NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! In case I wasn't clear enough... NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! Leave that shit for Billy Joel, Elton John and Queen.

The very first Who concert I saw was @ the LA Forum in 1973...Thanksgiving weekend, I think...and I remember being somewhat disappointed. Sure, there were good moments, especially the opening few songs. But the Quadrophenia songs were hit and miss, and with all the song intros, the pace of the show dragged. Keith didn't look healthy and there were rumours going around the Forum that Moon had passed out at one of the shows and a fan played in his place, which I found ridiculous to believe. Could you see Bonham passing out and the band plucking a fan from the audience to play Dazed and Confused and The Song Remains the Same? Anyway, as a huge fan of Live at Leeds, I was expecting the Who to blow me away...but was not. Oh, I think Lynyrd Skynyrd opened...those Southern cats were pretty good. Keep an eye on them...they got a future.

Well, it looked like it might go 5...but Nadal just left Federer in the dust in that 4th set. Federer had great chances to win both the first two sets, but couldn't close the deal like he could in years past. Nadal now has 10 GS championships to Federer's record 16. Unless Federer can pick up a couple more on his more suitable surfaces at Wimbledon or the US Open, Nadal may pass Federer's record. Unless some young gun comes along to challenge Nadal.

FRENCH OPEN MENS FINAL: Federer vs. Nadal Looks like it's going to be a good one so far. ALLEZ FEDERER!!!

Regarding the pot, it was my dad who had let me try it a couple times, but only a puff or two. I NEVER smoked marijuana on my own at that age. And I didn't want to smoke any with my stoner uncle or at the concert, either. I was already naturally high enough from the excitement of going to a concert, that I didn't need or want any additional stimulant. Plus, as anyone who went to concerts in the 70's can tell you, there were certain concerts that you were gonna get a contact-high, no matter what...you could be Amish, you still would get high from the smoke around you. Especially at Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, and Black Sabbath gigs. I only smoked the pot later at the concert, after I'd been dosed unkowingly with lsd, in hopes the pot would take me down from my trip. As for my stepmom, I believe I mentioned in my first post, the Bonzo's Birthday Party one, that my parents were divorced. My stepmom, feeling overwhelmed (she never particularly cared for kids), and wanting me to still have a male role model in my life, signed me up for the Big Brother program, and I happened to get paired up with a cool dude who liked rock and roll and knew about the ins and outs of getting tickets; something he taught me as well. That is who BB refers to...sadly, I cannot recall his name, but for almost two years he was my best friend. I don't know if the Big Brother program is still around. If they are, maybe I can ask them to search their records for 1972-73, and find out his name. I'd like to thank him for all he did. Lastly, I realize a lot of this sounds crazy for a kid; I can't help that. It is what it is. I can't make you believe me. I've had enough experience reminiscing amongst a group of friends, or with people waiting in line at shows, to know that incredulous is the usual reaction. It seems most kids weren't allowed to go to concerts until they were 15-16. So, yeah...I was a lucky kid in some respects. But there were parts of my childhood I wouldn't wish on anybody. But I learned to take the good with the bad.

YEAH BABY! AWESOME GAME! GO CANUCKS! What a great OT goal!

GET IT NOW! DO NOT DEPRIVE YOURSELF ANY LONGER!

Yes, they were hip-huggers. Sorry about your grad night experience...lucky your bf was there to help. At least you got a picture...I don't have any pictures of my Zeppelin concerts. Resting my thumb for the third and final chapter. Oh, and I apologize for the formatting snafus...and for not being able post these on time on their correct anniversary date. I underestimated how much time it would take to write these posts.

Why the hell did the NHL schedule a 3 DAY BREAK! between games 1 and 2? That's insane. I'm sitting cooped up in the hospital, but at least I've got game 2 of the Stanley cup to look forward to...or so I thought. It was set up perfectly...Tuesday NBA game 1; Wednesday NHL game 1; Thursday NBA game 2; Friday NHL game 2... Only there was no game 2 dammit! Look, there is no excuse when there's no travel involved and you're in the same arena for the first two games, for game 1 to be on Wednesday and game 2 not until Saturday!!! NO EXCUSE!!!

