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Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience (Tour)


SteveAJones

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The Dallas Show:

The Musicianship was very good ! :piano:

One of the Highlights for me personally was the band's performance of "Thank You". Also "WTLB" and "WLL" were standouts.

The main thing that could be improved upon, is the Volume.... The sound was mixed well, but.... it all needs to be more than Loud.... this is Led Zeppelin music, and the volume needs to be L-O-U-D !

I have played Zeppelin music in my car and listened with a relative volume louder than what was presented last night in Dallas. I'm not asking for extreme volume, but really, it could and should be louder, by a few decibels.

If not, then, I feel I and the music of Zeppelin is being cheated.

The band did perform and play well, and, one wants to hear well performed Rock music, LOUD ! :D

Edited by The Rover
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My turn is almost here!! :yay:

If anyone happens to be going to the Riverside show this Sunday, I will be meeting friends for dinner and drinks around

5:00 at the Las Campanas restaurant at the Mission Inn about a block away from the theatre. There is a real nice outdoor courtyard for dining but it looks like there might be rain so we may be dining in the lounge.

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I agree with the Rover that the Dallas show was very well-performed (excellent singer, especially) but could have been louder--I was right at the front, and by rights I should still be deaf! :D The highlight for me was Moby Dick, and Thank You with the accompanying film clips was wonderful. It's interesting how it's when playing his dad's music that Jason seems to be coming into his own as a drummer.

Apologies if I've repeated what others have said earlier--I deliberately didn't read this thread before going to the show.

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Here's my review of the shows I saw.

What the hell, thought I'd try my hand at concert reviews!

http://bluebirdrevie...ence-2010-.html

Nice review ! I must say that if nothing else, this tour is giving people who never had the opportunity to see Zeppelin or any of the individual members solo work, a chance to finally see and hear the music live. Believe it or not, there are plenty out there who are big fans of Zeppelin who haven't ! Between the three shows that I have tickets for, there will be 4 people attending who fit that catagory. All of them are very much looking forward to the experience. IMHO, if nothing else, that justifies this whole tour

Edited by ally
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Here's my review of the shows I saw.

What the hell, thought I'd try my hand at concert reviews!

http://bluebirdreviews.com/bluebird-menu-title/12-frontrowdave/50-front-row-daves-jason-bonhams-led-zeppelin-experience-2010-.html

Great review Dave. Loved it. The show was an unbelievable experience as you know we had in NYC. Had such a great time and saw an awesome band in full throttle on all cylinders. Hopefully, Jason will bring this around again.

Maybe, we'll even meet up again in January at the Beacon for Robert!

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Here's my review of the shows I saw.

What the hell, thought I'd try my hand at concert reviews!

http://bluebirdreviews.com/bluebird-menu-title/12-frontrowdave/50-front-row-daves-jason-bonhams-led-zeppelin-experience-2010-.html

I know everybody will feel differently about these things, but I did disagree on a couple of things in that I thought the guitarist was the weakest link (pretty good, but so obviously no Page), while the singer had a fabulous voice that was perfect for the songs, but which he didn't IMO use to slavishly copy Plant. In fact, one of the things I liked most about the whole band was that they weren't trying to replicate Zep, prancing around in dragon suits and such. So for me it was a plus that the singer didn't look like Plant--why pretend to be someone you're not? The drummer did look a bit like Bonzo, though. ;)

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I know everybody will feel differently about these things, but I did disagree on a couple of things in that I thought the guitarist was the weakest link (pretty good, but so obviously no Page), while the singer had a fabulous voice that was perfect for the songs, but which he didn't IMO use to slavishly copy Plant. In fact, one of the things I liked most about the whole band was that they weren't trying to replicate Zep, prancing around in dragon suits and such. So for me it was a plus that the singer didn't look like Plant--why pretend to be someone you're not? The drummer did look a bit like Bonzo, though. ;)

When I saw the show in NYC on November 8th, a good portion of the first set was done in the style of the MSG shows (from TSRTS) of 1973, from the vocals to the guitar styles of such as Rock and Roll , Celebration Day Black Dog with the BIOH intro and SIBLY. I thought that was a pretty cool way to do this show in New York. Having some fun with the theme of the show might be a good way to do different shows. Perhaps one night like Earls Courts in 1975, The Forum in 1977, Bath in 1970 and so on.

