[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: RP & Band of Joy Beacon Jan 30th, 2011

Good summation of the show last night Eddie. It was great to be there, great to meet you and great to meet Dawn. To me the music flowed like a thick stream of liquid sound. The band was tight, the band was into it, and the band performed just as they should, as a band. No one really stood out as being above any other and I think that has a lot to do with the magic of what I saw and heard. They opened with Misty Mountain Hop and while it was nearly unrecognizable at first as soon as the lyrics were audible it was go. The audience stood for the first 5 numbers or so. I began wondering why I paid for a seat. LMAO. As the band flowed through the setlist the music always seemed to come from another direction. Zeppelin, then early Plant solo, then later solo, then Allison, back to Page\Plant etc. It was really good to hear him pull from virtually every part of his career. One particular moment that struck me was when I heard the opening notes to "Satan You Kingdom..." It was sounding good. Then Roberts voice came through sending those lyrics out to us with almost a religious dissonance. I could feel the passion in his voice. He was singing it but he meant to too. Ramble On was very good. I liked the reworked structure and did not feel that it robbed the song of anything. But I've been into Roberts way of taking music to new places for many years now so to expect something else would have been to ignore the obvious. If there was one song that made me stop for a moment it was Tangerine. The song was well done mind you and I enjoyed it very much. However, to me anyway, that is Jimmy's song. I guess this bothered me the same was Jason doing Stairway did. While it was done well, other songs from the catalogue would seem a bit more fitting so to speak. Buddy Miller impressed me a lot. While he filled his role as a designer of mood with sound he was able quite often to just grip it and rip it. A time or two he even went for effects sounds that flirted with atonal. Picture the scene on the No Quarter video where in Marrakech Jimmy is getting crazy sounds out of that marching with the knob on it he keeps shifting (Sorry, I don't know what he is playing in that one). But Miller had something very similar on stage and used it well. Patti Griffin sang wonderful, her solo piece was a nice blend of Bluegrass and Jazz if you can imagine. And she belted it out solid. Daryl Scott was damned impressive. Playing Guitar, mandolin, banjo and pedal steel he was a big musical presence on the stage. And when he sang he knocked me out. A big Bluegrass\Rockabilly voice that punched us right in the kisser. I suppose there might have been a moment or two when his Pedal Steel just didn't work for me quite as well as I hoped. During Ramble On he played the high rhythm stuff that Jimmy did on the album but it seemed a tad out of sync. Over though what I do know is that he was cool as hell a blew me away. The rhythm section didn't get so much solo time as the others but the drummer kept good time and added nice fills when needed. He fit the bill well. The Bass player was similar. He knows the music and is not afraid to say hi once in a while but he knows his role and stuck to it. Bottom line is that this was, in terms of strength of music and performance, one of the best concerts I have ever seen. And the cherry on top of meeting and hanging with fellow FBO'ers made it that much better. People, This band is on fore and Robert is having a blast. See it if you can. They don't get much better. 

:O)

Chef
----- Original Message ----- From: "Eddie Lombardi" <elombardi70@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: "FBO List" <zeppelin@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 2:17 AM
Subject: RP & Band of Joy Beacon Jan 30th, 2011
I should really be going to bed rather than posting this as I got work tomorrow but figured I'd do it now or it'll never get done.
Well I eventually did make it to one of the gigs. I was going to go on Saturday night and the spare ticket on FBO was almost mine but to make a long story short plans went this way and that way and never got that ticket. In the end I figured I'd try my hand a with the ticket touts for the 30th show expecially since Francis and Dawn were going to be there too.
First off the whole vibe today was a good one and I had high hopes for this show. Not sure why but something was telling me it was going to be a good one. The fact that this show was sold out before the Saturday show was a good sign. Meeting up with FBOers always helps brighten the mood too :-)
Right form the opening band I thought the audience were definitely up for the show. The North Mississippie All-Stars were the openers. They got a good reaction from the crowd. I thought they were quite good. Not too sure about the vocals but they might grow on me. But the musicianship was definitely up there. Definitely worth checking these guys out.
This is my second time seeing RP & BOJ on this tour. The first time was back in London in Sept 2010. Well the venue for this show could not have been more different than the previous one (Kentish Town Forum, now the HMV Forum, previously the Town & Country Club). The Beacon is a beautiful venue. I loved that place. As I said the audience was definitely up for a show. After the opener I went out into the lobby and booze was flowing (and despite the no smoking rules people were definitely smoking during the show...and I don't mean ciggies either!) and the vibe was up there.
As soon as the band came on everyone stood up and stayed up for most of the show. Every one took a little break during the slower numbers but as soon as those were over bam everyone was up on their feet again. Even Robert noticed how great the audience were and remarked "this is a Sunday crowd??".
The first thing I noticed about this show is that the time spent on the road has done the band well. They really seemed to gell a lot more than when I first saw them. I want to point out that the Sept 2010 show was no slouch. I thought it was really good but they have gotten much better. I think they appear to be more of a unit now and more like a proper band.
I won't bother with the set list as it's pretty much the same as other shows. I did noticed they played one or two more Zeppelin numbers than they did in 2010. They did "Tangerine" which was ok. I think I'll have to listen to it a bit more but on first listen I wasn't too crazy about the arrangement. I'm on the fence with the 'Houses of the Holy" cover too. I found myself liking it and not liking it over the course of the song. The others, 'Misty Mountain Hop', 'Ramble On' and 'Rock n Roll' were good though.
Another difference between this and the UK show is that the Zeppelin tunes definitely got a bigger reaction than the non-Zep. In the UK it was pretty even apart from 'Rock n Roll'. The non-Zep songs got a huge reaction to though. It's just the Zep tunes had a big initial burst. But over all every song was well received including the solo spots. Which were all really good.
Plant was very talkative tonight and made a lot of comments. He said he felt "that something great happened tonight" and there was "a great connection between them and us" and what a "great feeling there was". He also mentioned how much fun they are having up there.
He did make a joke about the disappearing record stores. He said you can go out and get their new record on lp at towers and then said "nope they closed", or try HMV and then said "ah no they are in the Uk and almost gone" and went on to say how liked the smell of "vinyl lps". 

All in all a really great show.  The band is super hot right now.

Eddie