Continued from the Bonzo's Birthday Party post... Seeing LED ZEPPELIN in 1973...Part 2 When last I left you, I was nodding off in my BB's car, my ears still ringing and my spirit singing, as we drove through the misty night, south on the San Diego FWY, known locally in shorthand as the 405. It must have been late, maybe around 1am, when I was woken up and I recognized my home as he pulled in the driveway. My stepmom had left the door unlocked for me, as she had long gone to bed, so I said goodnight to my BB and headed off to bed, as he drove off. While Silver Rider and Hotplant were partying it up at the Hyatt, I was trying to relive the show in dreamland. Surprisingly enough, I didn't have as hard a time getting up for school as I thought I would. Up at 7, dressed(in Hobie surf shorts and my Zeppelin 1973 US Tour t-shirt), breakfast consumed, and at my girlfriend's house in time to walk to school together. She wanted to know about the show immediately, her interest piqued even more now that she was going to be able to go see them Sunday night. Of course, I had to retell the story a few more times once I reached school and I would bump into friends or someone would notice my shirt. Not too many 10-11-year olds were allowed to go to rock concerts at my school. As I noted, there were a few others, but I didn't really hang out much with them. Even though I was into rock music, got to go to concerts, had a girlfriend, and had, thanks to my dad, even had a couple hits off a joint, I still considered myself a quiet, nerdy type. Yeah, I loved going to the beach and all that, but I was equally happy sitting in my room building model airplanes, cars or ships...I must have built my way through the entire Revell catalog. Many's the time I would exit my room four hours later, and my stepmom would notice my eyes were all red...I had gotten a glue-high. Another activity I enjoyed was reading...I could spend hours with a book. Things other kids, boys especially, enjoyed, like comic books, marbles, trading baseball cards, playing cowboys and indians, held no appeal to me. Plus, many of the boys at my school still thought girls had cooties and were more interested in antagonizing them than kissing them. In fact, one of the strange rituals going on in schools back then involved either "pantsing" someone(usually a girl) or giving someone a "wedgie"(usually a boy). For some reason, this was considered hilarious and fun. I didn't, which further caused me to feel like I didn't belong...I had very few friends in 5th grade, maybe 3 or 4, counting my GF. I got along great with most of my teachers, though, and got straight A's, which allowed me to keep going to concerts. But getting straight A's also tends to put other kids off, for some reason. You get lumped in with the geeks, or nerds. Fortunately I was tall for my age, so nobody bothered me. But just about every week, you'd hear about some poor kid who'd get a wedgie by the jock crowd, or a girl would be in the restroom and a group of boys would rush in and pull her pants down. If you went to school in the early 70's, you remember stuff like this. Of course, considering what goes on today, it seems quaint, but back then I thought it ridiculous and annoying. When it happened to my GF, I went into Clint Eastwood mode and took swift and immediate action. But, back to Friday, June 1, 1973: it's the last day of school and it's chaos as usual. But I did manage to chat with a couple of the other kids who went to the Zeppelin concert the night before. We compared pur experiences, all agreeing it was an awesome show. One of the kids was bummed though, because he had to leave after Stairway to Heaven because he had a curfew. Tough luck we said, but at least he got to see most of the show. But mainly, I just wanted to hang with my GF all day, as I wouldn't see her again until Sunday, as I was flying to San Francisco after school. Now, my being able to go to Led Zeppelin's Kezar Stadium show came down to fluke luck. It turns out there was a relative on my stepmom's side of the family, a cousin or uncle or something, who lived in San Francisco with his wife. I had only met him once or twice before, and I always got a weird vibe from him...he looked like Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider. Anyway, I guess my stepmom was talking to him on the phone one day and mentioned that I was going to the Zeppelin shows at the Forum. He said he had an extra ticket for the Kezar show and that we all should drive up for the weekend, and he would take me to the Kezar show on Saturday and we could then spend a few days in San Francisco. Unfortunately, being single, my stepmom had to work, and couldn't get that time off. So then, he suggested I fly up to SF for the show and then fly back down Sunday. My stepmom had to think about that idea for a while...I had flown on a plane before, but never alone. But once I heard about his suggestion, the idea of being able to see Led Zeppelin in San Francisco took root in my brain and started to grow. I began doing all I could to convince her that I could handle it...that flying on my own would be no problem. She would be seeing me off at the airport, and Uncle Pete would be meeting me in SF, so the only time I would be "alone" was during the flight, and the stewardesses could keep an eye on me. It took a couple weeks, but she finally agreed. Then Jimmy's injury and the subsequent change of the May 30 show to June 3 almost threw a monkey wrench in the works, but we figured it out. So, here's what the plan for the weekend was: Friday June 1: Fly out of Orange County Airport to San Francisco that night at 6...arrive around 7 or 7:30. Saturday June 2: Led Zeppelin @ Kezar Stadium...there were supposedly supporting bands, but I didn't know or care at that time. Sunday June 3: Fly back to Orange County Sunday afternoon, where my BB would meet me and we would pick up my GF and head straight to the Forum for the show. As for how we fixed the ticket situation, since originally he had gotten only 2 tix for both the Forum shows...once the first show was moved to Sunday June 3, that made it possible for my GF to go, but that meant we needed 3 tickets now. So my BB took our original tickets and went to this head shop that also sold tickets in Huntington Beach called Raspberry Roach. So for $30, plus our original 2 tickets, he got 3 tickets on the floor, 13th row from the stage. So after school Friday, me and my GF had one last quick makeout session, before I had to head home and pack for the airport. Since I was only going for a day or two, I didn't need much...a change of underwear and socks, toiletries, some magazines and books to read. Of course I was bringing my 73 Tour shirt...plus my burgandy red velvet bell-bottoms. Packed, and ready to go, and still not quite believing this was all happening, especially that she was trusting me with Uncle Pete, after dinner, we drove out to Orange County Airport...now called John Wayne Airport...near where the 405 and 55 freeways intersect. I was flying PSA...Pacific Southwest Airlines...who were local legends, known for their "Smiling" airplanes(yes, their planes were painted so that they literally looked as if they were smiling), and the friendly service from the stewardesses in hot pants and miniskirts, usually orange, purple and white. These were the days when flying was still fun, before stewardesses became flight attendants and they charged you for every peanut. Having flown before, and loving it...I couldn't wait to get on the plane and experience my first solo flight. No teary goodbye scene for me...after my flight number was called and we were allowed to board, once my stepmom was assured by the boarding gate attendant that a stewardess would keep an eye out for me, it was "see ya!" and I was hauling ass through the connecting tunnel ramp. Two beautiful stewardesses met me at the door of the plane, and pointed me towards my seat. Once in my seat, sadly on the aisle and not by the window, it was just a matter of waiting for takeoff. I LOVED takeoffs...the roar of the jets...the forces pulling you back in your seat...the way your heart and stomach flips as you slip the bonds of gravity and are airborne. Once up in the air, I picked up the book I brought, William Peter Blatty's "The Excorcist" and read most of the flight up to San Francisco. I did have one nice blonde stewardess named Judy, who was sweet and kept checking up on me...she even kept me flush in peanuts and coke, and even brought me a sandwich. When I told her I was flying up for the Led Zeppelin concert, she said she wished she could go but that she was on quick turnaround. She was planning on seeing them in Seattle in July, though, when she had some time off. Landing at San Francisco, it wasn't long before I spied Uncle Pete and his wife, whose name I can't remember...Merry or Margie, something like that. Driving from the airport, north to San Francisco, I couldn't keep from being excited. San Francisco still had a magic aura to me...this was where the flower child/hippie-scene sprouted, and also the city of "Bullitt" and "Dirty Harry". Rolling Stone was always full of stories about these amazing concerts at the Fillmore West and Winterland. I had already read that Led Zeppelin felt they had first really made it in America when they played San Francisco. So to see Led Zeppelin in San Francisco was almost too much to hope for...but here I was, in the City by the Bay. Alas, while San Francisco was different and much prettier than 1973-era Los Angeles, it also was different from 1966-67 San Francisco, as Hunter S. Thompson so memorably wrote in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. But, I didn't care about that...I was in the city they shot "The Streets of San Francisco", my favourite TV cop show at the time. We actually drove by Kezar Stadium on the way to my uncle's place, which was only a quarter-mile or so from the Stadium, which was in the south-east corner of Golden Gate Park, right up against the Haight-Ashbury District. As the sun was sinking low in the western sky, we could see people already camped out at the stadium for the concert. My 11-year old eyes widely took in the scene...WOW!, these people were willing to camp out and sleep in sleeping backs, blankets, or just on cardboard in the cold night, just to be first in line to get in tomorrow. I still don't think I knew what I was in for. After a fish and clam chowder and sourdough bread dinner at the Wharf, I was ready for bed. My uncle said there were 4 opening bands, he couldn't remember who, but said the show started at 2pm, and that Led Zeppelin would probably go on at 6pm. He said he would leave it up to me how much of the opening bands I wanted to see and therefore how early we would leave for the show. Since they lived close by, the plan was to walk the few blocks down to Haight, then walk the quarter-mile down Haight to where it ends at Golden Gate Park, turn left and then, there it is, Kezar Stadium. All I knew was that I didn't want to miss Led Zeppelin and I was tired. Upon returning to their place after dinner, I was shocked when my uncle and his wife lit a joint and began smoking. I knew my dad smoked, and had even let me sneak a puff or two. But my stepmom was not a smoker, so I assumed her relatives would be the same way...hmmm, I knew there was SOMETHING about him. They asked if I wanted a toke...I said "no thanks". They showed me where I was sleeping, and after saying goodnights, I went to sleep around 10pm. If I was going to make it through 4 opening bands AND Led Zeppelin, I wanted to get plenty of rest. I woke up at 10am the next morning, a full 12-hour sleep a rare thing in my life. As I just stretched and lazed around, I didn't hear anybody else up...it was still hours from the gates opening, and Zep not due to go on til 6...so I didn't feel rushed. But I was feeling thirsty, so I got up and padded softly to the kitchen to see if I could find some cereal and orange juice. I found orange juice, but no cereal...just granola. So I poured a glass of oj, and a bowl of granola and milk, and sat down to eat. Over the last couple of years I had developed a fondness for reading the morning paper over breakfast. Well, I didn't have the LA Times with me, but there was a stack of papers(and not just the rolling kind) on the table in the living room, so I grabbed some so I could have something to read while I ate my breakfast. It was shortly after this that I thought I heard music coming from far away...but it was faint and then it would stop. Maybe someone had their steteo really loud down the block. Then again, the music, or actually, it was mostly a singing voice I heard, would start up again, as if being borne aloft by the wind. Still, I didn't think much of it...just somebody's stereo down the street. This is live and let live San Francisco, after all. I had no idea how late my uncle and his wife stayed up, but I didn't want to be the one to wake them up. So I just sat quietly reading, while eating my breakfast. It was then that I saw a short blurb about the Led Zeppelin Kezar Stadium show in one of the papers I was reading. It said the supporting acts were Roy Harper, The Tubes, and Lee Michaels. No times were mentioned, just said Saturday afternoon. Well, I didn't know the Tubes or Lee Michaels, BUT I did recognize Roy Harper's name from the song on Led Zeppelin III. So I was kind of extra-excited that I would see the guy Zeppelin thought so much of, they named a song for him. I began to think about getting ready, and since they were still asleep, I might as well take a shower and get dressed...there was only one bathroom in the place. While in the shower, I thought I heard a loud noise, but couldn't be sure. But when I finished and turn off the water, it was unmistakable...you could definitely hear music...and not just a faint voice like earlier, but a rock band was definitely playing somewhere. Whether on someone's stereo or a stage was still unclear to me. As I got dressed, my uncle and wife were finally stirred from their slumber, presumably by the racket outside. As the wife sleepily came out to start making coffee, I asked her if the music woke her up. Yeah, a little she said. I asked if people "always played their stereos so loud here?" Often, especially on weekends she affirmed. It's like an open block party. I was dressed by now, and decided to go outside to see if I could determine where the party was. The very first guy I bump into out on the sidewalk, I ask him if he knows who's blasting the stereo, and he laughs and says, "kid, that ain't no stereo...that's the big concert over at Kezar!" I could feel the blood drain from my face and my heart leap into my throat....NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I bounded up the stairs back to my uncle's apartment and burst thru the door, breathlessly exclaiming "THE CONCERT'S STARTED!!!" After moments of confusion and chaos, my uncle located the tickets, but all the Ticketron tickets said was 11am. That's about when I first heard the music outside, I said. Obviously, we were late. It was now well after 12 noon, so the uncle and wife set about showering and getting dressed, while I vowed always to personally verify a concert's start time and not rely on other people; especially your stoner uncle. Dammit, I knew there was something off about him. While waiting for them to get ready, and all the while hearing echos of the music coming from Kezar outside, I browsed through the papers to kill time and try to calm myself. One of the papers was some counterculture-type weekly, and while going through the music section came across an ad for the two Kezar Stadium shows; one for the Grateful Dead that had already happened, and the other the Zeppelin show. At the bottom, it said gates open at 10am and that Led Zeppelin would go on at 2pm. Okay, there were 3 opening bands...one already had played, the second one was playing now, which meant that the third band would probably start around 1pm if Zeppelin was to start at 2pm. At that point, the opening acts meant nothing...all I was trying to calculate was the latest we could leave and still walk the half-mile or so to Kezar and make it by 2pm. I figured if we left by 1:30 we'd be in good shape...1:45pm and we'd have to walk fast. It was nearing 1 now. All I could do as wait. Miracle of