Led Zeppelin Celebration Day

I ordered the blu-ray, got it earlier this week and finally had a chance to watch it today. These guys still rock, and I just boggle that so much sound - so many layers of sound - is just coming from four guys. Plant doesn't have the range he used to and it shows on a few songs (and really only because everyone's heard the original recordings and his highs are so damn noticeable that their lack is equally noticeable), but he still sounds good and you can get a sense of that Golden God stage presence. Page tears it up all night long. John Paul Jones is just some inhumanly talented musical monster. And Jason really nails the drums - he's got his father's chops and he's got the sound down pat. Only thing maybe is that he's using a double-bass pedal to do some sections his dad did with one foot, but his father had some crazy technique that modern drummers would have no reason to develop, and that's not something you can just learn in six weeks.

The highlight for me was Kashmir. Probably my favorite Zeppelin song anyways, but it's just transcendent seeing them do it live. They're up there, and they're playing and it's just hitting you and you don't know where it's beginning or ending and it doesn't really matter. It's just energy ebbing and flowing for seven or eight minutes straight.

I think they'd be more enjoyable with a different vocalist.

They've put Kashmir online and I have to admit it sounds much better than I expected, especially Plant.

Is there a bass player somewhere? I thought JPJ was covering the bass part with his left hand, but it doesn't look like it. Or maybe there's a track.

I can't help but interpret the drummer as the one guy on the stage with something to prove. It's the nature of the instrument and score, I suppose (takes more physical reaching and motion), but I smiled watching the oh-so-seasoned singer, guitarist and keyboardist just owning their parts with complete confidence, and the drummer doing a great job, but definitely working at it :)

I don't see any additional musicians anywhere in the credits so who knows.

He's playing the bass keys with his feet.

Edit: I'm not kidding. Ray Manzarek was another popular rock and roll keyboardist of the time who occasionally played keyboard bass pedals (obviously with his feet).

It's JPJ. I'm just going to assume he's magic and leave it at that.

I thought that was Lance Henriksen.

And James May on the guitar.

It's got to be daunting, being the son of a legendary drummer and playing with said drummer's legendary band.

Jason did a decent job, I've heard better Bonham impersonators but it's no easy feat.

My only beef is Page has too much distortion on his guitar, even on parts that are supposed to be clean.
it's really noticeable when you hear the tracks on the radio, when you're not mesmerized watching them.
great show overall.

Drumming is all about finding that groove where you just slide in place alongside the other instruments. Given the amount of time Jason had to actually practice with these guys, I'm blown away by how tight he played. It certainly didn't come across like he had just been jamming with them for a few weeks. And he wasn't taking it easy on any of the songs - he was nailing sections that were at least as complex as what Bonham Sr. did back in the day.

That's not all drumming is about, but I suspect getting into an argument about the nuances of a drummer's job isn't quite a productive place for this thread to go.

I thought that most of Jason's playing was ever so slightly understated in comparison to his dad's. That's the opposite problem you have with most Bonham players, who simply want to sound like the God of Thunder. The exception to Jason's playing being that he seemed to hit his cymbals too hard in comparison to his dad, but I'm going to claim that's due to modern live sound techniques and the house engineer not compensating for it. I think Zak Starkey would be a slightly better fit, but when we're only talking matters of degrees, give the gig to the guy's kid if he has the passion for it, which it's obvious he does.

I agree that there's too much distortion on Page's guitar, and he didn't seem up for any of the intricate fingerwork he used to, but can give both of those a pass due to the overall excellent quality of the show.

I'm with Plant on any follow-up reunion, though: don't do it just to do it. This was cool, but getting Led Zeppelin back together now would be problematic. Let Page remaster the catalog for high quality blu-ray release, for the love of all that is holy do NOT get Shep Fairey to do the artwork, and then see how you guys feel.

Now I've spent a ridiculous amount of time in the past 24 hours watching Led Zeppelin videos :p With a detour into the Doors 1968 at the Hollywood Bowl.

Here's a full Kashmir from back in the day (looks like 1979) for your enjoyment and comparison


Did Bonham always look like he was having an 8 min orgasm while playing? He looks pretty blissed out LOL

parenthetically my google ads are now full of addiction centers.

Thanks to this thread the song Kashmir is nearly permanently stuck in my head.

I was also surprised how much meatier the live versions (both 1979 and 2007) sound compared to the original.

Best version of Kashmir

I'm fond of this one:



Here's a fun story: I saw this band, The Ordinaires, at a pub at the University Of Waterloo called The Bombshelter. The Bomber was pretty much my home for about four years - it's not an exaggeration to say I was there everyday. Eventually they gave me a job DJing.

Anyway, that part's unimportant. The Bomber was a pretty good live venue for a while - we had bands like Nomeansno, The Dead Milkmen, The Jazz Butcher, and a ton of Canadian bands you've never heard of pass through. The Ordinaires somehow got booked on a Friday afternoon. Here's the thing, though: That morning, a good friend of mine came into town with a shitload of liquid acid. So word went out, and everybody I knew who was into that sort of thing decided to blow off the whole fucking day and get really, really blasted. We're talking about a good twenty-five people or so, here. We all met around 11:30am, dosed, and then sat in the Bomber waiting for the show while drinking our faces off.

