MGM Grand Theatre at MGM Grand at Foxwoods

Setlist

Angel Dance

Down to the Sea

Cindy, I’ll Marry you Someday

You Can’t Buy My Love

Houses of the Holy

Twelve Gates to the City

Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down

Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go

Nobody’s Fault But Mine

Monkey

Satisfied Mind

Tangerine

Move Up

Ramble On

Tall Cool One

Gallows Pole

Encore

In the Mood

Rock And Roll

We Bid You Goodnight

REVIEW: Plant mixes old, new songs

 One has to admire Robert Plant for not standing still in the music world, always evolving as do Sting and a select few others.

The former frontman for Led Zeppelin and his latest band, The Band of Joy, put on a nearly two-hour show Friday night at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods that resembled a tour through his musical career.

The concert weighed heavily on country rock songs from his new album, “Band of Joy,” with several Led Zeppelin and solo numbers spread out. But even that earlier material was revised. Then again, Zeppelin was also very versatile.

The new album, which contains covers of traditional numbers and folk and indie rock rarities, has been nominated for two Grammys: best Americana album and best solo rock vocal performance.

The show opened with a rocking “Angel Dance,” the first song on the new album, and “Down to the Sea” off Plant’s 1993 folksy solo “Fate of Nations” that featured mandolin player Darrell Scott on acoustic guitar.

The new “Cindy, I’ll Marry You Someday” showcased bassist Byron House on an upright floor bass.

The most enticing song of the night up to this point was a new one, “You Can’t Buy My Love” that Plant indicated is the album’s new single. Buddy Miller’s guitar play kicked on the driving tune.

Plant, 62, still packs some strong pipes, but the singer/songwriter had help from a female vocalist, Patty Griffin, who also played guitar and at times reminds one of Janis Joplin. Plant called her the “Rockabilly Queen.”

The band’s musicians, who all played on the album, are mainly from the Nashville country scene. Plant has been attracted to folk and country music for some time, and collaborated with country musician Alison Krauss for the 2007 album, “Raising Sand,” which won five Grammys in 2009.

Further picking up the pace was an obvious crowd favorite, Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holy” from 1975. Scott switched to pedal steel guitar. As Plant noted, the “old and new collide.”

Next up was “House Of Cards” from his original Band of Joy days in the ’60s that included late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, and “Twelve Gates to the City,” an old blues tune from Gary Davis that shows the influence American blues had on Plant and Zeppelin.

The new “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” saw the multi-instrumentalist Scott on banjo.

Plant stood in the background playing harmonica while Miller sang the softer “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go” that was followed by the new “Monkey.”

Scott on guitar then sang “Satisfied Mind,” with most other band members providing background vocals, before Zeppelin’s beauty “Tangerine” surfaced.

Plant and his band gave an interesting slow and then hard take on that heavy metal pioneer group’s “Ramble On” from 1969 that is heavy on guitar.

“Tall Cool One” from Plant’s “Now and Zen” preceded another vintage Zeppelin number, “Gallows Pole.”

For the encore it was “I’m in the Mood” from Plant’s second solo effort, 1983’s “Principles of the Moment,” and Zeppelin’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll” from 1972.

Opening was the North Mississippi AllStars, which had a distinct blues rock sound Zeppelin is known for. The drummer even used a washboard.

Plant played Tuesday at the House of Blues in Boston.

He studied accounting before singing for rhythm & blues bands in the mid-1960s. He and Bonham joined guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones in 1968 to form Led Zeppelin, which of course became one of the most successful recording and touring acts in the world. Following Bonham’s death in 1980, the group broke up and Plant went solo, his debut coming out in 1982. He and Page along with Jeff Beck hooked up for The Honeydrippers two years later.

STEPHEN PETERSON from the thesunchronicle.com

ROBERT PLANT – Ramble On – MGM Foxwoods CT