miracles, we made it out by 1:30pm, cooler, bota bags, and blankets in tow. We made our way down Haight, and that is when I was confronted by the detritus of the drug-culture firsthand. These weren't kind-eyed flower children but burnt out street urchins...bums. But I had plenty of time to contemplate that later. I had a Zeppelin concert to get to! As we got closer, we could hear the music and the cheers of the crowd get louder. Suddenly, there it loomed...Kezar Stadium. It wasn't quite 2pm, but there was quite a long line of people waiting to get in. I sighed in resignation as we took our place in line. Our only hope is that the band went on late...I had been to a Rolling Stones show where they went on 2 hours late, so it was possible. While the lines moved incrementally forward, I noticed the crowds of people standing on top of the buildings surrounding Kezar, or leaning out of windows, getting a free show. The multicoloured, multihued hoardes around me also kept me entertained. It was truly a freak show of epic proportions. Briefly, I thought of the Altamont scenes in Gimme Shelter. But I didn't get a sense of danger yet. There were a couple of TV news trucks parked outside. The band that had been playing earlier was definitely off by now, as we could hear Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones and Little Feat music coming from the PA system. That meant Zeppelin would be next. I also noticed that it was hot, even though it was kind of hazy. Someone once said the coldest winter they ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Well, it wasn't cold this day. We finally made it to the gate after a half hour in line or so...whereupon there was some hassle over the cooler we were bringing...don't know if it was the glass bottles of juice or the wine or what...but we had to either take it back or just leave it. Since we were already there, we just left it, and headed into the Stadium. We handed the ticket-takers our tickets and I prayed that the taker would tear it cleanly. She did, and I placed it safely in my wallet. Once inside the Stadium, the full impact of what this show would be finally hit me. Up til now, the largest concert I had attended was Wattstax at the LA Coliseum, a 95,000 seat football stadium, where the USC, UCLA and LA Rams football teams played. It was also used for the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics. Wattstax drew around 100,000 or so, but because everyone was seated in the bleachers, with the stage in the middle of the field, it didn't feel that crowded...it was like being at a football game, but with better music. But the feeling at Kezar was different. Even though the crowd was half that of Wattstax, 50,000, it felt immense because the crowd filled the stands around the stadium and the field in front of the stage, creating this one unbroken mass of humanity. And oh, the humanity...by the time the day was over I would witness things you only heard about in movies or the news; some good, some depraved. But that's enough preamble, let's get to the show. It was close to 3 o'clock when we figured we better figure where to sit. The field was packed, and the sun would be setting in the west directly behind the stage, which meant if you stayed on the field you'd be looking directly into the sun. Not good. So we headed for the shady part of the south bleachers, and found a spot on the wooden benches big enough for the 3 of us. Once our seats were established, I wanted to get a coke...they had snuck in their bota bags, but they were filled with wine. It took 15 minutes to get a coke, and I was freaking out that Zeppelin would come on at any moment. 3:30 came and went with no Zeppelin yet. But I had my coke and had taken a piss, so I was sure I would be able to make it through the concert without having to leave my seat. As the tunes of the era...Santana, Allman Brothers, David Bowie...continued to flow from the PA system, and the 4 o'clock hour approached, I noticed 2 things: 1) The speaker stacks looked larger than the ones at Wattstax. 2. The stage was high...very high. I don't see how anyone in front could see a thing. Periodically through the show, you would see someone stand on someone's shoulders trying to reach the lip of the stage and pull themselves up for a peak. I guess all those people camped out overnight so they could be first to rush to the stage wasted their time. Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted as the house music stopped and I heard the crowd roar and the band made its way on stage. I can't remember if Bill Graham made the announcement or not. But there was a false start or two, while the sound was worked out. Finally, things were sorted out, and as Rock and Roll crashed thru the sound system, the show began proper. Once again, your first sensation is one of teeth-rattling loudness, and the general excitement of the band being on stage and the concert, after a long wait, finally being underway. It was weird that it was still daylight, this being a precursor to Graham's Day on the Green series of shows, and so you didn't have the dramatic transition from complete darkness to the bright lights that you had at the Forum. In fact, the impact of most of the dramatic lighting and staging effects(the violin bow segment, the smoke machine during No Quarter, no explosions during Whole Lotta Love) would be lessened or negated completely by the daylight hour of the show. This concert's success would be dependent on the music and the boy's personality alone. Fortunately they had both in spades. A quick sartorial review finds Robert in his signature look for 73: tight blue jeans and the tiny blue blouse, which he would not wear at any of the LA shows, but did wear at one of rhe 1972 LA- area shows. Jimmy is wearing a white suit, with the jacket buttoned, and his usual 1973 black and white loafers. Bonzo is in a coloured wife-beater with scarf. And Jones is wearing some dark shirt and trousers. After the first few songs, Jimmy removes the jacket to reveal a white long-sleave puffy shirt. Maybe not as puffy as the one from the Seinfeld episode, but it's an interesting look all the same. Rock and Roll flies by as people are rushing to get in their seats...several times, in fact, we have to make way for people finally getting to their seats in our row(we're on the aisle) during the first few songs. Again, I'm just blown away by the fact that I'm seeing Led Zeppelin in the flesh that time simultaneous stops and flies by...before I can get my wits about me Bonzo has started the drum solo heralding the end of Rock and Roll. Then Jimmy's fanfare rings in the beginning of Celebration Day. This song blew me away hearing it for the first time at the Forum on Bonzo's Birthday, so I welcome the chance to hear it again. Celebration Day does not disappoint...as Jimmy's frantic riffing and Robert's opening verse lead to that explosive moment when Jones and Bonzo blast into the song as Jimmy carves out that swinging, funky riff, the overwhelming awesomeness of this song blows you away. The live version of this song is so powerful, it blows the studio version away. With Bonham hammering away, and Jones laying down a bouncy bass line, while Jimmy struts and swaggers around the stage, and Robert delivers the strangely bipolar lyrics about being happy to join a band, while a woman has people breaking down her door that she's tried to reinforce with additional security...well, the song works it magic so well, you wonder why they didn't play it every tour. Less than 4 minutes and the song ends and just as quick, Jimmy and band kick off that lick from Bring It On Home...and just when people think it's the song, the band stops and Robert squeals "Hey hey mama, said the way you move...gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove", as the band executes that tricky serpentine riff with military precision. Yes, Percy and band have us grooving for sure, and as I scan around the sea of humanity, I see the hippie-dance is alive and well in San Francisco. Black Dog is such a sexual swagger of a song and Robert milks it for all its worth, thrusting and cocking his hips just so, drawing yelps from the femmes in the audience. And the ah-ah call and response turns into a shared orgasmic cry between Plant and the audience. Thankfully, Jimmy comes along to offer us a smoke via his smoking guitar solo. Finally, after the bang-bang-bang succession of the first three songs, there's a break and the crowd has a chance to cheer, as Robert delivers his greeting and the first Plantation of the day. Jimmy plays the opening part of Over the Hills and Far Away, doing a nice job of transferring the delicacy of the studio version's acoustic beginning to the electric guitar. OTHAFA signals to me the crucial heart of the 1973 show...the stretch from OTHAFA to Rain Song, which includes 4 new songs from Houses of the Holy, all of which sound better in concert than on record. When a band's new songs sound just as good and are as eagerly awaited by the audience as the old favourites, that's the sign of a band that is still creatively viable, and not just a nostalgic, jukebox band. As OTHAFA flowed into Misty Mountain Hop, the contraband was flowing freely among the audience around me. Misty is a totally San Francisco friendly song...its lyrics conjuring images of Golden Gate Park love-ins and be-ins. Pipes, bongs, joints, roach clips, all manner of smoking devices were in use at Kezar. Oh, and my uncle and wife were among the users. But I abstained, even though I had plenty of offers. Besides all the smoke going around, the air would periodically be filled with balloons, Frisbees, hats, shoes, and other items of clothing. Thanks to the sun and heat, I was getting thirsty. My coke was gone, but someone offered some orange juice, which I gladly accepted. Later, I would also take a swig of wine from my uncle's bota bag. Since I've Been Loving You followed immediately after Misty Mountain in its 1973 linkage form. This was the song that the San Franciscans who preferred the bluesy-Led Zeppelin really dug, as Jimmy sent his bent-note blues moans around Kezar Stadium. Even if Robert's voice wasn't at his 70-72 peak, the 1973 SIBLY's were extremely emotional and powerful. As the concert went on, I did notice another quirk about outdoor shows. While plenty loud, you didn't have the sound bouncing around the hall like you did indoor shows. Where the sound has nowhere to escape indoors, outdoors it just dissipates in the air. For that same reason, crowd noise at outdoor shows isn't as loud as indoor ones. The 18,000 at the Forum sounded just as loud, maybe even louder, as the 50,000 at Kezar. Also, at outdoor shows, the clarity of sound was at the mercy of the wind. The worse the wind, the worse the sound. Luckily, it wasn't that windy that June day...but being San Francisco, there were a few gusts here and there that messed with the sound. The band moved through its Holy trinity of No Quarter, TSRTS, and Rain Song, each one sounding amazing, although No Quarter seemed too short. All the 73 No Quarters were short compared to the 75 and 77 versions, but the Kezar one seemed barely 10 minutes. I think Jimmy forgot part of the solo. During Rain Song, I learned how quiet 50,000 people could be as Jonesy's Mellotron and Jimmy's gossamer-like guitar lines hypnotized the crowd to reverent silence. After holding their breath for 8 minutes the crowd erupts in a roaring ovation for one of the most beautiful songs in the Led Zeppelin canon. Unfortunately it is during Rain Song that I begin to feel something...but I'm not sure what. Dazed and Confused begins, as the sun is streaming thru the stage...they should have have had a backdrop to close off the rear of the stage from the sun. But then, all those VIP's and such that got to laze around in the bleachers behind the stage wouldn't have been able to see the band. Whatever...but thanks to the sun, the dramatic evil red lighting for Dazed and Confused is lost. By the violin bow segment, my skin is tingly, my head feels like it's vibrating...and not from the loud spund. I had been high from pot a couple times, and knew what a contact-high felt like, too. THIS did not feel like anything I had been through before. I mentioned this to my uncle, and he looked at my eyes, and said I might have been dosed...that it's possible I was having an acid trip. So whether someone dosed my coke when I wasn't looking, or it was that orange juice I drank, I apparently was now on my first acid trip. Meanwhile, Jimmy Page is summoning the hounds of hell again, as the coolest soundtrack to a horror film never used unfolds at the hands of his bow. The sound is seeping into my brain, as Jimmy starts shape-shifting before my eyes. Dazed and Confused, indeed. I have a decision to make...we can stay or we can go home, where my uncle says he an chill me out, if I want. Now, Led Zeppelin is my favourite band. Am I really going to wimp out and leave my favourite band early? My uncle and his wife have been enjoying the show so far, and I don't want them to have to miss the rest of the show. Besides, whether I was at the show or at the apartment, I was going to trip no matter what. I didn't feel sick sick, just funny, like my senses were going crazy. I knew enough from reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that if I just maintained my grip, that I would come through the other side okay. So I told them that I think I could manage and wanted to stay to the end of the show. By the end of the body and mind assault that is the 30-minute maelstrom of sound Dazed and Confused, my uncle's wife passes me a joint, saying it will help relax and take the edge off my trip. I don't know if it works, because everything becomes a blur...or more precisely, something out of Dali. Stairway to Heaven is playing, and my last clear memory of the day is of Jimmy Page levitating above the stage and fracturing into a 1000 doves. After that I alternated between holding my head in my hands or staring open-mouthed at the stage. I figured I just had to hold on for an hour more. But the rest of the show does not register in my memory with any clarity. According to the timeline, the rest of the setlist was the same as May 31 at the Forum...only Communication Breakdown was the first encore, then the Ocean. Once we got back to the apartment, they talked with me and tried to reassure me. A few more tokes, and the grass began to take affect...I got hungry. It was sometime between 7 and 8 when we got back according to my uncle. Finally after 4 hours of keeping me company, and feeding me soup and hot cocoa, I had come down enough to try to sleep around midnight. Sleep eventually came down. And sleep I did until around 12 noon the following day. Sunday, June 3. Upon waking up, I immediately vomited and then had to take the biggest poop I'd ever had to take. Side effects of acid trips, I was to learn later. Strangely, however, after that I felt like a million bucks. Just to be sure though, I was planning to sleep on the flight back to Orange County. Both my hosts were very apologetic and concerned about any after-effects. I assured them I felt fine, and that I didn't see any need to tell my stepmom/his sister. They pampered me the rest of my stay, and I asked about the end of the show, the part that I couldn't remember. They had washed my clothes while I was asleep, so now my yellow 1973 Zeppelin tour t-shirt was a little tighter...bit it was clean, so it was safe to wear to that night's Zeppelin show at the Forum, the final night of my Zeppelin Trifecta. Plus knowing that I had gutted out a concert while tripping my balls off, gave me a little insight into the strength of my consitution and my concert stamina. Which would come in handy in the future. A little after 4 in the afternoon, I was on a smilin' PSA, flying south to Orange County, where my BB and GF awaited to escort me to my third Led Zeppelin show of the week. I nodded off, visions of doves in my head. Note: Kezar Stadium, former home of the San Francisco 49'ers and Oakland Raiders NFL/AFL teams...the Stadium where Viking Jim Marshall picked up a fumble and ran the wrong way against the 49'ers...where Dirty Harry was filmed...THAT Kezar no longer exists. It was demolished and in its place a 10,000 capacity facility built, complete with a running track. to be continued...

