June 21, 2013. The Summer Solstice. Robert Plant & the Sensationall Space Shifters rocked the Bayou Music Center in Houston earlier tonight. I'll write about the show another time but here's the setlist for the Houston show. I'll post whatever I can as soon as possible. For now, I'll just say it was a great show and we had a great view.

First impressions from the concert last night... The sound quality and my view of the stage was not as good as the Houston show. The Shrine is a deceptively larger and more cavernous venue than its seating capacity (between 4,000-5,000) would suggest, and there were times when I felt the sound should have been louder...particularly Robert's vocals, which got buried in the mix on a couple occasions. The sound balance between the instruments was also off at times. So, sound quality-wise, Houston was better. Performance was still good, though...although again I think Houston was a notch above. The setlist was exactly the same as Houston with one exception...instead of "Angel Dance" they played "Another Tribe". A quick check of the internet shows that it's the same set they played at Austin, June 23. Whether this portends a permanent change in regards to Angel Dance being booted in favour of Another Tribe, time will tell. The crowd atmosphere was great...lots of freaky people getting their freak on amid the crowd. I think there was a sizable contingent of former consorts of the days of the Riot House and Rodney's English Disco. The crowd went apeshit over "Going to California" of course. But I think the Houston crowd sang along more and louder than the LA crowd. The opening act, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals made a good impression...she's got a great presence and rocked the shit out of her Flying V. Her drummer was good, too, and later they did one of the coolest drum solos I've ever seen and heard when the whole band joined the drummer on his kit. Everyone picked a part of the kit and started banging away. So I thought the opening band in LA was better than in Houston. But Denver has the best opening band of the entire tour: The Black Angels. If you're going to the Denver show, make sure you get there early. Sound problems aside, Robert was in great voice again, bringing out his "rock and roll voice" many times and treating the audience to some vintage, epic moans and howls and wails of yore. It appeared he was wearing similar, if not the same, clothes he wore at Houston. The highlights for me remained the same as from the Houston show: "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" getting the crowd into it immediately..."Tin Pan Valley" and the excellently psychedelic "Enchanter" showing the skill and chemistry between Skin and Justin...the trio of acoustic Zep gems, "Going to California", "Friends", and "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp"...the "Whole Lotta Love/Who Do You Love" closer, proving that that WLL riff is eternal. It's just such a Juggernaut of a riff...it will not be denied. You cannot resist banging your head and stomping your feet to that riff. Actually, I enjoyed the whole set..."Please Read the Letter" is really growing on me; it's much better in concert than on the studio album. "Spoonful" and "Fixing to Die" are great blues reworkings. And "In the Mood" is just a good upbeat tune and groove...it fits perfectly coming immediately after the opening "Babe...". I'll expand on these thoughts and more another time. It's back to work and the daily grind for me now. I'll leave you with a photo that I took so you can see the difference between my vantage points in LA and Houston.