Robert Plant showed a rapturous crowd at the Paramount Theatre that the Golden God still has plenty of gas left in his tank during a 90-minute set with his on-again, off-again, group The Band of Joy.
The set contained remarkable musicianship, a few Band of Joy originals and, as expected, a healthy sprinkling of Led Zeppelin covers. What wasn’t expected was hearing Zeppelin songs like “Black Mountain Woman,” “Gallow’s Pole,” “Houses of the Holy” and others get new life breathed into them thanks to new arrangements and the tremendously talented five-piece Band of Joy. More on that later.
Of course the centerpiece of the show was Plant and his unmistakable voice, which sounded amazing as it soared through the beautiful 83-year-old venue. The spry and animated Plant danced and moved all over the stage, acting more like a rocker in his 40s instead of the 62-year-old iconic rock figure he is. He tugged on his shirttails while singing, pointed at the crowd during guitar solos and made a few funny facial expressions that showed after all these year he still has a good time on stage.
While Plant never attempted to reach the higher register of his Zeppelin days when he did get the Led out, so to speak, his voice was clear and sounded every bit as powerful as it did during the band’s mudshark days (more on that later too). He seemed well aware of his vocal limitations and played to his strengths which showed his pipes could easily go toe-to-toe with those of any modern rocker. He also showed that his banter can easily stack up with the best of them by playing to the Seattle crowd and acknowledging Zeppelin’s history with the Emerald City.
“Welcome to a wonderfully strange evening with the Band of Joy. Live from the Edgewater Inn,” Plant said, addressing the crowd after the set opener “Black Mountain Woman.”
The Edgewater Inn comment was a reference to the aforementioned mudshark, which has become a part of rock ‘n’ roll lore. The legend of the “shark incident,” as it is known, was referenced by Plant multiple times when he introduced several songs as being “another fishy story.” He later reiterated his love for Seattle dedicating “Black Dog” to locals The Kingsmen, a band Plant said he enjoyed spending time with when he was in Seattle during the 70s.
The band played a setlist filled with covers of songs by the likes of Los Lobos, the Grateful Dead, Townes Van Zandt, Uncle Tupelo and others but the highlights hands down were the Zeppelin numbers. Each Zep song was rearranged and given new depth thanks in part to having a five-piece band taking on the song as opposed to the full-throttle rock approach of the three instrumentalists in Zeppelin.
“Black Dog” was slowed down and given a whole lot of flange. “Houses of the Holy” had a slight funky feel, and the Plant and Jimmy Page song “Please Read the Letter,” while not a Zeppelin tune, almost had a different identity with Band of Joy member Patty Griffin contributing vocals. The most remarkable rearrangement of the evening came during “Ramble On” which carried lots of Middle Eastern flair thanks to prominent sitar throughout the song. “Ramble On” ended the main set and would have been a more than satisfactory end to an evening with a living legend but a few minutes later Plant and the Band of Joy — Griffin, Byron House, Buddy Miller, Darrell Scott and Marco Giovino — came back to the stage to end the show with a three-song encore that featured a lengthy “Gallow’s Pole.”
Openers North Mississippi All-Stars set the table well for Plant and the Band of Joy. The band, a duo, played 45-minutes of bluesy, rootsy Americana that easily have been passed off as songs that influenced Led Zeppelin’s earlier days.