Don't really devote a lot of time thinking of her one way or another. Not because I hate her, but mostly because I'm not part of her demographic so it would be foolish to expect her music to speak to me. That said, what I have heard, while obviously owing something to Madonna, it's not the worst dance music I've heard. And I get a kick out of the crazy costumes. Every generation of kids needs a pop princess and now that Madonna is too old for the part, there's nothing wrong with Lady Gaga taking over. Better her than Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus, IMO. Funnily enough, I went to Yoko Ono's concert for John Lennon last year and Lady Gaga came out and sang, and you see that she has a great voice. She's a better natural voice than Madonna...why she chooses to hide it behind that awful autotune is beyond me.

DID I JUST SEE THAT HAPPEN?!?! WHAT A COMEBACK BY DALLAS!!! YES!!! Great job at the end by Dirk...Go Dallas! On another note, watching the pregame events, two thoughts crossed my mind. 1. Watching that 10- year old girl sing the National Anthem, I was reminded of the saying, "children should be seen, not heard". 2. Miami's PA announcer is the WORST!!!

Thanks, Aqua You know, after I posted it and then actually saw just how long it was, THAT was my same reaction: I did that with a cellphone? When I was writing it, I couldn't really judge how big the post was, as on my cellphone, you only see what you're typing a few lines at a time. When at last I hit the post message button, I was hoping that it wasn't so large that the board would reject it...thanks, Sam, for letting it through. I just wish there was a way to get it to Evster, as judging from his profile page, he no longer visits the site. Everyone else, I appreciate your thoughts and am glad it triggered some of your own memories. Wow, if only I had been a few years older I might have thought of cruising by the Riot House and Rodney's English Disco and seen Silver Rider and HotPlant! As it was, at 11, I think I was still naive to the goings on at the Hyatt, or that there was even a place called Rodney's. Of course, that changed a few days later when there was a report in the paper about the band's shenanigans while in town. Then, when the September 1973 Creem came out, with Lisa Robinson's article about Led Zeppelin's 1973 tour, I learned more about the band's extracurricular exploits, and made a mental note to visit the Hyatt the next time Zeppelin toured LA. But that's for my 1975 post. In 1973, I just wanted to get home so I could get some sleep before having to get up early for school. Luckily, it was the last week so there was no homework due. Plus, I still had two more Zeppelin concerts to attend...I don't know if my writing was sufficient enough to convey the astounding impact a Led Zeppelin concert has on you...especially when you're a kid. Afterwards, you have this weird sensation of being simultaneously euphoric and exhausted. Your body feels like its been through a marathon while your spirit feels like its been flying with angels. You're in a state of happiness you never thought possible, while your senses feel like they survived a war. But I'm giving away spoilers...I purposely held back some stuff so I could use it in my next post about the 73 tour: Kezar Stadium, June 2 and the Forum, June 3. Which if all goes well, I will write tomorrow. No sense being coy any longer...I've been in the hospital since last Thursday. I have a blood clot in my leg. Don't worry, it's nothing life-threatening, as long as I take care of myself and stay on a Coumadin regimen. They're doing all sorts of tests. So that is why I'm posting via cellphone...it's my only link to my e-mails and the Zeppelin board. I've got an IV in one arm, which leaves the other for typing. And I kept getting interrupted all day Tuesday with visitors and having tests done, so that is why I wasn't able to complete and post it until Wednesday June 1. As for my memory, well fortunately I was sober at those shows, so my senses were clear and keen...well, at least until the contact-high took effect. I also kept journals and concert notes at that time...I would take a tiny notebook to concerts and write down the setlists and anything of note that happened. Although, to be honest, sometimes I would get so wrapped up in the concert that I would forget to keep notes. When the new school year started, I wrote about the Led Zeppelin shows as part of my "What did you do over the summer?" assignment. Then, there's the Bonzo's Birthday Party bootleg. I could remember Robert made note of Jimmy's injury and talked about him dipping his hand in water. But without the bootleg, I wouldn't have known exactly when he made his remarks, nor be able to quote his exact words. Anyway, thank you all for your praise...although I don't think my writing is that amazing. Thanks for riding the time machine with me. If all things go well, and my thumb sufficiently recovered, we'll take another trip tomorrow, June 3.

