General Music Chat

Sat night i went and saw Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters in Memphis at the Botanical Gardens.

This is an outdoor venue that holds about 6 concerts a year, the weather was in the mid 70s low humidity, which is strange for July.

Anyway, Plant was awesome, of course Im biased being a big Zep fan. But his voice is still great. Some of the higher register songs they changed the keys on, one of note was a really different version of Black Dog.

He still has the swagger, and was funny to listen too, talking about a tea party in the garden. Its just amazing to see an icon like him, that probably doesnt have to go play for money, still out there doing his thing, and doing it well.

They played quite a few Zep tunes, a few of Plants solo tunes and even an off the wall version of Spoonful. I thought his voice sounded great, the sound was great, the crowd was really into the Zep material.

If you are a Zep fan and they come to your town I would highly recomend checking them out.

Sounds like a fun night out with the lady.
Cheers!

Thanks George, yeah it was cool, we got lawn tickets and you take your own chair and a cooler. We were way back, but they have these huge video screens so you can see from almost anywhere.

The only thing was there was a train track close, and 5 trains came thru during the show.

But the sound system was great, not too loud and not too quiet. Which was great cause they played everything from acoustics on songs like Going To California, to some really heavy sounding things. But you could hear all the instruments, clear as a bell.

Plant gave his band a lot of space to do solos and things. And he seemed to really be enjoying himself, not like he was just going thru the motions, a real pro in my opinion.

Babe Im Gonna Leave You and Ramble On were two standout songs in my opinion.

A friend saw this show out in the SanFran area recently, also said it was real good.
I saw Plant opening for the Who back in 2002. Definitely did not have the same range as the old days, but did some interesting versions of old tunes.

JW sounds like a great time and experience for you and the ms. I liked your observation about not doing it for money,just a good time.Sounds like you had one.

def sounded cool as heck!!!!

Definitely sounds like a good show. I saw a short blurb on Vh1 I think not long ago, with a couple of short clips of him doing some songs onstage, I got the same impression he's having a good time and sounds great but doesn't have the range he once had. Still sounds like Plant though...

I saw Zep in 75, Plant wasn't that great then, pretty much the same as the movie TSRTS, but most people didn't care.

Here's the band 2nd System performing "Immigrants Song". Note the guitar player with one hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn2x8bhvVx8