Over Easter I had
the absolute joy of seeing the one and only Robert Plant perform with his new
band the Sensational Space Shifters not once but twice. Led Zeppelin are my all
time favorite band and in my opinion they changed the face of rock ‘n’ roll
forever. Robert Plant is one of the greatest front men and rock vocalists of
all time I know this is a lot to live up to but boy oh boy he didn't
disappoint. His backing band, The Sensational Space Shifters are said to be a
loose band "inspired by the roots music of Mississippi, Appalachia,
Gambia, Bristol and the foothills of Wolverhampton and drawing on influences
collected in a lifetime of meander and journeying." Along-side Robert
Plant was be his semi-regular guitarist Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara from
Gambia, Justin's ritti - playing partner in their duo Juju.
My first outing
was at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, I wasn’t sure how “comfortable” Robert
would be playing this kind of venue, he seems to stick to smaller more intimate
venues or outdoor festivals these days, but it didn’t seem to phase him. His
voice was in excellent form, from the first note of Tin Pan Valley it was clear
he meant business and wasn’t here to just go through the motions. He challenged
the audience to play spot the tune as he moved thorough a fantastic set filled
with classics from his solo and Led Zeppelin career. The Set list seemed
incredibly well thought out not only playing to the strengths of Robert’s voice
but also showcasing the expertise of his very talented and diverse band. Heavier
songs like Black Dog, Four Sticks and Rock and Roll were reworked to become
something new and exciting while other more acoustic songs like Friends, Going
To California and Bron-Y-Aur Stomp were played pretty straight to the recorded
versions. The set was very energetic even in the more acoustic numbers, Robert
himself seemed to be excited to be playing and his voice didn’t miss a beat.
The second leg of the Robert Plant road trip was to the Byron Bay Blues Festival in the far Northern corner of New South Wales, The festival has been going for 24 years and is an institution for live Blues music in Australia. After the great gig at the entertainment centre, I was very excited to see Robert perform again and I lined up at the Mojo Stage nice and early to get a good spot. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because I got to see fantastic sets by Wilco, StatusQuo and The Blind Boys of Alabama. But 10pm soon rolled in and Robert graced the stage. It was great to see him perform his set up close and in a festival environment. As I had expected he seemed more relaxed and everything about the show seemed to fit better within a Blues Festival. The set list was more or less the same as the Entertainment Centre concert but Robert’s between the song banter had a real focus on the Blues, It really showed his reverence and respect for the music. He told us how he’d spent sometime talking about Delta Blues to legendary Harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite backstage before tonight’s show and also spoke of going to see Bukka White live in the UK as a Kid. I don’t know if it was the environment, or the spirit of the blues but two songs really stuck out tonight and they weren’t even Zeppelin numbers, the first was a cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s Spoonful, which was really heavy and the second which just torn the place down was a powerful cover of Funny In My Mind(I Believe I’m Fixin’ to Die) a Bukka White song that was played with such energy that it sounded like it was written yesterday as opposed to 75 years ago.
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