Note: I'm posting this via my left thumb on a cellphone keypad, so forgive any spelling or grammatical errors. It's been a while since I've posted a concert memory, so since today is John Henry Bonham's birthday, what better time to reflect on one of the memorable nights in Zeppelin's history...May 31, 1973 at the Fabulous Forum of Inglewood, colloquially known as the LA Forum. So, this post is in honour of the birthday boy, good ol' Bonzo. I'd also like to dedicate this post to our own Evan, or Evster, as he always gave me feedback on my posts and encouraged me to write more about my Zeppelin memories. Evan, I hope things are looking up for you and Angi. This one's for you. Now, the last time I strolled down memory lane, I had written about my experiences hearing Led Zeppelin for the first time in 1969(Dazed and Confused), and my ensuing efforts to acquire the first Led Zeppelin album and the subsequent impact that hunk of vinyl had on my 7- year old head. After more albums came out by the band, I was definitely a Zephead, and by the time of Led Zeppelin III, they were my favourite band. Yes, even over the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, who were kaput by this time anyway. As 1971 dawned, my single-most desire was to see Led Zeppelin in concert. Hell, I would've loved to see any concert...I had seen Montery Pop and Woodstock, and felt the buzz that courses through an audience. They looked like a ton of fun. I could also see that with certain bands, a song could become something else entirely in concert. Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" at Woodstock completely smokes the album version. And while I always considered the original Tommy album a flaccid affair, the Who's performance at Woodstock gives the Tommy songs heat and muscle. So I would spend countless hours listening to my Led Zeppelin I, II, and III albums, imagining in my feeble brain what a Led Zeppelin concert would be like...what songs would they play? How would they play them? What would they look like? Naturally, my parents put the kibosh on any such fantasies I might have entertained. No way were they letting me attend a rowdy rock concert...I was too young. Not only were they worried about the crowd element...this was post-Altamont remember...but they worried the sound would destroy my young ears. They said when I turned 10 in 1972, they would consider letting me go to a concert. So 1971 came and went, with Led Zeppelin stopping in LA for 2 Forum gigs. I begged and pleaded, to no avail. I sulked and summoned up my best sad puppy-dog eyes, but mom and pop did not budge. I had to wait until I was 10 and that was that. So the LA Forum on June 25, 1972 was the day I saw my first Led Zeppelin concert. I've already posted about that, I'm sure, so let's fast forward. The time is now May 1973; the place Costa Mesa, California, a beach city nestled between Huntington Beach and Newport Beach in Orange County. My parents were divorced, and I was a little surf- and skateboard-rat, whose weekends were usually spent with my next-door neighbor pedalling our Schwinn's down the Santa Ana River trail to either Huntington or Newport, depending on the wave action. And if the Wedge was pumping, LOOK OUT! Many's the time I tweaked my shoulder being planted in the sand by a Wedge-monster. With my parents being divorced, and my dad not being the best at remembering his visitation days, my stepmom signed me up for the Big Brother program in 1972. He was a cool, hippie-type dude, with an interest in amateur photography. And it was he who took me to my first concerts from 1972 to 1974, at which time my dad had remarried and regained custody of me. By 1973, besides the 1972 Led Zeppelin shows, I had seen the Rolling Stones & Stevie Wonder, Black Sabbath & Yes, Grateful Dead, Alice Cooper, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Frank Zappa, Deep Purple, Wattstax, Roberta Flack, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and Elvis Presley. So, while I was still a little green and naive about certain things, I was acquiring a bit of concert sophistication, learning to distinguish between good concerts and bad. That could mean the difference between effective and hackneyed staging, an engaged performance or one by rote, or "good" loud sound vs. "poor" loud sound. So, as you can see, my parents divorce aside, I was quite the happy little grommet in May 1973. 5th grade was winding down, and I would start Junior High that fall. Having discovered girls liked me once I got past my awkward shyness, I had my first real girlfriend. She had amazing breasts for her age(11), and with her willingness to explore, coupled with our readings of Nancy Friday's "My Secret Garden" that she nicked from her older sister, 1973 proved to be quite a year of discovery for me. But what did 1973 hold for Led Zeppelin? After a year of being overshadowed by the non-stop media blitz of the Rolling Stones 1972 American tour(the infamous STP tour), someone in the Zeppelin camp obviously decided enough was enough, and decided to pay attention to things like public relations and the media. Danny Goldberg and BP Fallon were brought into the fold and things began to pick up steam. Now you have remember as 1973 began, glam-rock, or glitter-rock was still around, but just barely. The bloom was already off the rose for T. Rex, but Bowie, Sweet and Rodney's English Disco were going strong. There was a lot of interest in reggae, thanks to Jimmy Cliff's The Harder They Come and Bob Marley. Elton John was huge, as were the Stones, who in early 73 were touring Australia after playing one of their best gigs in January at the Forum for the Nicaraguan Earthquake Benefit. Pink Floyd wasn't huge yet, but was about to be with the March release of Dark Side of the Moon. And while most of Zep's cohorts in the hard rock field...Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad...were either toast or showing signs of slippage, 1973 would bring a new crop of hard rockers to the fold: Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top. Others like Judas Priest, AC/DC, Rush, and Kiss were just around the corner. That is the world that Houses of the Holy arrived in when it finally, at long last, was released in late March of 1973...17 long months after the release of LZ IV. This was the longest gap between releases in their history so far, and while the band stayed busy touring all through 1972-73, the fact that LZ IV never topped the chart in the US created some questions among some in the music press about whether Led Zeppelin's time had passed and were ripe to be overtaken by the new wave of bands. Another historical aside: while LZ IV was their first album not to reach #1 in the US since LZ I, it still sold well and was no doubt popular. But at this point in the LZ timeline, it was LZ II, the Brown Bomber, that was universally acclaimed as LZ's most successful album, having knocked Abbey Road off the top and remaining on the charts for years. Another note: there remains no greater proof that Soundscan should've been implemented decades before it finally was in 1991, than in LZ IV's failure to reach #1 in the US Billboard chart. Obviously at this point any evidence would be anecdotal, but having talked with people whose job it was to report the numbers to Billboard every week, I remain convinced that a concerted effort was made by industry people to keep Carole King #1 and block LZ IV from reaching the top. If you look at all the albums that are in LZ IV's class, saleswise...Thriller, Back in Black, Eagles Best of..., Dark Side of the Moon, etc...LZ IV is the only one that didn't hit #1. Something does not compute. Anyway, back to Houses of the Holy. After such a long wait(thanks to the cover art delays), the album was like manna from heaven. First of all, those of us who saw the band in 1972, had already heard several of the new songs, all of which had killer riffs: Dancing Days, The Ocean and Over the Hills and Far Away. We didn't know the names of the songs when we heard them, but we knew they were hard and crunchy. What would the rest of the album sound like was on every Zeppelin fan's lips. The first couple of things you noticed right off the bat buying the album: 1) This was the first LZ record with an actual title-Houses of the Holy; 2) This was the first, and only, LZ record where all the song lyrics were printed on the sleeve...Robert must have been particular pleased with his efforts; 3) This record is the debut of the familiar Led Zeppelin font we've come to know and love...how many of us kids practiced writing it on our PeeChee folders or carved it into our school desks?; and 4) HoTH has one of the greatest covers and gatefold sleeves in history! More changes I noticed...a brighter, shimmier sound than usual...Robert's voice sounded sped up at times, like he was on helium. But the thing that I loved most about HotH was the ever-increasing sophistication of the arrangements and the eclecticism of the songs. Continuing their move beyond the standard blues-rock motifs, songs like No Quarter, TSRTS and the exquisite Rain Song are the resultant rewards for Stairway to Heaven's success. So whether you like Stairway or not, its acceptance gave the band confidence to further challenge their listeners with more eclectic and complex songs. Side one of HotH was just about perfect...TSRTS flowed so perfectly into Rain Song, you secretly hoped that the band would couple them in concert. I even loved their James Brown-pastiche, The Crunge, LZ's innate funkiness being one of the stellar qualities that separated them from the hairy hoardes. The only quibble I had with side one was I thought Jimmy could've done something more interesting with the solo in OTHAFA. A month with the album and I was already making mental notes of what songs I wanted to hear in concert: basically everything except D'yer M'ker. The album reached #1, and as the US tour started, right away you could sense the hysteria brewing. A huge crowd in Atlanta Braves Stadium, then the WHOPPER...breaking the Beatles record for largest audience for a single act in concert history. They had already knocked off the Beatles before when LZ dethroned them in the Melody Maker Poll after years of dominance. Now another Beatles record had fallen...and not to the Rolling Stones, not to the Who, not to the Kinks...but to Led Zeppelin. Which is partly the reason those other bands show such jealousy towards Zeppelin, I think. It was already becoming harder for the media, especially music media, to ignore Led Zeppelin. After another #1 record AND the 56,000 plus at Tampa, it was impossible. Not that good old Rolling Stone didn't try, Danny Goldberg's and BP Fallon's efforts notwithstanding. It would be still another 2 years before Zeppelin made the cover of Rolling Stone. But Creem, Circus, Hit Parader, and other mags had plenty of room for Zep...on the cover and inside their mags. It was a flash flood of coverage. I even remember a Sunday Calendar story in the LA Times the week before the LA Forum shows that was written by a young Cameron Crowe. Things were happening...buzz was building...all of a sudden, people wanted to check out this band who had broken the Beatles record. There's no way of telling, but I'm sure the 1973 tour had a high percentage of first-time fans, people new to the band and had never seen LZ in concert. My "Big Brother" had already taken care of things and gotten the tickets for both the LA Forum shows of May 30 and May 31. As the days approached, my stomach was doing loop-de-loops from excitement, nervousness, anticipation, dread. This was still in the crazy days of rock, when death and mishap and sudden band breakups were a regular occurance. Just let the band get to LA in one piece...and in peace, my 11-year old agnostic mind pleaded. There was one hitch in my happiness...because the shows were on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and school still in session, my girlfriend was not allowed by her parents to come to the show with me. To say she was pissed is an understatement of gargantuan proprtions. Ahhhh, but then came the fateful announcement on KMET, the best local FM rock station...94.7 FM on your radio dial. I can't be sure if I first heard the news on the 29th or 30th of May, but the impact was the same: Jimmy had had a mishap and the first LA Forum show was now moved to June 3. The May 31 show remained on, but some of us questioned if that wouldn't be rescheduled as well. If his hand was messed up enough to postpone the 30th, would he really be okay to play the 31st? My paranoia increased ten-fold, not helped by all the rumours floating around school, none of which are worth repeating. One report that did make the papers, although I can't remember if it was published the week of the Forum shows or came out long after the fact...it might've been in one of Lisa Robinson's reports. Maybe SteveAJones can find it in his archives. But the gist of the article was that Jimmy was walking on the beach in LA shortly after he fucked up his finger in San Diego, and some drunken idiot was calling him out, saying he sucked. When Jimmy went to confront the guy, Peter Grant screamed "No Jimmy! Your hand!" Now the one benefit to this injury postponement, was that now my GF could go to the rescheduled show on Sunday. YESSSS! May 31 dawned, sunny as usual and I still was thinking it was 50/50 the show would go on. I couldn't concentrate all day at school...I was an emotional mess, half expecting at any moment to hear the news that the gig was cancelled. I could tell the few other kids in my school who were going were also on pins and needles. The day DRAGGED ON AND ON...much like this post. We had arranged that my Big Brother would pick me up from school and we would make the long, slow drive up the 405 freeway to LA, where we would get some dinner at Bob's Big Boy before heading to the Forum at the intersection of Manchester and Prairie. When at last the 3pm bell rang, I was a blur to the parking lot, where I immediately and joyfully spotted my Big Brother's blue Chevy Malibu. He assured me upon tumbling into the car, that all reports confirmed that the Zeppelin show was still on. Cool! A deep long breath of relief escaped my lips...for the first time in days, I allowed myself to relax. In the back of my mind, I still wondered how well Jimmy would be able to play with a bum fretting finger...but hell, to my young mind they were all superhuman anyway...Jimmy will just play through the pain like the god he is! Then, my companion sprung the news that I should have realized before, and probably would've if I wasn't so distracted by Jimmy's injury: Today was John Bonham's birthday! I knew he was born in 1948, and after a quick calculation in my head, announced to my BB proudly, "Bonzo's 25!" Hokey Smokes, I'm going to see a Led Zeppelin concert on the day that one of the members is celebrating his birthday?!? Celebration Day INDEED! Tonight's show was going to be EPIC!!! I can't remember the rest of the ride, whether we got stuck in traffic or not, because my mind was busy doing mental gymnastics hypothesizing the forthcoming concert. I just remember jamming to Led Zeppelin cassettes all the way...LZ III, Houses of the Holy, he even had a cassette copy of Live on Blueberry Hill bootleg! I scarfed down my Bob's Big Boy double burger and root beer float, and the sun was shining on the right side of my face as we headed south on La Brea to Manchester. Make a left on Manchester, and it's only a few dipping-and-curving blocks past the scalpers lining Manchester until you come to Prairie...and THERE IT IS! The LA FORUM...or as it is more correctly called, the Forum of Inglewood. The Fabulous Forum of Laker and rock concert lore. It was nearly a year ago, June 1972, that we entered the Forum on the euphoric high of the LA Lakers finally winning their first NBA championship. Now in 1973, the Lakers defeat to the New York Knicks a few weeks earlier was still fresh in my mind...but not enough to worry about. Not with an evening with Led Zeppelin on tap. Past the familiar corner Forum marquee announcing LED ZEPPELIN Tonite 8:00 pm SOLD OUT, into the line of cars snaking their way into the parking lot, freaks and rockers of all kinds and colours, beautiful girls everywhere...and looming above it all, the familar Forum, coated in Forum blue