That's when I discovered a few things about acid and alcohol. Fun fact: Alcohol doesn't really affect you while you're on acid. Or, rather, it didn't affect me. So from the time I dropped the acid to the time it wore off, I had about twenty or so martinis because somebody thought drinking martinis all day would be hilarious. They were not wrong. But the OTHER thing I discovered is that it's really hard to gauge how much of a hit you're doing off of insanely strong liquid acid. I had a couple of droppers worth, which turned out to be about a fourteen-hour trip.

So the band plays in the afternoon, and we go WILD. We're totally into it. We were all sitting at a long table like some fucked up drug version of The Last Supper, a continual stream of liquor sloshing our way. By the time the band was done, we were peaking hard, and there was no way we were ever leaving. So we stayed, drank even more, and danced into the wee hours of the morning.

'Round about two o'clock, the acid starts to wear off. Now keep in mind, none of the martinis I had drank seemed to be affecting me at all... until the acid starting wearing off. Then, in about five minutes, I slowly morphed from a beautiful, clean, awesome acid trip to being reaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllly drunk. It was fucked up. To this day, I have no idea how I got home.

Anyway, the capper to this story is the next day, we turn on MuchMusic and we see the band being interviewed, and they're being asked how the tour was going. "Pretty good", said the lead Ordinaire. "We've been playing a lot of colleges and they seem to like us. But, man, we played the University Of Waterloo, and that crowd was crazy! They LOVED US!"

Noooo, we totally should (because you are right.)

It is in fact the exact opposite of what was stated; the drummer does not follow, the drummer should lead. A following drummer is a sloppy shitty-sounding drummer. Even James Brown bowed to the power of the drummer.

The drummer should lead except if you're playing with a singer who's fond of dropping a beat going from verse to chorus EVERY TIME. Then you have to adjust, because the singer sure as hell won't.

Let me be more clear then - a drummer finding the groove where the band gels is not the same thing as the drummer following. I'm not sure who you think said anything about drummers following because I couldn't find it anywhere upthread aside from Bryce mentioning something to that effect (which says maybe I wasn't as clear as intended, but as he put it getting into it isn't really a productive place for this thread to go.)

Jason was playing with living legends who he's known for years but hasn't professionally played with all that long. On top of that he's evoking his father's rather distinctive style - not his own. That's no easy task, and I think he did quite well. Bonham always made it look incredibly easy, and Jason looked like he was concentrating, but given the circumstances he was the one up there with the least experience and the most to prove. I'll give him a tip of my hat for pulling it off.

Anyways, I don't think Keith Moon was a sloppy shitty-sounding drummer, but Entwhistle was most certainly the rhythm anchor that lead The Who. JPJ has always played a similar role in Zeppelin, although not quite to the level of that extreme example.

I never said anything about about following. I never said anything beyond not agreeing that drumming is all about the groove. :( My comment about nuance was meant to be taken as "I agree that the groove is an integral part of certain styles, possibly the majority of modern rock-influenced styles, of drumming, I recognize that you know that, but think that we both also know that this thread would be better served not derailing it to talk drum theory."

Sorry, man. :(

Kashmir is one of those songs I've heard too many times, never been too fond of it anyway- but I've really been digging the O2 version and actually listen all the way through.

Don't worry about it - I actually understood what you were saying completely. I'm just not sure what Ingmar was going on about. I do personally think that with the Bluesy rock style of Led Zeppelin that JPJ and Bonham were playing off of each other, each driving different sections, but it's hard to tell because they worked so well together that you got kind of a holistic rhythm that freed Page and Plant to just be doing what-the-fuck-ever they wanted over that backdrop.

Eh, I perhaps read too much into something above, don't worry about it. (I still think the drummer has to be the core in any really good group, but it is true that if your drummer is weak you can make up for it with a rock solid bassist.)

Metallica!

Too bad Fool in the Rain's not on that release. I'd love to see how Jason Bonham would interpret his dad's iconic half-time shuffle.

Did you all see this? I enjoyed it a great deal. From Dec. 3 Kennedy Center Honors tribute. Broadcast last night I guess, but I just saw this now.

!

also, whoa /fans herself

I'd like it more if it wasn't missing two verses! Now one has to wonder if they performed it that way or if it was edited down to show-more-ads fuckery.

Also, what kind of event is this. Seems to feature a lot of "important" people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Center_Honorshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Center_Honors
Annual event honoring performing artists who made an impact on American culture (lifetime awards, not like the Grammys)

Woohoo...got the CD/DVD for Christmas, thanks sis!
Kennedy Center Honors was a decent show, good point Candide, don't know if the songs were full and cut for tv.
It was a 3 hr show.
That's how Letterman got Zep on his show i guess, from hanging out with during the whole honors event.

I would not have expected Heart to do a good cover of "Stairway to Heaven"...but they did! I loved the reactions of the band, especially Jimmy Page. I swear at one point he was mouthing the guitar chords.