Atlantic City, N.J. (Borgata Hotel & Casino)
Set-List:
No Quarter, Shine It All Around, Black Dog, Freedom Fries, Morning Dew, That’s The Way, Tin Pan Valley, Heartbreaker, Gallows Pole, Mighty Rearranger, When The Levee Breaks
Encores : Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, The Enchanter, Whole Lotta Love
Reviews:
This from Michael Sherlock
This was the first of three nights playing in the surrounding Philadelphia area. I’m fortunate enough to have tickets to all three shows, and hope that the next two nights can match the intensity of this performance. The band started with a unique rendition of No Quarter, filled with percussions and a crowd of Zeppelin faithful providing back-up vocals. For me, the highlights of the show were That’s the Way, Tin Pan Valley, and BIGLY. The band ended strong with an energized version of Whole Lotta Love. I thought this was the best that Robert sounded in the last ten years that I’ve seen him. He certainly challenged himself on some of the higher notes on BIGLY and WLL. The crowd was slow to get into it, but warmed up after the first few songs, and with a little prompting from Robert . “Can you feel it?”. Looking forward to feeling the next two nights!
This from Scott
A new venue for me. An acoustically nice sounding room of about 3500-4000 people. The opening act was ‘The Soundtrack Of Our Lives’, who I found surprisingly entertaining. I was unfamiliar with their work. The lead guitar player seemed like a twist of Jack White (White Stripes) and Dean DeLeo (STP), so the Page influence was obvious. For those interested, Plant had on a black shirt and black pants. The band was dressed like it was just another night at the corner pub. No rock starring. Quite the contrast from Judas Priest, whom I saw a few weeks ago; It seems they feel it is still 1982.
The Band:
John Baggott – keyboards, percussion
Justin Adams – guitar, mandolin, percussion
Billy Fuller – electric & standup bass
Skin Tyson – guitars
Clive Deamer – drums, percussion
Robert Plant – vocals, harp
“Tonight we are going to play music from the 21st century, the 19th century, and some from the 20th century too.”
Main Set ~ 65-75 minutes
*No Quarter – At least lyrically. Most of the band played on drums, with the bass player and guitar player (Skin) adding some tones. But the only thing NQ about it was the lyrics and the vocal melody line. Quite interesting.
*Shine It All Around -a new rocker done well
*Black Dog -Another refreshed Zeppelin number. Only the chorus was played in its ‘original’ format.
*Freedom Fries – another rocker
*Morning Dew – I thought this was very good. Oddly, the audience decided to sit down for this one.
*That’s The Way – Plant commented that he believes the lyrical content for this song has become relevant again. Nice track, Justin on mandolin. Performed very true to form.
*Tin Pan Valley – great
*Heartbreaker – Yet another redefined Zep number. Very entertaining.
*Gallows Pole – A real crowd pleaser. Plant commented that the roots of this song come from 1600?s Europe, migrated across the sea and ended up in the Mississippi delta.
*Mighty Rearranger – Included some harp blowing by Mr. Plant.
*When the Levee Breaks – very good, as the revised Zep numbers go, this one stayed closer to the origins, in my opinion. But without that big Bonham beat, which to me seemed a rather appropriate change. The crowd loved it.
Encore ~30 minutes
*Babe I’m Gonna Leave You – great
*The Enchanter
*Whole Lotta Love – a false start in blues, then Skin started the riff and the place went nuts. He had the perfect sound for it too. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how good this one sounds live when done right.
Overall, a very good show, albeit perhaps a bit short. I wish he would play a few tunes from the first few solo records, he seems to go out of his way to shun his own material, but I suppose that is nitpicking. Robert sounded great, better when I saw him a few years ago at the Roseland in New York. And the band was terrific. I think, more importantly, he seemed to be having a real good time. The crowd really seemed to have a great time too, enjoying the new material as well as the old stuff. I heard no complaints on the way out. Some moron kept yelling “Where’s Robert?” during the opening act. Well, I think his question was answered. Robert Plant is
here and he is doing fine.
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