with the white pillars circling around. Having not arrived early enough to check out the parking-lot scene at the 72 show, this time I was thrilled we got to roam around a bit. Incense, pot, grilled food, booze, the air was teeming with smells. Here and there you'd find someone surreptitiously selling bootleg shirts and posters. And the fans...I've always thought it a shame that photographers neglected shooting the fans when assigned to Led Zeppelin shows. You certainly don't have the wealth of crowd shots that you do with Stones and Beatles shows. Zeppelin concert crowds were just as colourful, especially in 1973, the peak of the freaky glitter scene. Right before everyone just wore concert t's and jeans to concerts. It's especially egregious that the film crew didn't get a lot of fan footage for The Song Remains the Same movie. After checking out the scene...my BB was a responsible adult, so there was no partaking of drugs or drink...we headed for the queue into the Forum as the clock headed towards the 8 o'clock hour. Okay, all those people who left paragraphs ago, bored beyond tears, you can come back now...the SHOW'S about to start! Once inside the Forum, we got our cokes, checked out the limited merch on offer...I ended up getting a 1973 tour shirt, probably around $3...definitely no more than $5. Unfortunately I wasn't forward-thinking enough to get an adult sized shirt for when I got older. I just got one I could wear to school the next day, and barely lasted the summer before it became misshapen in the wash and I outgrew it. Made our way to our seats in Loge 11, row 4 or 5, just off to the left of the stage. The house lights were still on and the PA was pumping out the tunes of the day. As people in all manner of dress, including some remarkable homemade costumes, filed into the Forum, I gazed at the Lakers championship banner from 1972 hanging on the wall high above the stage. The ticket stated showtime was 8pm, but I'd been to enough concerts to know that they rarely started on time, especially when there was no opening act, like at a Zeppelin show. I lost track of time people-watching...didn't even have a watch then...but my guess is that it was sometime between 8:30 and 9 when the house lights went down and the arena erupted in a cacaphony of screams and firecrackers and the flashes of cameras and bic lighters heralded the band on stage. Next thing I knew, the opening cymbal crashes signaled the beginning of Rock and Roll and as the band crashed into the song, the stage exploded in a blaze of lights and a huge wall of sound blasted forth from Showco's PA. Before I go into the show in detail, I want to offer some general impressions of Led Zeppelin, circa 1973. First, the visual: 1973 is the beginning of what I like to call the "classic" period of Led Zeppelin's concert look-1973-1977. Jimmy started wearing his black and white slip-on loafers and his clothes became more ornate. Robert began wearing his flowery blouse-type tops, baring his chest nightly, whereas from 1968-1972 he rarely bared his chest. Since I loved John Paul Jones's long hair look in 1972, I was sad to see he'd cut it in some awkward looking Prince Valiant hairdo. Even worse, he had a mustache, which didn't suit him at all. Bonzo looked cool, though...and his drum set looked even cooler. It was the Ludwig Vistalites, with his Rune symbol(or Ballantine's beer logo) on the face of his big bass drum. Still no drum riser, even though many bands by now had gone the drum riser route in concert. Jimmy had his amps arrayed in the usual L-shape, with the Orange amps at the end, and a Theremin off to the side. A big Zoso was mounted on the front of the corner amp. Tonight, Jimmy was wearing jeans and the black poppy jacket...basically, the same outfit he wore in 1972, except he changed the white sneakers for his black and white dress shoes. Maybe he felt he could dance easier in the dress shoes, for 1973 Jimmy was a mover on stage. Jimmy was always charismatic on stage, but when he jerked and shimmied, lunged and crunged like he did in 1973, no guitarist could touch him when it came to on-stage charisma. You simply COULD NOT TAKE YOUR EYES OFF HIM! Unless it was to ogle Robert Plant, with his amazing head of flowing, golden locks, and his unique way of moving on stage and his signature hand gestures. By this time, Jimmy and Robert had gotten their singular "dark, mercurial guitar wizard and golden god" personas down to a T. They were so in sync, that frequently their stage movements played off each other...meaning that viewed individually, each looked cool as fuck, but it was when you watched the stage in toto, and saw how their movements sparked off what the other was doing, that the full sexual chemistry of their visual appeal was made manifest. And I say this as a dyed-in-the-wool heterosexual. Led Zeppelin was the only male rock band of the time that aroused me sexually...not just from the music, but their look. Be honest, Robert and Jimmy were pretty. All the other bands, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep, et al, had guys that looked like your mechanic. Everybody knew a guy in wood shop class that looked like one of the hairy troglodytes populating rock bands of the early-70's. Even the Stones were looking long-in-the-tooth and less and less glamourous. Zeppelin on the other hand was one sexy band. Especially Robert and Jimmy...they didn't look human. They were too beautiful to be mere mortal men. They had to be descended from gods of myth, or an alien race. NOBODY in your shop class looked like Robert or Jimmy. They existed on a rarefied plane of beauty unreachable by most men. And boy, did the little girls understand! That's why Led Zeppelin concerts attracted more girls than all the other British hard rock bands combined. Next, the audio: Showco was in charge of the sound and lighting for the 1973 tour, and it was here that you could see that Zeppelin decided to step up their game as far as presentation goes. Up til now, Zeppelin concerts were always about the performance of the music first, with the staging and any special effects an afterthought...if it was a thought at all. But with the Stones, Elton John, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie bringing ever-increasing theatricality and sophisticated staging to the rock concert, I'm sure Zeppelin felt the time was right to bring the technical side of their show up to snuff. Out went the hodge-podge of speakers that made up their PA stacks in 1972, and in came the Showco boys from Texas, with their sound and lighting expertise. The difference was immediately apparent. The Forum could be a tough place to get good concert sound, especially compared to the other arenas used for concerts, the LA Sports Arena and the Long Beach Arena. But if a crew knew what they were doing, a band could still sound loud and good at the Forum. Zeppelin in 1973 sounded loud and awesome from where we were sitting. And Jimmy's guitar was astounding in 1973...the panoply of tonal colour and texture emanating from his amps had to be heard to be believed. I thought his guitar sounded amazing in 1972. On the 1973 tour, it was staggering the variety of sounds he coaxed out of his guitars. And the warmth...whatever settings he used on his amps and whatever effects, they should've marked them down in stone, to be used again from 1975-1980. Jimmy wasn't the only one who benefited from Showco...Robert's vocals were more consistent(I'm talking about how they sounded coming out of the PA, not whether he could reach the high notes of the past...we all know he couldn't), and he was getting expert at using the echoplex to great effect on his vocals. The rhythm section of Jones and Bonham sounded equally incredible, the fat round tones of Jonesy's Fender bass rattling your bones, while Bonzo's drums as usual sounded like cannon fire. But at these 1973 shows at the Forum, he had one of the most amazing snare sounds I've ever heard in concert. Throw in the dramatic lighting cues timed with the music, the smoke machine and dry-ice, the mirror ball and the gong of fire, it's tempting to say that the band was getting too showbiz at the expense of the music. But I never felt that was the case in 1973...it was the music you first noticed at a Zeppelin concert. The lighting and effects simply enhanced the drama and your enjoyment of the concert; provide a little eye-candy. They were still far from being beholden to their stage effects the way Pink Floyd were. And it would've been silly for them to pretend it was still 1969...it was 1973, people EXPECTED some flash at a rock concert. One note, I did not notice any mirrors behind the band, as seen at the MSG shows. Was this bit of staging only used on the second leg of the tour? Maybe it was a building code violation at the Forum? Another note: stage monitors. By 73, most bands used them and you were used to seeing those wedge-shaped speakers lined up facing the band on the lip of the stage. But not Zeppelin...and not just in 73, but I never saw stage monitors in 75 and 77, either. What gives...why no monitors? How could they hear each other? Any old crew hands out there that could give us the lowdown? Okay, on with the show... 1. Rock and Roll/Celebration Day...Frankly, the first two songs of any Zeppelin concert are a blur. I suppose if I had been older, more jaded, I might have noticed the tempo of Rock and Roll was sluggish and Robert was singing it in a lower tegister. But at age 11, my primary reaction to the concert starting was more along the lines of "OH SHIT! THERE THEY ARE! THEY'RE REALLY HERE.. THAT'S "ROCK AND ROLL"! LOOKIT JIMMY! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING! SHIT, IT'S LOUD AS HELL! HI ROBERT! OOOH MY CHEST! OOOH MY EARS! WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Before I know it, Celebration Day has started, and now I'm really jumping up-and-down. CD is one of my faves, and I also was trying to keep a mental track of how many different songs they played compared to the 72 setlist. Here we were on the second song of the night and we already had a different song...and a good one at that. CD smokes in concert...it's such a great riff. And it's over much too quickly. Just when I think CD is ending and I'm getting ready to clap, the riff from Bring it on Home starts...no wait, it's 3. Black Dog...the band means business on this tour. Everything has been streamlined for maximum frontal assault. Shorter breaks between songs, less tuning on stage, just bam-bam-bam! After misadventures with the lyrics in 1971-72, Robert seems to have finally gotten a handle on the lyrics in 1973. The crowd goes bonkers at the ah-ah ah-ah call-and-response part, and Jimmy's solo brings the song to a crashing end. Finally, there's a break in the music and we get to cheer and welcome the band, as well as get our first Plantation of the night. Good evenings are said, and I believe the first reference to Bonzo's birthday is made by Plant...the first of many through the night. 4. Over the Hills and Far Away...I am finally able to calm myself down from my euphoria to take note of what is going on and pay attention to what is happening on stage and around me. I see that in my hysteric state during the opening numbers, my cup of coke has become totally mangled, most of the contents ending up spilled on the floor. As the plaintive opening chords to OTHAFA chime out, and the level of crowd noise finally dips during this serene moment, I start noticing that unique, pungent smell of the sweet leaf...Marijuana is in the house. The venue begins to fill with hazy drifts of smoke. You didn't have to smoke a joint yourself...stick around long enough and you'd get a contact-high. Robert begins singing the opening "Hey lady" lines, and he is really playing to the crowd, particularly the fairer sex. Random squeals of female desire erupt throughout the Forum, but whenever Robert locks eyes with a lass near the stage, the brief exchange of sexual heat, energy and desire is electric. It's a friggin pastoral love fest...until the rest of the boys KICK OFF THAT RIFF and the song becomes a locomotive! I do notice that Plant is singing the song lower, not only than the record, but lower than he sang it at the Forum last year. But it doesn't ruin the song for me; besides Jimmy more than makes up for it with his solo, which is way better than the one on record. While not yet at the spacey heights of the 75 and 77 OTHAFA, it sounds good nonetheless, and you can see why it almost instantly became a crowd favourite, never leaving the setlist until the 1980 tour. OTHAFA is also one of those songs that leave you shaking your head in wonder at how Jimmy is able to coax such a wide variety of sounds from his Les Paul(cherry red in this case), with such minimal effects. By 1973, lots of guitarists were beginning to amass an array of stomp boxes, foot switches, wahwah pedals, and other gizmos, so that there was a huge line of effects gadgets in front of their feet. I looked hard, very hard at what Jimmy was using, and I could only see 2 visible pieces of gear he was using: 1) a wahwah pedal; and 2) a button or switch that he would tap with his foot...it looked like the kind of buzzers or bells you see at hotel/motel desks. That's it...any other effect must have been triggered offstage, maybe by someone at the Soundboard, or came from his amp. After the song, a switch of gear as Jimmy gets his usual Les Paul and Jonesy takes a seat at his Fender Rhodes. Already a veteran of two Zep concerts, I think I'm pretty smart and start shouting to my companion that they're gonna do Since I've Been Loving You! But Plant is doing a speil while everyone changes gear, and he's talking about walking in the park and getting hassled by the cops...hmmm, that doesn't sound like SIBLY. It sounds more like.... 5. Misty Mountain Hop...WOW! Wasn't expecting this but I LOVE IT! And it's another song different from 72! As Jimmy's guitar fuses with Jonesy's funky Fender Rhodes, while Bonzo propells the song with his gargantuan beat, the crowd cannot help but get swept up into its MASSIVE GROOVE! I look around and the vibe in the place is skyhigh. People are bopping along with eyes alight and smiles creasing their faces. This is a great concert song! I don't understand why some people hate it. It's even got some of Plant's most amusing, descriptive, and clever lyrics. And tonight, on May 31, 1973, the birthday boy is driving the song like mad, coming up with fill after fill. Then, after the final verse, Jimmy hits a switch and his guitar, already loud, sounds ten times more massive as he slashes and burns those chords through the end of the song...hey, just how is this song gonna end? Just as I begin to ponder, the rest of the band STOPS...leaving Jimmy to furiously burn up the fretboard in a seismic avalanche of notes leading to his 3-note cue to Bonzo and Jones to begin... 