I agree and was at the Seattle show in 1977. After seeing them a couple of times before, I thought 77 sucked, at the time I was there but that was based on their concerts prior to that. When I look at the film now, I can watch it where when I was there, I left my position in front of the stage and went and sat in back of the stage. Front up close, I still remember Page looking pale and sick. If you had seem them live around that time or before, trust me, it wasn't very good. This is one case where the film is better than being there and that is a first for me.

I agree. I was there and it was terrible. The most disappointing concert I have ever been to and I go to many. A 3 year wait to see them again and I was their early and was located right up next to the stage and it was just terrible. Completely lacked the chemistry and power of the 2 times I seen them before. It was so bad, I gave up my place and went and sat behind the stage until it was over. However, after saying that, the show in Seattle just a week before the "How the West was Won" shows, was the best concert by far that I have ever seen or heard. I love How the West was Won and it reminds me of the show the week before but it also reminds me of how much greater it was than the shows the following week. Absolutely phenomenal. It's just too bad the sound quality of the boots are so bad. When the band kicked in on the first tune, Immigrant Song, the air in the coliseum immediately became thicker and the sound was powerful and magical. I was blown away in the first few seconds literally and that has never happened again since then. I seen them again the next year in what has been called one of their better performances but I thought they began to slick up their sound a bit and they lost that huge bottom end power that you can hear beginning in 1969, as some have said. And like another poster mentioned earlier that seen them the same year in Tampa, the movie soundtrack, The Song Remains the Same was really disappointing after seeing them live that year. Watching it today is fun but I can still remember the difference in the performances in how it felt to me then. I don't think I finished watching the film when it first came out. Still, that 73 concert is better than most concerts I have seen of other bands since then and that should tell you how great they were in Seattle in 1972. I read someone say awhile back that they compared the Boston Tea Party show and the Seattle 72 show in a similar way as far as how great they were. Listening and watching the 2007 performance and hearing people say how great that was, not on this thread but elsewhere, they have no idea who Led Zeppelin was and how great they were and what youth and chemistry and power can do to sound and music. They will never know. Great to read the posts on here.