Set-List:
Intro music – Shine It all Around (The Girl’s Remix). No Quarter, Shine It All Around, Black Dog, Freedom Fries, Morning Dew, That’s the Way, Hey Hey What Can I Do, Tin Pan Valley, Heartbreaker, Mighty Rearranger, Gallow’s Pole, When the Levee Breaks
Encore: Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, The Enchanter, Whole Lotta Love

Reviews:
This from Glen Towler
I could listen to Percy do 10 versions of one song. Brilliant arrangements of the Zep tunes. No Quarter, Heartbreaker, Black Dog, That’s the way. Gallows Pole, Hey Hey What Can I Do. No Page bits. I can hear Percy now… “You’re fucking musicians aren’t you? Make the bloody songs your own”

Plantations… a few, but alas my hearing isn’t what it once was… however the gent signing the drum parts was spot on.

Outstanding free form vocals in BIGLY. When the mostly acoustic version of Levee started, I thought ,”Oh, cool” … then they just blew the roof off of
the place. The crowd was ready…No Plant for 8 years…that’s alot of foreplay. So when He showed up…they all came! WLL, yes well, the only thing I can say is ,”The rotten bastards won’t release a live CD and/or DVD”. They should be shot for this.

This from Ted McCoy
It’s been a long seven years since I saw Robert in Vancouver near the end of his North American trek with Jimmy. What a very different experience this was. I bought a single ticket and was lucky enough to be four rows from the stage in this large venue. After a rousing (and too short) set by the Soundtrack of Our Lives, the remixed samples of Shine it All Around filled the air and the band ambled onstage to play the opening beats of a rearrganged No Quarter. Robert Followed grinning broadly, still sporting the facial hair and wearing a loose-fitting pair of black pants and a black shirt. I have to say, although it’s seven years later, he looked much more relaxed and altogether better than in 1998.

Gallows Pole received a roar from the crowd as the familiar lyrics sunk in. I quite liked this version as an opener. Shine it All Around was very good and after much radio play in Toronto was a second obvious crowd pleaser. The rearrangement of Black Dog is fantastic, sounding like a garage band playing for volume and verve rather than accuracy to the riffing. Robert’s voice was incredible throughout the show. He is being fuelled by something drastically different than in his Page and Plant days, which will probably come as no surprise to those who have seen him through all this transistion, but I was amazed. At some points throughout the show he was positively roaring. The crowd around me and the surge of response behind me was evidence of a unique energy generated by Robert’s vocals.

Hey Hey What Can I Do was a surprise and was played very faithfully to the Zeppelin version with a mandolin and standup bass. Starting with the first verse of Money (m-o-n-e-y…) the band moved into a fascinating version of Gallows Pole and then Levee to end the show. The new call and response quality of Levee makes this a damn interesting show closer and I far prefer the arrangement to the Unledded hurdy gurdy version. The encore actually came as a letdown because the arrangements of BIGLY and WLL were so standard, but still very powerful. By that time, I was addicted to the unpredictability of the band and these two songs just didn’t have the same quality. At the crucial moment in WLL Robert paused, winked, and hit the highest note of the evening, easily as high as anything he has ever sang. Although with tongue firmly in cheek, Robert seems to be saying “does it really matter?”

The Strange Sensation is an amazing band. More and more they seem to fit around Robert as a unit and vice versa. The energy onstage was incredible and it obviously sustains Robert and excites. He refered to the Strange Sensation as “the reason everything makes sense, the reason I am moving forwards…” He was having a ball throughout the show, grinning and cracking jokes (including some very funny comments about Rod Stewart) and dancing wildly at times. From my vantage point, I could see Robert after he left the stage and he didn’t walk, he bounded and pumped his fist into the air. An older fan on the way out summed it up: “His voice! Can you believe his voice?”

This from Sam Greenspon
A beautiful summer evening for a strange sensations concert. My first one of this tour and it was a good one. Enthusiastic and ecclectic crowd – most of the review in the the toronto star link above is accurate in my opinion. Band was in fine form and everyone shone – Clive Deamer’s drumming was a stand-out. He has conjured up much more power and a bonzo-like drumming style and sound, compared with playing on dreamland tour. All band members contributed a high level energy to each song.