6. Since I've Been Loving You...Oh YEAH, now we're talking! And see, I was right...they WERE going to play SIBLY...eventually. SIBLY had long established itself as a concert favourite, joining the ranks of Dazed and Confused and the Whole Lotta Love medley, and the more recent Stairway to Heaven. It is during SIBLY that you notice two things...1) Jimmy can not only make his guitar talk, but make it cry its soul out; and 2) How Jimmy and Robert parry and thrust together...each egging the other on either musically or physically. It's like watching a pas de deux. The whole song is a slow burn of intense sexiness...until it explodes into hypnotic madness right after the guitar solo, when Jimmy launches into those repeating arpeggios, until the room starts to swirl as Jimmy tightens the noose ever tighter as those arpeggios wrap around your head and Plant is wailing about some back-door man...oh man, I don't think I can take it much longer. Finally, just as the craziness reaches its peak, the band swings into the chorus and Plant releases the pressure with one more scream. By the end of the song, you are wrung out. SIBLY is 8 minutes of intense musical drama. It earns a well-deserved ovation from "the ocean". But I'm so exhausted I'm hoping they do their acoustic set now. The two times I saw them in 72, they did an acoustic set. And the only Led Zeppelin bootleg albums I owned at that time, Blueberry Hill and Going to California, had acoustic songs. So coming into the 1973 shows, I expected an acoustic set at some point, and right about now would be perfect as after SIBLY I was exhausted and just wanted to sit and chill for a bit. Well, I didn't see any acoustic guitars being set up...and Jones was still at his keyboard perch. Jimmy had his Les Paul...hmmm, what could be next? 7. No Quarter...as the lights dimmed, with just a light on Jones as he struck the opening notes to No Quarter, I practically swallowed my tongue in anticipation. THIS was one of the Holy songs that I wanted to hear and they were playing it right now! Plus, it allowed me to sit down and regroup. Eerie fog was pouring off the stage, much to the delight of the audience. Maybe it's a cliche now, but it was effective back then. I found myself wondering what it was like to be in the first few rows with that dry-ice coming in your face. Then Jimmy stomped on his Cry-baby Wah-wah, and those massive riffs filled the room as the lights gave the waist-high fog shrouding the stage a colourful glow. Right away, you noticed that No Quarter in concert was a different beast than the studio version...heavier, darker. EPIC. When the band got to the jam, and Bonham and Jones layed down that groove, whilst Jimmy solod spectacularly over it, you found yourself just carried away, lost in the music...just grooving. A feeling I never experienced with the plebeian likes of Black Sabbath, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple, Black Oak Arkansas, Ten Years After. Another rousing cheer from the crowd greets the band after the song as I'm momentarily distracted by some fight going on between two girls...I don't know what they're beefing about. But security comes and things are sorted out. By the time my attention is back on stage, Jimmy has strapped on his red double-neck. NO WAY...STAIRWAY already? Nope, it can't be as Robert is talking about the new album. YES! I think it's going to be... 8. The Song Remains the Same...HELL YEAH!!! Time to get up and boogie as the Forum EXPLODES in a kaleidoscope of sound, as Jimmy trips the light fantastic with his double-neck. The sight of skinny Jimmy, bopping along the stage with that huge guitar, 12-strings chiming every which way, is a sight and sound to behold. At times, it literally sounds like he's playing 3 guitars. TSRTS is a rampaging gallop of a song...I find it incredible the band never gets lost in the song. You could tell that the crowd took an instant liking to the song. Joints and beers were raised in tribute, a man threw his hat in the air...I think I even saw a bota bag go whizzing by. Oh yeah, this song would definitely be in the setlist for good. As the song rushed pell-mell to its conclusion, I thought back to when I listened to the HOTH record, and hoped the band would play both TSRTS and Rain Song in sequence, as I thought they paired together nicely. Hmmm, would they? Jimmy had his doubleneck...he could surely use that for Rain Song. But Jones was playing bass. He would need to switch to the Mellotron. I began to doubt it would happen. And as Robert's final fading scream signaled the end of TSRTS and I readied to clap and cheer, the lights turned to blue and Jimmy plucked out the opening notes to... 9. Rain Song...YES!!! The night just keeps getting better and better. And it's like the band is reading my mind, playing TSRTS and Rain Song back-to-back. Rain Song is just...BEAUTIFUL! Gorge-osity! Pastoral Splendor. When Jones comes in on mellotron, it is otherworldly. I know mellotrons were a pain to take on the road and keep in tune, but to me, no modern synthesizer or sampling keyboard can replace the mellotron. Rain Song is so beautiful, so calm and peaceful, I can really sit down and rest for the first time tonight. I know from 72, that Zeppelin shows last up to 3 hour, and we're only up to one hour so far...I've gotta pace myself so I don't crash and burn before the end. The contact high I'm getting isn't helping. The blue lights give the wisps of pot and hash smoke in the air a horror-movie feel. And I'm starting to get the munchies. But I'm not missing a minute of this enchanting song...for that is what Rain Song is: ENCHANTMENT! Hey, after Rain Song is over would be a good time for the acoustic set...and it takes several minutes to set up the stage and guitars...me and my BB could use that time to take a quick pit-stop. A restroom break and then grab a hotdog or some candy and a coke, then back to our seats, hopefully not missing any songs. Well, Rain Song comes to its rousing conclusion and a thunderous roar fills the Forum. The total effect of hearing 3 new HotH songs back-to-back-to-back overwhelms us, and we are moved to a standing ovation complete with flicked Bics in tribute. But still no sign of any acoustic guitars. 10. Dazed and Confused...Well, I'm definitely NOT missing a moment of THIS! Our pit stop wil have to wait. For as the descending notes of doom sound from Jonesy's skull-rattling bass, an expectant roar comes from the crowd. The Zep veterans KNOW what this song means...and the newbies have HEARD about the craziness...about the BOW! There's that moment on the Bonzo's Birthday Party bootleg, when during the opening moments of D & C, you hear a guy say "It's enough to blow anybody's mind!" Well, that is what Dazed and Confused is in 1973...30 minutes of BLOWING YOUR FUCKING MIND!!! Everything from the sound to the sheer dramatic lighting to the performance of the boys themselves is geared towards one thing: Blowing your mind! Yeah, I'm not moving from my seat. By 73, the leadup to the bow segment has been finally set, with the addition of the "San Francisco" interlude very effective with Plant spraying his echoplexed moans eerily around the room. Of course, the bow segment is spectacular and Jimmy drives the crowd nuts with his taunting with his bow. As he whips his guitar in orgasmic frenzy, you could sense the sexual energy surge in the place...you wonder if some members were wishing they could be the recipient of such a thrashing. The bow segment is equal parts music and conjuring the howls of demon-dogs from hell. With the new improved lighting and smoke effects(no lasers yet), its total effect is one of complete mesmerization. By turns haunting, spookily beautiful, creepy, frenzied...it truly leaves you DAZED. And it cemented Jimmy's rep as a guitar wizard in stone. Looking around the faces of the crowd, you saw people stunned in disbelief at what they were seeing and hearing. And there was still the fast jam part to come. The initial flurry and call-and-response with Plant, the funky interlude, the stop and starts, the Mars-Bringer of War bit. All of it delivered at breathtaking speed and with blood, sweat and fury. Lots and lots of sweat. As Jimmy and Robert whirled about the stage, every time Jimmy whipped his head, you could see sweat flying off his hair. I was trying to think what other bands could do this...play at such white-heat intensity for 30 minutes? The Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead certainly had jams that lasted 30 minutes or more, but they usually weren't at the pace of D & C. More crucially, those bands had 2 guitarists, meaning one could take a break every now and then, and let the other guy take a few bars. Jimmy was alone...he had to carry the entire song. And especially tonight, when he was wounded. I kept looking to see if he had a special wrap or bandaid on his left hand, but I didn't see anything. He did go off to the side near his amps a few times between songs. More important and impressive was the fact that his playing showed no effects of the injury...it remained spectacular! It was a sight to see and one I will never forget. After D & C, and Jimmy took a few well-deserved bows from the ecstatic audience, I began to think we weren't going to get an acoustic set after all. And when Jimmy again put on his double neck, I felt for sure we were getting Stairway, which had to mean the concert was getting closer to the end. 11. Stairway to Heaven...after a quick dedication to Bonzo?, Jimmy plays one of the most recognizable song intros ever, and a great hue-and-cry goes up and the Forum is aglow once again with lighted Bics. Stairway is Stairway...Plant makes a "laughter" remark and by 1973, the solo has really taken shape, divided into two parts. At the end of the song, cue the giant mirror ball with the spotlight hitting it, sending thousands of shafts of shimmering light whirling around the arena. Add to this thousands of Bics held aloft in tribute, and it was quite a sight. But before long, Robert was saluting the birthday boy and that meant one thing... 12. Moby Dick...Bonzo's drum solo. As first Robert, then Jimmy and Jonesy, left the stage, I settled back for what I knew would be at least 20 minutes of drums. By then, I had already grown weary of drum solos, which in less-skilled hands became bore-a-thons. But since it was Bonzo AND it was his BIRTHDAY, I didn't mind watching this one. As I stayed, my BB went to get us more snacks, as the contact-high munchies I had acquired since Rain Song had exacerbated to a full-on hunger attack. Fortunately, my need to piss had dissipated...I guess because of all the excitement. Drums, drums and more drums...some hit with sticks, some with his bare hands. And they were LOUD. My ears were already ringing...now it felt like a jackhammer was hammering away at my chest and head. Then there was the sight of Bonham's head and arms flailing away at often incredible speeds, while his hair flew and every so often he'd snarl and roar. Throw in the light show, with the lights bouncing off his orange coloured Vistalights creating interesting effects, and the total effect was one of total sensory overload. Oh, and he added a new wrinkle for 1973, tympani with flangers...which actually sounded pretty cool. After it was over, it only seemed natural to sing "Happy Birthday" to Bonzo, so with Robert leading the way, 18,000 sang Happy Birthday to John Henry Bonham. 25 years old. Before anyone could catch their breath, Bonham launched into an unfamiliar beat...was he just fooling around or was this a song? The answer came as soon as Jimmy swaggered in... 13. Heartbreaker...Did I say swagger? I meant SWAGGER! For when Jimmy came in with his familiar strutting riff, it was with a sound and tone that was incredible. It SNARLED! It GROWLED! It was OUT FOR BLOOD! Top that off with the sight of Jimmy strutting and staggering sexily across the stage...well, like I said before, this band oozes sex like no other. And really, Jimmy's 1973 guitar rig should be in some guitar hall of fame as one of the most amazing sounds of all time. However, the fast solo, while okay, didn't seem to possess the careening wildness of earlier Heartbreakers. And then they chopped off the end of the song, for right when the solo ends, instead of Robert going into the last verse, Bonzo does a choppy fill, then... 14. Whole Lotta Love...the band lurches into their big radio hit, and the long acknowledged set closer. Because of the sudden beginning, it takes a while before the band finds its footing. One treat you get with this song, is you get to see Jimmy, the Silent Man, sing along with Robert during the chorus. By the theremin interlude, the band has found its footing, and worked its way into a groove. Which brings me to another quality that separated Led Zeppelin from countless other hard rock and metal bands...its ability and willingness to get down and funky. Led Zeppelin had a way with a groove that was uncanny...and it often revealed itself most often during Whole Lotta Love. More than other hard rock bands, you'd see blacks and latinos at Led Zeppelin gigs. After the bow solo, the most mesmerizing sight at a Zeppelin show was watching Jimmy work the Theremin. You'd get a small taste during No Quarter, but it was WLL where you got the whole wizardry, with Jimmy throwing crazy shapes while Plant did battle with his moans of love. It was amazing to hear and hypnotic to watch...and you couldn't stop dancing because Bonham and Jones were laying down a serious groove! God, I LOVE THIS BAND! After the guitar solo...sounding almost note-for-note perfect to the album version...and the last verse, it's time for another Zeppelin concert favourite: the Boogie Mama medley! The Boogie Mamas in 1973 sound really sweet...again Jimmy's 1973 guitar sound gives it that extra oomph. But just when you're expecting a fun oldies medley like in 72, Robert comes in with the "woman, woman, woman" refrain, and it's back to WLL, long before anyone expected. But the band has a trick up its sleeve. As Robert goes into that long "Looooooove" and the band crashes into the WLL riff, giant flashpots explode behind the stage, sending balls of fire and smoke upwards. I believe this was the first tour where Led Zeppelin had used explosives, and it caught all of us by surprise. Then, as if that wasn't enough, at the end, during the final crescendo, Bonham calls forth the fire gods with his Gong of Fire. We are all going nuts...the audience is in sheer pandemonium at this point. Robert says good night and the band bow and wave goodbye...but we all know they'll be back. This audience will riot if they don't get an encore. And with the memory of the 4 encores they did in 72 fresh in some of our heads, we might not even be happy with one. Minutes go by and after much clapping and stomping, the band returns to the stage as the crowd hails its conquering heroes. Robert pays tribute to the crowd and to Jimmy, remarking for the first time about his finger injury. He says Jimmy has been soaking his hand in cold water...aha, that is what Jimmy was doing when I saw him going off to the side. "When he was doing that bit in Heartbreaker...if you could have felt what he felt...". Atta-boy Jimmy...way to play through the pain! Then, surprise-surprise, Bonzo goes into the spoken-word intro to... Encore 1: 15. The Ocean...dah dah dah-de-dah....as Jimmy launches into that riff, the place explodes with energy. This is a fun song, and the band seem to enjoy playing it. I really don't understand why they didn't play it more often. This is another HotH song, and I realize that they played almost the entire album. Another thing I notice is that the Holy songs all sound better in concert than the recorded versions. For all the bitching about its eclecticism and production, Houses of the Holy provided Zeppelin with many concert standards. The Ocean is over much too quickly and the band says good night again. But they return for one more....I'm hoping it's Thank You. But it's not. Instead Jimmy cranks the Les Paul up one more time for... Encore 2: 16. Communication Breakdown...another pile-driving riff. And another song that sounds way better in concert than on record. People are headbanging like crazy. I summon every last bit of energy I can from my weary 11-year old body to indulge in one last carefree blast of headbanging. Throw in a funky bit at the end, and I'm watching Jones and Bonham laugh together as they're feeling the groove. All you can think of at such a moment is how cool it must be to play in Led Zeppelin. It would be like being a member of the coolest boy's club in the world. With Communication Breakdown over and the band, once again, taking bows and saying goodnight, we held out hope for another encore. But shortly after that, the house lights were raised and it was obvious that was it. It must have been around 11:30pm. Either way, I was in a euphoric state...and really, with Jimmy's finger, I don't blame them for not playing as long as they had previously. Two hours is a lot to ask for with an injured finger, let alone three hours. Led Zeppelin had just played around 2 and one-half hours. As we made the long, slow trek to BB's car, and out of the parking lot, I tried to stave off the sleep that was beginning to come over me. I thought about the 1973 Tour shirt that I was going to wear to the last day of school the next day. Yeah, I was gonna show it off with pride! As I leaned my head against the car window, and watched the city lights and car lights whiz by in the dark night, one final thought reaffirmed itself in my mind, as I let sleep overtake me. I had just seen THE BEST DAMN BAND ON THE PLANET! And I was going to get to see them again...and, this time with my girlfriend. Up ahead: San Francisco and the second LA Forum show. To be continued...

