Milwaukee Newspaper Review

["Kevin Rades" <krades@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Taken from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website:
A playful Plant proves he's still got a whole lotta musical muscle
By DAVE TIANEN
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: July 23, 2002
If there's any single musical value we would associate with Robert 
Plant, it would be power.

The kind of power that kicks you in the sternum, nails your skull to the 
wall and leaves your ears humming two hours after the show. The kind of 
power that leaves large, smoking holes in the earth.

As he proved again Monday night at the Eagles Ballroom in the Rave, even 
a middle-age Robert Plant is formidable. This man was, and is, one of 
the great shriekers of rock and the prototype for two generations of 
hard rock frontmen.

Even the very physicality of the man conveys a sense of brawny 
authority: the broad shoulders, the tight waist, the unruly rumple of 
curls, the sense of slightly ungainly strength in motion. That's the 
Robert Plant the fans love, and as Plant cranked it up during "Whole 
Lotta Love" Monday, you could look around the packed ballroom and see a 
throng that was joyfully swept away.

But there are some other sides to Robert Plant that probably didn't 
receive the hearing they deserved Monday. Plant's new album, 
"Dreamland," is among his better solo efforts, and his new band Strange 
Sensation is probably the best support he's ever been given outside the 
company of Jimmy Page.

There's a big slice of the Delta blues on "Dreamland," tunes by seminal 
players like Bukka White and Big Boy Crudup. And although deadlines kept 
us from catching Plant's entire set, none of that stuff made it into the 
first hour and a quarter.

"Dreamland" also showcases the folk and Middle Eastern facets of Plant's 
music. "Morning Dew" is a particularly evocative folk ballad, usually 
associated with the Grateful Dead. Maybe it was an inflated arrangement, 
perhaps it was the ballroom's tendency to smother nuance, but most of 
the emotional resonance of the song seemed lost. Plant does have his 
quieter passages, and whenever the music veered in that direction 
Monday, I found myself wishing for a more intimate, acoustically 
friendly environment.

On the other hand, the muscular madness of Hendrix's "Hey Joe" came 
through with authority. Plant is at the beginning of his summer tour, 
and Monday's show found him in a particularly playful mood, mixing the 
Three Bears and the origin of the blues in his intro to "Whole Lotta 
Love" and even breaking into bits of Conway Twitty's "It's Only Make 
Believe" on two occasions.

A somewhat awe-struck Freshwater Collins opened the evening. Clearly 
delighted to be sharing oxygen with Robert Plant, the group seemed to 
win some converts, particularly with its cover of the Allman Brothers 
classic "One Way Out."




Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 23, 2002.