Email This Post Email This Post
Home » Featured, TBL News

ROBERT PLANT PRESENTS THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS IN SAO PAULO – ON THE SPOT REPORTS PLUS AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL DATE ANNOUNCED

28 October 2012 6,370 views One Comment

ROBERT PLANT PRESENTS SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS TWICE IN SÃO PAULO AND PREMIERES “FOUR STICKS” IN LATIN AMERICA 2012 TOUR – ON THE SPOT REPORT FOR TBL  FROM ANDRE CRUZ:

This week a Led Zeppelin member did two shows in two consecutive days in any point of the South-America for the very first time. It was also the first indoor Robert Plant show in the biggest city of the continent. The organizers choose São Paulo to Monday and Tuesday because it has the strongest Brazilian market for rock shows. Arriving lessening to a live Jack Bruce interview in a radio station was superb.

So after almost 17 years without a Zep related show in São Paulo, eight thousand persons saw Plant piloting the Space Shifters and packed all the space of Espaço das Américas, a venue besides TheLatin America Memorial – a good place to pass during a Latin America tour. It´s a really modern and beautiful venue with very good acoustic, services, etc, but maybe a little small to this kind of concert. Only general admission, divided in two sectors.

After that new “boxing” kind introduction exalting Plant`s five Grammy awards, “Tin Pan Valley” really worked very well as the starter. The set changed again and “Another Tribe”, that was not played at Belo Horizonte, took “44” place. The show was promoted as Robert Plant, The Voice Of Led Zeppelin, and “Friends”, of course, was very well received. “Spoonful” was outstanding but unfortunately there was a sound defect in a middle of a very good part of Plant`s singing. “Somebody Knocking” was used to many to have another beer and “Black
Dog” was not recognized during the first chords but everybody sang the chorus. And then I heard and saw Plant singing “Song To The Siren” in person for the first time. I got touched but heard a man saying that the gig was being boring…

The public was waiting more Zeppelin tunes and “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” made them happy again. “The Enchanter” was new to many people and the final part of the concert was identical to the Belo Horizonte one. “Gallows Pole” and “Ramble On” in a row and “Fixing To Die” made the link to “Whole Lotta Love”, with a heavier version than the previous ones this
year – with that introduction that all of us want to hear. Despite all the outstanding work done by Justin Adams and Liam Tyson, an idol called James Patrick Page is still very well missed. “Going To California” was a highlight again. And with “Rock And Roll”, everybody left the house smiling. It was “webcasted” by terra.com.br in a project called Live Music Rocks and it is the first (and maybe the only one) pro shot Sensational Space Shifters show.

The São Paulo first gig of the tour ended without any new song in the set list. Lasted 1h40m and ended at 23:40. An opening act was the surprise because nobody had played before Plant in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. Marcelo Jeneci, that released the album “A Gente é feito pra acabar” in 2010, explained that was called last hour and was surprised by the invitation. With a help from a good female singer (Laura Lavieri) and a mixed style sound, the singer and keyboard and accordion player sometime sounded as a good supporting act to a Plant show in 2012 but not to a public that were wanting Led Zeppelin.

The second night at São Paulo was not sold out and in the beginning of the evening the organizers were expecting a public of five thousand people. I was expecting a set list with more surprises and changes but Plant did not followed the Zeppelin tradition of mixing set lists manly while the band were playing two consecutive nights at the same place. In fact, we got only the debut of “Four Sticks” in this Latin America tour, replacing “Gallows Pole”. So now Plant has played nine Zeppelin songs during the tour. The gig has 15 songs as the first one
In São Paulo but was almost ten minutes shorter because some songs were a little shorter – “Whole Lotta Love”, for instance. It´s important to note that “44” and “I`m Your Witchdoctor” were not played in none of the São Paulo shows – and it`s a shame. The last one was “Rock And Roll” and was very nice to see Plant singing this classic song in the mood, sounding good and having fun. His last words: “Be happy. Good luck at the World Cup. Peace and Love!”.

The following night Jack Bruce did his first ever show in South-America. I thought that somehow it`s a kind of similar phase of Robert`s career, classics of the classics, Rock N Roll tunes with new textures. But I believe that the Cream fans that saw Jack Bruce probably were a little more pleased and satisfied than the Zep fans that saw Plant. Andre Cruz

All photos by Andre Cruz for TBL

Great footage here of a bulk of the concert:


AUSTRALIAN 2013 DATE ANNOUNCED:

According to this report, Robert will be presenting the Senational Space Shifters at the Byron Bay Blues Festival in Australia on March 30th  2013:

See details at:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/plant-to-headline-byron-bay-bluesfest-20121027-28c8m.html

 

Until next time…keep reading – keep listening…

Dave Lewis/Gary Foy

October 28th, 2012

Don’t forget that you can follow Dave Lewis/TBL on Twitter – LedzeppelinTBL

and view additional photos etc at the Tight But Loose Facebook page (add us as a friend) at

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1611296783

 

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...

One Comment »

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.