Edited by SuperDave
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Again, I'd prefer that they just play the music--putting their own spin on it when the spirit moves them--rather than try to copy the originals, which just throws into relief the fact that they AREN'T the originals. But, again, that's just my personal take on it.

I agree with what Aquamarine said ...

I'll also say that instead of "copying" either a live or studio rendition, just give it your best shot, within reason, as a re-interpretation of the music, is not what I'm looking for... I prefer the "Led Zeppelin" versions, if that makes any sense. :)

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Jason to me played with integrity and quality like a member of the 3-J's would have, with the kind of quality and integrity you would expect at this stage, so it was a big treat this last Saturday in Arizona, plus the food and slots were lots of fun!

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Jason Bonham Chats About His New Led Zeppelin Tribute as it Heads to Riverside and the Pantages

November 19th, 2010, 12:23 pm

posted by Ben Wener, The Orange County Register

Jason Bonham never intended to tour with a tribute to his late father's band. Granted, just as Dweezil Zappa has recently with his notable Zappa Plays Zappa project, if anyone has a right to pay homage to Led Zeppelin and brush asides scores of imitators worldwide, it would be Bonzo's progeny.

But Bonham, busy enough anchoring Foreigner for the past four years, had already played with the remainder of the real thing — in December 2007 at the O2 Arena in London, when he backed Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant in a one-off set in salute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. What's more, while rumors of a full-fledged Zeppelin reunion tour swirled and eventually dissipated, Bonham, Page and Jones were working toward establishing a band of their own — though that "sort of faded away" and the drummer soon wound up forming a new supergroup, Black Country Communion, featuring metal figure Glenn Hughes and ballyhooed blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

That outfit's self-titled debut dropped in September, days before the 30th anniversary of John Bonham's alcohol-induced death and the untimely end of the greatest hard-rock band that ever existed. But just when it would make sense for a BCC tour announcement, Bonham, 44, instead revealed plans for Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, a multimedia production (designed in part by the people behind the Pink Floyd Experience and the Beatles salute Rain) that will start wrapping up its 30-show run next week with shows Sunday at the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside and Tuesday at the prestigious Pantages Theatre.

Weaving together archival footage (Bonham even plays along with Bonzo during his famous "Moby Dick" solo) with songs both standard ("Kashmir," "Whole Lotta Love," "Stairway to Heaven") and rarely played (i.e. material from 1976's Presence and 1979's In Through the Out Door that wasn't performed live back in the day), the show, two sets plus an intermission, has been racking up rave reviews since it launched a little less than two months ago, including a glowing review of its NYC stop by Rolling Stone's David Fricke.

Plant has given it an approving nod as well, mentioning in a Florida radio interview that "Jason's a bit of a rascal, but I'll tell you this — nobody else plays drums like him. There was, once, but his father is no longer with us. As long as Jason does it with a smile on his face, he has my blessing."

We caught up with Bonham earlier this week for a quick Q-and-A about how this enterprise got off the ground, how it feels to virtually play alongside his dad, and the importance of preserving such a thunderous legacy.

Can you tell me how this idea germinated? I know you've paid tribute to Led Zeppelin here and there in the past, but what motivated you to create something like this?

First off I really never imagined doing it till I could make it something individual and something that only I could do and make it personal. Which, once I started to think if I put together personal footage of Dad when he was young, and family footage, photos and just fun things in trying to show the other side of my Dad, then it all started to come into play, and that's when it became 100 percent for me, and I was very much into it.

Why right now, when your Black Country Communion project only recently came out? What is your ambition beyond this Led Zeppelin Experience tour? Any eye toward expanding it into a more prolonged run?

