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Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy – Seattle, WA – The Paramount

20 April 2011 5,347 views No Comment

Set list included

Black Country Woman

Black Dog

Please Read the Letter

Monkey

Angel Dance

House of Cards

Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down

Ocean of Tears

Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go

Cindy I’ll Marry You Someday

Satisfied Mind

In the Mood

Houses Of The Holy

Ramble On

Encore

Harm’s Swift Way

Gallows Pole

And We Bid You Goodnight

Robert Plant summons ghosts but is still magical

By Charles R. Cross

Robert Plant was only five minutes into his Paramount show Wednesday before he was summoning ghosts. “Welcome to another incredible evening … live from the Edgewater Inn,” he joked.

It was the first of a half-dozen references he made to Led Zeppelin’s 1968 Seattle debut. That concert, in what is the now-shuttered (Mercer) Arena, was only their second ever American show, but it became infamous for a “mud shark incident” at the Edgewater that can’t be
described in a family newspaper. Plant was 20 at the time.

At 62, Plant is still strong of voice, and seemed delighted to be on stage. Backed by a stellar band that included Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin — stars in their own right — he delivered a show that felt like a revival of sorts. He let Griffin and Miller sing lead on one song each, which added to the party feel. Plant joked that he was a “senior” artist, but he showed no signs of that.

The show had a decidedly Americana feel. The set included covers of tunes by Los Lobos, Townes Van Zandt and even Porter Wagoner’s “A Satisfied Mind.” There were a few Zeppelin songs, but both “Gallows Pole” and “Houses of the Holy” had slower arrangements, with minimal screams.

Plant’s current band is named for his 1965 Band of Joy, a group he formed with John Bonham. Most arrangements hearkened to the British folk and American roots music that has long been Plant’s obsession.

Apart from the Edgewater jokes, he also dedicated “Rock and Roll” to the Kingsmen, noting Seattle had “always been a very special place for me and my bands.”

Plant is a wealthy man, and turned down a rumoured billion-dollar offer for a Zeppelin reunion tour. He tours now because he enjoys it, and that was evident onstage.

That joyousness was most apparent on a reworking of “Ramble On,” a song Plant originally wrote in 1968, and which appeared on “Led Zeppelin II” with the line “in days of old, when magic filled the air,” a reference to “Lord of the Rings.”

At the Paramount, 42 years after his first Edgewater visit, Robert Plant sang the song as if he were recalling his own past.

And once again it was magical.

Reveiw by Charles R. Cross:

Robert Plant and the Band of Joy – Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA

Article Author: Dusty Somers
If one has any questions about why Robert Plant revived the Band of Joy moniker for his current tour, an evening with the new incarnation makes it abundantly clear. It turns out that the pre-Led Zeppelin project name fits the current line-up perfectly, with Plant himself acting as the grizzled, gleeful pied piper of joy.

At Wednesday night’s show at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Plant spoke of finding paradise as a senior artist, which his relaxed, impish demeanour between songs further confirmed. He’s having a hell of a time up there, and that joy spread through the audience unhindered.

Flanked by the enormous talents of Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin, Plant kicked off the set with a reinvented, down-home rendition of Zeppelin’s “Black Country Woman,” an appropriate opener to a night  of re-imagined numbers With 2007’s Raising Sand with Alison Krauss and
2010’s Band of Joy, he has proven eager to explore new territory, and this current tour finds him melding Zeppelin hits, covers new and old, and gospel-inflected traditional into one delicious bluesy, folky stew.

Much of the first portion of the show found Plant and Co. mining the new album, with performances of Los Lobos’ “Angel Dance” and Richard Thompson’s “House of Cards,” along with Plant and Miller’s arrangements of the traditional “Cindy, I’ll Marry You Someday” and “Satan Your
Kingdom Must Come Down.” The haunting Low cover “Monkey” saw Plant and Griffin harmonizing under chilly blue lights to great effect.

Interspersed with these early songs were moments when Plant said he wanted to introduce some of his friends, ceding the stage and lead vocals to Miller, Griffin and multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott. Miller belted out a rousing rendition of his wife Julie’s “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go,” underpinned by Plant’s churning harmonica. Scott sang perpetual cover “A Satisfied Mind,” which brought his voice together with those of Miller and Griffin in gorgeous harmony. Griffin — clearly a crowd favorite — opted for Teddy McRae and Sid Wyche’s heartbreaking “Ocean of Tears.” The latter part of the show featured Plant heading further back in time with “In the Mood” from his 1983 album, The Principle of Moments, and the 1998 Plant/Page (and later, Plant/Krauss) collaboration “Please Read the Letter.” The audience, most of which were respectfully seated for the middle part of the performance, leaped to their feet with the opening chords of “Houses of the Holy,” and stayed there for an extended cut of show-closer “Ramble On.”

The encore featured Townes Van Zandt’s “Harm’s Swift Way” from the new album, Zep’s “Gallows Pole” and the traditional “And We Bid You Goodnight.”

Plant remains a musical giant, with a voice that’s only been enriched with age. His decision to surround himself with a brilliant musical architect in Miller, the golden-throated Griffin and the ridiculously talented Scott makes for a band that has no trouble acting as the purveyor of joy.

Article Author: Dusty Somers
http://blogcritics.org/music/article/concert-review-robert-plant-and-the/#ixzz1KSS3YpCq

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