The day finally arrived. The closest I will ever come to seeing Led Zeppelin.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but I had high hopes. I viewed a few YouTube videos of Led Zep 2 and they were good. These guys play all across the country so I knew they had to have some chops. Plus, they looked the part.

There was a line to get in and we waited a few minutes chatting with folks outside and taking note of the range of ages in the crowd. It was interesting. I wasn’t the oldest, which was nice… and there were college kids in the crowd too of course. Led Zep is ageless.

Once inside, we went straight upstairs and off to the right of the balcony, which is actually closer to center stage. We took a 3 seater bench by the wall.

Nice face Michael.

After a mandatory poster run (I got the only one in the whole place!)

we settled back and waited for the sweet sounds of Led Zep.

At the outset, let me say this… again, I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly, but I was not only impressed but I came away with a great respect for what these guys were doing. They were awesome!

The came out of course the first thing you noticed was the Robert Plant hair and the Jimmy Page flared pants and dark hair. Bonzo was wearing a headband too and looked the part. I brought my big camera and I took plenty of shots as the night went on.

Dalton and I were amazed from the first song. These guys were really good.

and of course it was like hearing a Led Zep greatest hits album. Their John Paul Jones was killing it on bass

and their John Bonham was a flurry of arms.

Every song they played Dalton and I would look at each other and smile and go back to either staring, or bopping our heads, or closing our eyes and swaying or making synchronized body movements along with the beat. We were SO into it.

Then they slowed it down and did “No Quarter” and their John Paul Jones went to the keyboard.

Partway through the intro the keyboard stopped making noise. He tried to kick the pedal rig below, but it wasn’t working. The rest of the band played on as he struggled with it, reaching the part of the song where the lyrics kicked in just as he triumphed and got the keyboard working again. After a round of applause from the audience, the band reunited as one to move into the song proper. Complete with THEREMIN !

It was so cool ! I loved that part of “The Song Remains The Same”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

After that, the iconic double neck guitar made its appearance and they did “Stairway To Heaven”.

Their Robert Plant was fluent in all the stage moves and his voice was really very close.

For the evening I certainly was believing the band. They had chops man. Respect.

After a while they came down front for some acoustic stuff.

and as I was downstairs for a moment I got a stage right shot just as they were announcing that it was their John Bonham’s birthday that night.

After the acoustic stuff they took a short break. Dalton and I discussed how much we were digging it. It was cool to hear the songs that I have loved all this time done live. The bass and the drums pounding you in a way you just can’t get from the records. It was an event.

Their John banged the gong in the second set.

and then they launched into a version of “Dazed And Confused” that included their Jimmy Page using the bow!

It was freaking awesome to say the least.

The song reached a fever pitch as they played off of each other.

I had to take my pulse after that one. It was so good.

Then they left, and came back for an encore.

They finally played “Black Dog” which is what I always jokingly yell out at shows. This time it worked! Ha ha.

They sold the place out and got a trophy from The Majestic.

Couldn’t get a good shot while he was holding it, but when he set it down I got a closeup.

The crowd loved this band. The were head banging hard down front. The hair was flying.

Here is my rock star photographer of the year award winning shot of the night.

The show was fantastic and way beyond what I had expected. Just enough stage gimmicks and great musicianship wound into a whole experience.

Led Zeppelin 2 rocked!