DAMMIT. Thanks to a recent snafu, I had to miss this. I also missed it last year when it played the Pantages Theatre. Curses.

Yes, bi-coastal series tend to last longer, unless there's a clear superiority of one team over the other. I like Vancouver in 6 or 7 games.

I don't know...for me, it may have been a simple case of Catholic school girls were usually Catholic; which meant they were usually Irish; which meant there were quite a number of redheads. And I love redheads...am completely GONZO over redheads. Always have, always will. Still there was that skirt...that Catholic school girl skirt made everything hotter. You could put one on Janet Reno...

New England has some good brew...but they don't have anything better than a fine Scottish Ale. GO CANUCKS! And bring back the Winnipeg JETS!

Catholic School Girls Rule! It was those damn plaid, pleated skirts...and the way some of the girls would "alter" their uniform to show more skin.

The NBA is in my DNA. That's what happens when you've been a LA Laker fan since 1969. I had to go through many years of suffering before the glory days of Magic's Showtime teams and the Phil Jackson era. Electro, your locale is more a college basketball hotbed I think. No NBA tradition to speak of, so your antipathy is understandable. But even with the Lakers out, I will still watch the Finals this week...hopefully Dallas can take Miami out. I don't know, still have reservations about Dallas defense.

Put a on my face, too. Love your wall-of-Zep...reminds me of one I had. And whenever I see photos of Jimmy in that home-made sweater, I chuckle. The fan must have thought he was a child, as it is way too short for Jimmy. Props to Jimmy for still wearing the sweater.

Watching Lady Gaga on Good Morning America right now. I have a friend who went to NYC for the Book Expo, and he scored tickets to the Lady Gaga gig at Central Park this morning, part of which they're showing on ABC's Good Morning America show.

Big Bill Broonzy and Rory Gallagher need to be higher...much higher. And yes, if you're going to have Eric Clapton, SRV, and Billy Gibbons on the list, then you'd damn well better have Jimi Hendrix, too. And where's Robin Trower? I'd put him on before Gary Moore and Snowy White. But what really irks me is that there is no citation of where this came from. I hate posters that post uncredited lists...hell, uncredited anything. Sorry to be so anal, but it's a pet peeve of mine. So is this list from some blues magazine, a music blog, or made up by the poster himself?

Yay! I did better than I thought I would since I don't consider myself an obsessive. 19/20. I got #16 wrong...I put Olympic studios as my answer. The average score seems to be 9/20, so Lëah, you and I have some crowing to do. :chickendance:

Right on KB...back at ya! Go Bruins.