No, not really. As soon as I'm finished here, I will be back in England to do two sold-out shows there (with Black Country Communion), then back in the studio in January. We're still talking about doing more JBLZE shows again next year, and I'm not sure of the details yet, but I think I'd definitely like to continue it on and do something more. I think there's still so much more I could do with the idea, there's so much more footage. It's definitely been a fantastic journey and a wonderful way to meet the fans, have a good time and play great music. I'm not opposed to doing it again, so we'll see.

How hard has this been to pull off, not just as a production but musically? We're talking about some of the most complex and nuanced rock ever made here.

We spread the rehearsals out over five months before the tour. We would do a week every month, rather than it being too much work in one session. We just wanted to make sure every song we chose to perform was the best it could possibly sound. Arrangement-wise, we would change things right up to the last minute. With the production, an hour before we went out I was still editing intros. It's been one of those things that got better every night, that got more personal every night, and it can still only get better from here.

Was it difficult to find players up to the task?

Yeah — for me it was more than just a task, it was people I wanted to be around, people I liked. I wanted to be able to vibe and get along with these people since it's in such close proximity, and of course they have to be able to play. I was very lucky the way the whole thing came about. I've known the guitarist Tony (Catania) for 25 years, so I knew he was going to be there, but when we found (singer) James (Dylan), that was definitely a divine intervention.

How deep does the setlist go? Is it pretty locked up or does it vary night to night? Do you feel any obligation to include certain songs?

We have been known to change it up night to night, much to the dismay of our crew. We were trying to find a good set we were all happy with and also stick to some sort of timeline. Of course, there were songs where I thought, "We've got to do this, and we've got to make sure they're right," — otherwise I think people would have said, "You avoided them … why? He couldn't play them?" I love all the songs, there are so many more I'd like to do, but it would be a 10-hour show. It works very well for now and that's why I think it would be lovely to do another tour. I think we've still got somewhere to go, I think we can still get better. Everyone's been so great — in reviews and the fans everywhere.

This may sound silly or overly sentimental, but when you're playing these titanic songs night after night, do you ever detect your father's spirit? Or put it this way: How conscious are you in the moment of the legacy you're preserving?

I'm very conscious of the legacy and get very emotional. When I'm doing "Moby Dick," it's more concentration to do it with him. I'm really focused — it's almost hard for me to play because of the emotion and the fans' reaction, the images of Dad as a kid, and I start thinking about him while we're doing it. For anyone that's lost anybody — everyone can replay great memories inside, fond memories they have of their loved ones. It's highly emotional when the crowd is going nuts, you just can't help but get kind of choked up and think, "Dad, look at the fans, these guys love you, they love you so much they are supporting your kid. It's amazing."

When did you first start learning your father's music? Did you pick things up along the way or was there a period of intense study? In putting this project together, were there moments of discovery, of realizing some fill or beat that you hadn't fully worked out before?

I kind of picked it up. For many years I listened to things and thought I knew what they were doing, his technique. I really think in my sobriety much later, when I got a chance to really sit down and listen to him, that's when I started to focus on it. Especially before the O2 show (when Plant, Page and Jones reunited with Bonham on drums in London) I did intense study and homework. That show led me to the feeling I'm at now. I don't try to copy every drum fill. I always do what he told me to — play with that bombastic, sparring, overpowering, laid-back groove with simplicity, but at the same time technical. I try to portray that in the spirit of Dad — there are no two nights the same.

How important is it to keep faithful to the originals? How much leeway do you allow?

A little bit of leeway is allowed— this is what makes it more organic. If you listen to five nights of Led Zeppelin back to back they are all different. We use that spectrum. That was one of the cool phrases from David Fricke in Rolling Stone: he said something along the lines of "I'm glad to see they didn't exactly do an album version — it was the spirit of Led Zeppelin, which would expand and extend."

What would your father make of all this?

If he were here, I wouldn't be doing it. He wouldn't make anything of it. Ironically, when we were in Houston, when the place was going crazy, I thought, "I really wish my Dad was here to see all of this."

Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience plays Sunday at the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside, 3801 Mission Inn Ave., before moving on to Hollywood's Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd. Tuesday. Tickets are $53.50-$96.75 for Riverside, $51.20-$72.60 for the Pantages. Prices include fees.

http://soundcheck.oc...-theatre/39796/

Edited by SteveAJones
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Zeppelin Tribute Delivers Sentimental Thunder

November 22nd, 2010

posted by Ben Wener, The Orange County Register

Just as I made my way to the will-call window Sunday night to pick up my credentials for the first of two Southern California appearances from Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience this week, a 50-something couple came storming out of the Fox Performing Arts Center very displeased.

I was admittedly late. Never having been to this old-timey theater, about as posh as downtown Riverside gets, I didn't anticipate there would be virtually no nearby parking. It took me 20 minutes of street searching to find a spot, by which time I had missed the production's introductory film (though there were enough archival bits of Bonzo and his boy later on that I can fill in the blanks) as well as I what I assume were the first three songs: a fitting "Rock and Roll" to open followed by "Celebration Day" (one of only two from Led Zeppelin III) and then "Black Dog" (which I bet was smoking). I finally grabbed a seat as the ghostly organ for "Your Time Is Gonna Come" swelled. (My guess as to what I didn't catch, by the way, is based on other posted setlists. If you were there and know otherwise, please correct me.)

The couple who beat me to the box office to demand a refund, however, clearly came uninformed about what they had paid to see, or perhaps they were season-ticket holders who figured Bonham's blast (which plays again Tuesday night at the more opulent Pantages Theatre) might be more akin to, oh, Movin' Out star Michael Cavanaugh's tribute to Billy Joel, slated for the Fox on Friday night. I'm guessing there's no tattered Zep vinyl buried in their closet. The wife had a dismissive look that suggested the next morning she'd repeatedly tell her friend, "But Myrtle, it was just so loud!" The husband was simply huffy: "Just a painful experience!" he complained.

Oh, c'mon, it was hardly that bad. Loud, yeah, granted — and frankly it could have been louder. But for Zeppelin fans it was a pretty supreme treat: 20 expertly executed classics ranging from the expected ("Dazed and Confused," "Stairway to Heaven") to the less-remembered ("I'm Gonna Crawl," tellingly the last song on the last album released before John Bonham's death, In Through the Out Door). All of that came interspersed with several sincere asides from Jason about his father's lasting legacy and how many emotionally overwhelming Zep-related moments the younger Bonham has had lately, not just the bittersweet joy of this well-received tour but also the impetus that ignited it: his one-off stint anchoring the real thing in December 2007 at London's O2 Arena.

At that event, which made the impossible possible in salute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, he got to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing with heroes who had been an integral part of his childhood. With this touring tribute, though, Bonham actually achieves something even more personal: during the extended break of "Moby Dick," matching the beat and enhancing the thunder of Bonzo's epic solo, Jason plays alongside his dad, something he hadn't properly done by the time of that fateful September day in 1980, and something John wished in a 1970 interview that he'd someday get to do at the Royal Albert Hall.

It's a nifty trick, one that justifiably elicits standing ovations – and considering how little other archival footage is involved (you see Messrs. Page, Plant and Jones only in a newspaper photo from the O2 show; most visuals are of the Pink Floyd stoner variety), it's the sort of gimmick this Zeppelin Experience might have done more with, though scrounging up usable and/or licensed material probably wouldn't have been easy. As it is, despite Bonham's innate understanding of both his dad's mighty attack and his undervalued ability to finesse a groove, this ultimately is just another Led Zep facsimile — albeit one more powerful and adept than any you can name. (Click here for a Q-and-A with Jason Bonham.)

I'm not much for tribute bands in the first place, to be blunt, but as with Zappa Plays Zappa, in which Dweezil keeps Frank's musical complexities and lyrical eccentricities alive via a top-notch troupe of aces, Bonham's homage to the hammer of the gods gives off sparks of authenticity no local ripoff can muster. This stuff is in Jason's bones, and from the way his band plays — especially tastefully fiery Page manqué Tony Catania — you'd think it was in their DNA as well.