Robert’s voice was very powerful and smooth, consistently throughout the evening. His performance showed strong commitment to delivering on his new music while paying wonderful hommage to songs of years gone by. All in all, fantastic. Mighty Rearranger tour is one not to be missed!

ps to Robert, please shave – those closeups on the jumbotron…….

This from Christopher Gust
Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin fans from Southern Ontario and upstate New York flocked to Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre on a beautiful summer’s evening to see the former Zeppelin frontman on tour in support of his current solo CD “Mighty Rearranger”. And Plant, sporting a goatee (good move to mask the hard facial lines), and wearing his well-worn black tuxedo shirt, certainly delivered.

As we watched the crowd fill in, I debated with my fellow concert-goer, Paul G, what song Plant should open the show with. We knew from internet reports that he had been opening his shows with a reworked African-influenced, percussion-heavy version of “No Quarter”. We agreed that the throng of 12,000 people would erupt when Plant strolled onto to the stage and this version of “No Quarter” would be like throwing a wet blanket over the proceedings. Well, sure enough, to tremendous applause, he strided to the front of the stage and the band launched into the reworked “No Quarter”. But, to my surprise, it worked; the crowd ate it up. The most well known song from the new CD, “Mighty Rearranger” came next and it was played flawlessly. Robert is even once again singing the choruses properly – check out some of the shows form late April and you’ll know what I mean. Robert welcomed the crowd and joked that the band was going to “delve a little bit, move forward a little bit, move sideways a little bit, then have our Geritol.” The re-riffed version of “Black Dog” was met with tremendous response from the crowd, especially the call and response “ahh, ahhh” parts. “Freedom Fries” was introduced as a song “about that ‘thing'”. “Morning Dew” was the only representative from the “Dreamland” album and was played the same as three years ago. During the intro to the song, Plant mentioned the Grateful Dead and received a response from the crowd. He then quipped that you can “always check out your audience by mentioning the Grateful Dead.” The band then settled in for a little acoustic. “That’s the Way” was simply gorgeous, embellished by John Baggot’s keys. Then Toronto received a treat, as a rousing “Hey Hey What Can I Do” was played next. “Mighty Rearranger” was excellent and featured a blistering Plant harmonica solo at the end. Heavily rearranged, but no less powerful versions of “Gallows Pole” and “When the Levee Breaks” followed. I would have thought that after Page and Plant performed “Gallows Pole” to death from 1995-98, I’d never care to hear it again, but this Strange Sensation arrangement brought new life to the old chestnut. The band returned for three encore songs, with “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and an extended “Whole Lotta Love” (guitarist Skin Tyson on theremin(?)) being the obvious crowd pleasers.

Plant was in excellent voice throughout. He reached for extended notes at will and pulled everything off nearly flawlessly – amazing for a 56 year old singer. Credit must also be given to the members of Strange Sensation. Compared to the good but somewhat mellow show that Robert performed at Toronto’s Massey hall in 2001, the band was really on fire and having a good time. Justin Adams plays in a unique guitar style and is highly talented, also contributing with percussion on several skinned instruments. Clive Deamer held everything together on drums, playing all sorts of styles on his cool transparent blue Ludwig kit.

The crowd was a certifiable fashion show of Led Zeppelin T-shirts, both new and old. Many new replicas of the 1977 tour shirt were spotted but my favorite featured a large live shot of the band, circa 1975. It was also interesting to note the composition of the crowd. Many parents brought their children and many teenagers were in the crowd, as well, along with the greybeards. The tran-generational nature of the crowd really makes a statement about the lasting power of Robert Plant and the band he is best known for. Admittedly, I would bet that, if polled, 75% of the crowd expected or would prefer “an evening of Led Zeppelin’s greatest hits, as performed by Robert Plant” but I give Robert full credit for making new music, taking chances and pushing musical boundaries in 2005; something his peers could learn a few lessons from. On the other hand, 9 of the 15 songs performed were Led Zeppelin numbers, so he is aware of his audience’s wants. (I would have preferred to hear “Timbaka” live, even at the expense of one of the Zep songs, though.) Still, the fresh and sometimes radical rearrangements of the Zeppelin classics would prevent even the most hardened cynic from dismissing Plant’s show as a nostalgia act. Mighty Rearranger, indeed. Well done, Robert.