Carrying on the Robert Plant review theme, here's a link to the gig at the Hammersmith Palais two days before the Forum gig mentioned in the previous post.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14936-1905489,00.html
A
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Sunday, December 18, 2005
The Mighty Reviewer
Me and me mate Clownman went to the Robert Plant gig at the Forum in London a couple of Tuesdays back. We got there early and thus got awesome seats in the front row upstairs. The support band was some hillbilly Yankee group whose name escapes me and who looked like they'd escaped from the freak show - heavily tattooed guitarist, huge hunch-backed upright bassist, geeky looking tall, skinny inbred singer with walk socks pulled up past his knees, an occasional giant woman fiddler and a drummer. In-ter-est-ing, is how I'd describe it.
Anyway, I'm here to talk about the Robert Plant gig not the freak show. So yeah it was a great gig with extra special meaning for me as I got to see a living, breathing member of LED ZEPPELIN – the greatest band ever, who have had such an impact on my life.
So the band comes on stage followed a moment later by the man himself to steadily increasing applause and they go into Freedom Fries off the Mighty Rearranger. The rest of the gig was not quite what I was expecting i.e. no 29 Palms or anything in fact before the last two solo albums (not counting the greatest hits). There were about six Led Zep songs - Black Dog, Going to California, When the Levee Breaks, Four Sticks, What is and What Should Never Be, and the encore of Whole Lotta Love, which brought about a standing ovation. All the Zeppelin songs were arranged differently than the album versions, I imagine because it wasn't Zeppelin playing them so he didn't want them compared directly.
As was to be expected they played a number off The Mighty Rearranger but surprisingly no Shine It All Around. I thought Tin Pan Valley, where Robert berates his peers for relying on their past glories, was particularly poignant as Rod Stewart was doing his cover band thing at Earls Court a few nights later. I certainly know which gig I’d rather be at!
I was very surprised at how good his voice still is and he hasn't lost any of the power and still moves really well. He was almost reserved at times and didn't act like the star of the show, with the other band members almost on an equal footing. He certainly didn’t take himself too seriously and joked with the audience, especially after dropping his tambourine by accident at the end of one song, which created a great atmosphere.
The Forum is a relatively small venue, which he said he loves and has seen a number of bands there himself, including The Cult. The gig was long sold-out and there was probably about 2 thousand which was nice and intimate (although not as small as his gig at the Hammersmith Palais on Sunday, which would have been cool to see) - Craig and I got front row upstairs so we had an awesome view.
The sound was pretty good although I felt the guitars were too loud early on and drowned out the vocals a bit much but they sorted that out. I forgot my earplugs so I was glad that the volume wasn’t ear splitting unlike the Motorhead gig that I went to down in Brixton a few weeks back which was also a very good gig, although I really don’t know how Lemmy is 1) still alive and 2) able to hear anything at all!
Anyway, so that was the night, awesome and something that I’ll remember for a long time, a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, time.
Anyway, I'm here to talk about the Robert Plant gig not the freak show. So yeah it was a great gig with extra special meaning for me as I got to see a living, breathing member of LED ZEPPELIN – the greatest band ever, who have had such an impact on my life.
So the band comes on stage followed a moment later by the man himself to steadily increasing applause and they go into Freedom Fries off the Mighty Rearranger. The rest of the gig was not quite what I was expecting i.e. no 29 Palms or anything in fact before the last two solo albums (not counting the greatest hits). There were about six Led Zep songs - Black Dog, Going to California, When the Levee Breaks, Four Sticks, What is and What Should Never Be, and the encore of Whole Lotta Love, which brought about a standing ovation. All the Zeppelin songs were arranged differently than the album versions, I imagine because it wasn't Zeppelin playing them so he didn't want them compared directly.
As was to be expected they played a number off The Mighty Rearranger but surprisingly no Shine It All Around. I thought Tin Pan Valley, where Robert berates his peers for relying on their past glories, was particularly poignant as Rod Stewart was doing his cover band thing at Earls Court a few nights later. I certainly know which gig I’d rather be at!
I was very surprised at how good his voice still is and he hasn't lost any of the power and still moves really well. He was almost reserved at times and didn't act like the star of the show, with the other band members almost on an equal footing. He certainly didn’t take himself too seriously and joked with the audience, especially after dropping his tambourine by accident at the end of one song, which created a great atmosphere.
The Forum is a relatively small venue, which he said he loves and has seen a number of bands there himself, including The Cult. The gig was long sold-out and there was probably about 2 thousand which was nice and intimate (although not as small as his gig at the Hammersmith Palais on Sunday, which would have been cool to see) - Craig and I got front row upstairs so we had an awesome view.
The sound was pretty good although I felt the guitars were too loud early on and drowned out the vocals a bit much but they sorted that out. I forgot my earplugs so I was glad that the volume wasn’t ear splitting unlike the Motorhead gig that I went to down in Brixton a few weeks back which was also a very good gig, although I really don’t know how Lemmy is 1) still alive and 2) able to hear anything at all!
Anyway, so that was the night, awesome and something that I’ll remember for a long time, a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, time.
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