Not only do they deftly recapture the feel of Zeppelin as we know it from those indestructible albums — the killing-floor grind of "The Lemon Song," the spacey slide-guitar glide of "What Is and What Should Never Be," the swampy stomp of "When the Levee Breaks," abetted both by John's indelible wallop and his daughter Zoe Bonham on blues harp — but they also zero in on the improvisational fury that could erupt out of the group on stage. "How Many More Times" was a surprise, jam-packed with fiery licks from start to finish, while a superb version of "Since I've Been Loving You" found Catania straddling the line between keeping faithful to Page's original performance and pushing the boundaries of it with his own style. Likewise, the stutter-funk of "The Ocean" and the shifts of "Over the Hills and Far Away" were expansively dynamic in ways that mirrored live Led Zep recordings.

My quibbles are minor, starting with the fact that those were the only two cuts revived from Houses of the Holy — and "Kashmir" was the lone selection from Physical Graffiti (elsewhere they've done "Sick Again"), while Presence was completely neglected. Granted, Bonham has a lot of ground to cover here, and there's plenty reason for him to favor the early stuff — five apiece from the first two albums, to be exact, as well as half of Led Zeppelin IV. But there was a different, more varied approach to later Zep tracks (whether sexy like "Custard Pie" or thoughtful like "Ten Years Gone") that I wish could be incorporated into the usual heaviness.

This group is certainly up to the task, including Plant substitute James Dylan, who wails with more exact (and certainly higher-pitched) verve than the old master can muster these days. That said, I had a hard time looking at him for two hours: with his bald pate and beard, he looked alternately like Chris Daughtry (which is just odd) or like a brotherly clone of similarly hirsute Jason (which can get a little eerie).

"If it's wrong," Bonham said of this enterprise before introducing a heartfelt "Thank You," "then I'll continue to be wrong." It isn't remotely; it's an accomplished tribute worthy of revisiting. I just hope that, if it returns, the setlist gets freshened up. And might I suggest tackling entire albums?

Setlist: Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience at the Fox Performing Arts Center, Riverside, Nov. 21, 2010

First set: Rock and Roll / Celebration Day / Black Dog / Your Time Is Gonna Come > Babe I'm Gonna Leave You / Dazed and Confused / What Is and What Should Never Be / The Lemon Song / Thank You / Moby Dick (with drum solo)

Second set: Good Times Bad Times / How Many More Times / Since I've Been Loving You / When the Levee Breaks (with Zoe Bonham on blues harp) / The Ocean / Over the Hills and Far Away / I'm Gonna Crawl / Stairway to Heaven / Kashmir

Encore: Whole Lotta Love

Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience plays again Tuesday night at 8 at the Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood. Tickets are $51.20-$72.60.

http://soundcheck.oc...-thunder/39832/

Photo Gallery:

http://www.ocregiste...#article-photos

Edited by SteveAJones
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Jason Bonham pays tribute to dad's Zeppelin years

Aidin Vaziri, Chronicle Pop Music Critic

San Francisco Chronicle / Sunday, November 21, 2010

There's a moment during Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience tribute concert where the show's 44-year-old star gets to play the drums alongside his late father, John "Bonzo" Bonham, who appears at the multimedia show in video form, on the song "Moby Dick." Jason says that's usually when the tears start to flow - in the audience and onstage."It's wonderful," he says. "One of my dreams was always to play alongside my father but I never got the chance because we only had one drum kit at home."

There's only one problem. "I'm the old guy!" says Bonham, who was 14 when his father died. "Because he was only 22 on the film, I'm up there playing with this kid."

Bonham, who brings the show to the Warfield on Wednesday, insists he didn't embark on this tour after plans for an actual Led Zeppelin reunion fell through. Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant - along with Bonham filling in for his father behind the drum kit - were offered a reported $200 million for a world tour after their triumphant concert at London's O2 Arena in 2007. They refused.

