Set-List (Unconfirmed): Zooma / The Thunderthief / The Smile of your shadow /That’s The Way / Steel Away / When The Levee Breaks / B-Fingers / Freedom Song? / new song
Encore: Black Dog

I just came home from the show at the Universal Ampitheater in Los Angeles, California. I must say it was a great performance from Jones & Co. He was very happy and was enjoying every minute of it. The night started off with “Zooma” (could there be a better opening number?!!). I should have taken some notes while I was there, so I don’t remember exactly the order of the set list, but I know for sure that a new song came next. Jones then said hello to everyone, and said, “That last song is from my new album ‘Thunderthief’ which will be out next February. Now I’d like to play a song from ‘Zooma’ called ‘The Smile of Your Shadow.’ ” (My personal favorite of the “Zooma” tracks.) I didn’t catch his last tour, so it was a great surprise to me when, mid-song, he switched from the 6-string bass to the bass lap steel!! It was amazing. Better than the album version, that’s for sure!
Before the next three songs, the big Zeppelin trilogy, he was very amusing in saying this: “Contrary to expectations, we’re gonna travel back in time a bit…” What followed was an excellent version of “That’s the Way.” With Nick on acoustic guitar, and Jones on mandolin, and Terl with just slight percussion. Yes, John did sing the song, and very well! I enjoyed his voice, and his version a lot. Very true to the original version, but still with a wonderful new flavor. He then stayed on the mandolin, for a surprise song (for me). It was “Steel Away” He was quite successful in reproducing most of “Jimmy Page’s guitar parts” on the mandolin, then mid-song he switched to the bass lap steel for more magic in that song. He stayed at the lap steel for a VERY well done, and heavy version of “When the Levee Breaks.” He did most of the vocal melody on the lap! steel along with the guitar riff. I loved watching him at the lap steel, he gets so into it, and is enjoying himself so much.
After the Zeppelin set, he introduced the band as “The John Paul Jones Orchestra.” He introduced Terl and Nick, and then also the “maker of all these fine instruments you see here… Hugh Manson.” He went into more material from both Zooma, and the new album. I don’t remember the order he did them in, but he did “B. Fingers” and another “Zooma” track, I can’t recall which, and he did two new songs. One of the new songs featured only him singing and playing what I swear was a ukulele. When he was handed the ukulele, it was after he had given Hugh the bass, and he said, “what happened?,” as he held up the ukulele, “I handed him that, and he gives me this?!” It was funny. It was a short song, and the lyrics were quite adorable (about wanting to just get away from it all with his wife, like on a vacation… get away from the phone calls, and fax machine, and leave the kids behind).
For the encore, Jones did “Black Dog,” with the vocal lines and the guitar riff done on the lap steel. A great end to a wonderful show. I look forward to seeing him again, perhaps in an even more intimate setting such as the house of blues… we’ll see… David Higgins