looking at the camera and grinning. Caption: "Robert Plant=20
(left) and Jimmy Page recaptured old energy."


Dan