It was actually the producers of the Broadway musical, "Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles," who came after Bonham after the O2 show. The drummer says he agreed to do the 30-date tour - to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his father's death - only after he realized he could personalize the performances with home movies and anecdotes about life with his father.

"At first I thought, 'Are you kidding? Why would I do this?' " he recalls. "But then I saw the ways I could do this if I made it more of a personal journey, where it really is from the heart. It suddenly came together. And now I'm so glad I did it. It's beyond words."

The two-hour-plus show features several large video screens, LED lights, architectural pieces, spoken-word interludes and, naturally, plenty of dry ice. Bonham and his band - guitarist Tony Catania, vocalist James Dylan, bassist Michael Devin and keyboardist Stephen LeBlanc - blaze through some of Led Zeppelin's biggest hits, including "Kashmir," "When the Levee Breaks" and "Whole Lotta Love."

Plant, who had already taken Bonham and his son to a soccer game following the O2 show to explain why he didn't want to do a full-scale Led Zeppelin reunion tour, was the first to give the new project his blessing: "I don't care what he does so long as he has a smile on his face," he said. "There's nobody that can play the songs like Jason."

Bonham, who briefly endeavored a new musical project with Page and Jones, wasn't too worried about stepping on anyone's toes.

"This show is done with a huge amount of respect," he says. "We're playing some of the greatest music ever written. These guys created this stuff when they were 25-year-old kids. They were so ahead of the game. That's why it sounds so fresh."

What's most unusual is that like so many of his peers, Bonham is no longer actively running away from his family name. Even though he's also a member of the hard-rock super-group Black Country Communion (which also includes guitarist Joe Bonamassa, vocalist-bassist Glenn Hughes and keyboardist Derek Sherinian), he was more than willing to clear his schedule for the Led Zeppelin Experience tour.

"For years I would drink myself into oblivion to not let the comparisons get to me," Bonham says. "Now I embrace it with open arms. We all have to appreciate where we come from and how wonderful our parents were." {sbox}

Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience: 7 p.m. Wed. $44.75. The Warfield, 982 Market St., S.F. (415) 345-0900. www.ticketmaster.com.

http://www.sfgate.co.../PKMJ1G9HII.DTL

Edited by SteveAJones
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Wow, wow and WOW...last night was the mose awsome concert I have gone to...but then it's been a really long time since I've been to any concert and this did not dissapoint me. Before I go on any more I have to say a great big :thanku: to a certain benefactor for making the night even more memorable for me.

Our evening started out by meeting up with a couple I met on the Bonamassa forum for dinner and a brew at the Mission Inn before walking one block over to the Fox to mill about amongst all the other Led Heads. They opened the doors at 7:00 and we went to find our seats. FRONT ROW, DEAD CENTER!!!! Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

The show started with the video to set you up for the journey and tribute that Jason was about to take us all on. Once done the band came on and launced into Rock and Roll and the crowd exploded in standing explause. I won't go into the set list as it has already been reported on the previous reviews SteveAJones posted.

It was so touching when Jason would talk to the audience about his dad and growing up with Led Zeppelin, even poking a little fun at himself. Playing Moby Dick with his dad on the back video moniter was an emotional moment for all and Jason too. as he never got to do that before his dad's passing.

Sitting in the front row was understandibly LOUD as there were two speakers on each side directly in front of us. When the fog machine came on for Dazed and Confused most of that fog came off the stage between those speakers and right into our laps. At one point James flicked his mic cord and all the excess slack came off the edge of the stage and onto our feet. We picked it up and threw it back on stage.

It was a mutual admiration society as Jason was genuinely greatful and appreciative of the fans who came to see the show and we all responded with cheering and applause. To have the band recreate the sound and essence of Led Zeppelin was awsome to those of us who love and are wanting of anything Led Zeppelin.

While I wasn't lucky enough to have Jason say HI to me, but I did notice him wink a couple of times. Not to me, but to be close enough to see the expressions and enjoyment of the performance made this show larger than life to me . When we left my ears rang, my voice was horse, my hands hurt from clapping, but I was happily filled with Led Zeppelin Experience memories.

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