Roseland, New York City

By Bill McCue
Photo by Ross Halfin

Excerpted from Proximity #36

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Wednesday night, October 13

Wednesday night. I watched the show from out front on Page's side of the stage, about ten feet from the monitors. They opened with a quick one, two, three PUNCH! of "Celebration Day," "Custard Pie" and "Sick Again." Lousy sound mix, extremely loud.

Chris Robinson was spot on from the get go and easily nailed Percy's parts with equal parts of rasp and holler. His vocals miraculously cut through the mush of three guitars cranked up to 11.

Great vibe on stage-lots of smiles and pats on the back. Rich Robinson guided Jimmy through the Crowes tunes with some help from a teleprompter mounted next to one of Jimmy's monitors. B.B. King's "Woke Up This Morning" was a great showcase for Jimmy to break out the old rockabilly licks left abandoned for too long.

"In My Time of Dying" was the show stopper, with Page whipping himself and the crowd into a face morphing frenzy with fiery slide licks from the familiar black and white Danelectro.

"Your Time is Gonna Come" was a real crowd pleaser. Jimmy was delighted with Black Crowes keyboard man Ed Harsch, who did a fantastic job on the intro/ outro solo parts. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" was greeted warmly by the faithful but each guitarist took a turn at mucking it up. Only Chris Robinson came through with shining colors on that one.

"The Lemon Song" was a real treat. During the fast section Page really went for it. "Ten Years Gone" was the big surprise of the night. Overall a nice performance, but for the nine millionth time, Page butchered the solo.

The biggest surprise of the night for me actually-and the highlight along with "In My Time of Dying"-was a very straight runthrough of "Shapes of Things" in the Jeff Beck Group's Truth arrangement. Page duplicated Beck's guitar solo and Chris Robinson gave it the authentic Rod Stewart treatment in both vocal delivery and posing.

The encores were "Hey Hey What Can I Do," "Out on the Tiles" (great job again by Chris here) and the obligatory "Whole Lotta Love" including a hand gesturing, guitar hero posing, theramin wipeout.

My overall impression was that we'd witnessed a great jam session, albeit one marred by a barrel full of mistakes, missed cues and muck ups. Still not bad for a group that had only done two gigs together prior to this one. Taken in that context, it was fantastic. A great time was had by all, on stage and in the audience, except for one dude in a homemade Zeppelin headband who partied hard until about ten minutes before show time and then proceeded to pass out and miss the gig.

Thursday night, October 14

Quite a different pattern of tartan this night. I was back a bit this time, about twenty feet from the stage in the center. This was one of those nights when everything worked, everything clicked and you walk out of the hall with your jaw down around your knees from gaping all night long.

All the glitches from the previous night were gone and replaced with gorgeous guitar harmonies, smooth time changes and an underlying groove that just wouldn't let you go.

They used basically the same set framework as the previous night, only this time "Mellow Down Easy" from Willie Dixon replaced "Woke Up This Morning," "Hard to Handle" was dropped in favor of an unknown Crowes tune, and "Oh Well" returned. Speaking of the latter, Page's solos were blistering and practically screamed out from the amps. Right in time and right on the money.

"Nobody's Fault But Mine" featured three guitar harmonies on the slide bit and was executed flawlessly by Page, Audley Freed and Rich Robinson.

The same was true of "Ten Years Gone." The mistakes from the first night were gone and Jimmy did a credible job on the solo. Hallelujah! Only "In My Time of Dying" was a slight step back from the previous night, albeit rescued in the second solo by Page.

"Lemon Song" was again a great treat with Page meandering for a few moments in front of the drum riser before launching into a smoking solo that leaves everyone on stage cracking up and pointing at him. And then there's "Shapes of Things." Before these shows were announced, I heard about the gig the Crowes did with Jimmy in London and like most Zep fans, tried to imagine what songs would fit this line up. Believe it or not, "Shapes of Things" immediately sprung to my mind. Chris Robinson is very close to a Jeff Beck Group-era Rod in vocal approach and I thought "Shapes" would fit his vocal range like a velvet glove with lace trim. Sure enough, it did. This was the song of the night for me. Dead on perfect and the "Come tomorrow, maybe I'm older. . ." section was one of those transcendent moments in rock music that just lifts you up and makes you want to shake, shake, shake, your booty all night long and then take a honey home with you for more with the lights down low.

The crowd wanted an extra encore after "Whole Lotta Love," but I don't think Chris Robinson was up to it. His voice was a bit hoarse by the end. Page, on the other hand, looked like he was ready to play all night.

This lineup puts the last Page/Plant outfit to shame in terms of courageous song choices and overall warm vibes on stage. It's nice to hear a singer ready to go for it from the first song, too. Give these guys about twenty gigs together and you'll never listen to a Page/Plant 1998 tour tape again.

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