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Just listened to the whole gig


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Seen the utube bits and stuff but got hold of a pretty good audience recording today. Initial thoughts; leading up to the show my "fears" were that James may struggle a bit-due to sheer lack of live action. Neednt have worried he was absolutely outstanding. Jonesy seems to have done what Jonesy always did, solid base line-competant keyboards-bass pedals, main player in the rythmn section. Robert sang very well under extremely emotional circumstances, Percy is much maligned in many ways as the reluctant member that held it all back-but he did deliver, although Jimmy and JPJ mustve worked overtime to re-arrange some songs to accommodate him

Jason- was a credit to Zeppelin and more importantly a credit to his father, can say no more than that

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Seen the utube bits and stuff but got hold of a pretty good audience recording today. Initial thoughts; leading up to the show my "fears" were that James may struggle a bit-due to sheer lack of live action. Neednt have worried he was absolutely outstanding. Jonesy seems to have done what Jonesy always did, solid base line-competant keyboards-bass pedals, main player in the rythmn section. Robert sang very well under extremely emotional circumstances, Percy is much maligned in many ways as the reluctant member that held it all back-but he did deliver, although Jimmy and JPJ mustve worked overtime to re-arrange some songs to accommodate him

Jason- was a credit to Zeppelin and more importantly a credit to his father, can say no more than that

Bravo!! I hate that I have come to realize that Plant is/has been not so enthused as the others. It is selfish of me, I know. I'm sure he has other plans and ideas, but DAMN!! This reunion and the hope of a tour was, for a while, looking like a dream come true! So much frickin potential to reignite the fire that once was, and he wants something else... Sucks. God Bless him anyway, the Wizard! Just wish things were different.....

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Seen the utube bits and stuff but got hold of a pretty good audience recording today. Initial thoughts; leading up to the show my "fears" were that James may struggle a bit-due to sheer lack of live action. Neednt have worried he was absolutely outstanding. Jonesy seems to have done what Jonesy always did, solid base line-competant keyboards-bass pedals, main player in the rythmn section. Robert sang very well under extremely emotional circumstances, Percy is much maligned in many ways as the reluctant member that held it all back-but he did deliver, although Jimmy and JPJ mustve worked overtime to re-arrange some songs to accommodate him

Jason- was a credit to Zeppelin and more importantly a credit to his father, can say no more than that

ps Care to share with the rest of us desperate souls how/where we can get our hands on the whole performance? I'm hoping it will be released, but I need a new Zep fix!

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I wasn't at the gig, but I got the slowburn recording.

It took some getting used to, but I now find myself liking it more and more.

Both the recording and the performance.

It seems to sound better on my ipod (though not converted to mp3) than on my home system.

Seems like it needs to be cranked.

Jimmy really knocks out a great No Quarter solo.

evoking the HOTH track more than previous live renditions.

I think the show really starts to pick up from 'For Your Life' on. FYL is a definite highlight, but then there's Trampled Underfoot, which really is amazing. Since I've Been Loving You too.

There are a few miscues here and there, but I like how they work as a team to play through them and get back on track.

Overall the vocals and drums seem to be loudest, with Jonesy offering a kind of rumbling backdrop. This is most likely due to the location of the taper. I like all the bass and I think my headphones give Jonesy's work more definition than my old vintage speakers at home.

Definitely an emotional evening for Plant. So much so that it kind of bothered a friend of mine, sensing the conflict within him, but I think that was mostly from the youtube vids.

Very glad to have the chance to hear what the band did on this night. Cheers to slowburn, wherever you are.

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I forgot to mention one thing that I finally realised a day or so ago.

Plant is singing the melody to that old Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac tune (forget the name) during Black Dog..

I thought that sounded like something else, and then it finally hit me.

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Plant is singing the melody to that old Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac tune (forget the name) during Black Dog...

I thought that sounded like something else, and then it finally hit me.

Ha, yeah, I though that too. It's Oh Well by Fleetwood Mac, which I think is acknowledged to have inspired Black Dog in the first place - but with some proper Zep wellie applied.

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If you are saying it took some getting used to you are sugar coating it a bit. It was good but plant can do better and he knows it. On some of the songs not all. Must agree that it isnt close to some of the old performances of the 70s. Know you dont want to hear this, but thats the way it is.

Thanks for this post. Since I haven't heard the whole thing straight through, I had to wait till someone offered this opinion before chiming in. I have the slowburn that others have and can say that after hearing most of this, I can't think of a single performance that really wowed me. Sure, it's great to have it due to historical reasons, but based on performance alone, it sure isn't up to par with the 70s stuff. I didn't expect it to be anyway. Unlike Dylan's slowed performances in 1966, Zep's tunes don't benefit from slower tempos IMO.

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I wasn't at the gig, but I got the slowburn recording.

It took some getting used to, but I now find myself liking it more and more.

Both the recording and the performance.

It seems to sound better on my ipod (though not converted to mp3) than on my home system.

Seems like it needs to be cranked.

Jimmy really knocks out a great No Quarter solo.

evoking the HOTH track more than previous live renditions.

I think the show really starts to pick up from 'For Your Life' on. FYL is a definite highlight, but then there's Trampled Underfoot, which really is amazing. Since I've Been Loving You too.

There are a few miscues here and there, but I like how they work as a team to play through them and get back on track.

Overall the vocals and drums seem to be loudest, with Jonesy offering a kind of rumbling backdrop. This is most likely due to the location of the taper. I like all the bass and I think my headphones give Jonesy's work more definition than my old vintage speakers at home.

Definitely an emotional evening for Plant. So much so that it kind of bothered a friend of mine, sensing the conflict within him, but I think that was mostly from the youtube vids.

Very glad to have the chance to hear what the band did on this night. Cheers to slowburn, wherever you are.

There is a new source on Dime - Taper Maia. Definite upgrade to Slowburn.

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I think I got the same recording some of you are talking about today. I just listened to it for the first time all the way through in my headphones.

It starts off sounding above average to good and after the first three tracks it just gets better and better!

All the band sound great and Plant sounds as good, if not better than when I saw him and Page at Glastonbury 12 years ago, and I was very impressed with his voice back then.

All in all, it's fantastic. Much better than I dared hope, which I'm sure is the case for a lot of people.

As I was listening, I kept on forgetting about the ages of these guys and had an image of the late 70's version of Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in my head, I think it's that good.

BRING ON THE DVD!

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Ha, yeah, I though that too. It's Oh Well by Fleetwood Mac, which I think is acknowledged to have inspired Black Dog in the first place - but with some proper Zep wellie applied.

i have been reading A LOT of posts, reports, etc, on this concert since the moment it was announced. personally i was just extremely excited about them doing this - i had zero expectations. i have absolutely loved led zeppelin from the moment i first heard my first zep song (IMTOD) on the way to a golf match in high school. zeppelin has really become a friend to me since then, and somehow i always find myself soaking myself in zeppelin in hard times in life. and not to be dramatic or anything, they just help me feel something special which brings me up. anyway, long story short...

the videos on youtube i saw early the next morning were awesome i thought and i was happy. i know there are always people that are critical, or want to over analyze everything. i've read people talking about solo's or whether they interacted with each other enough. i've read people talking about what affect their clothing had, or whether jimmy's hair made him look like a "senior citizen struggling to get through the song" and whether robert was bored and not into it...to me, it was zeppelin, it's 2007, and they were together.

the videos were cool, but when i heard about the aforementioned slowburn recording, and was lucky enough to get ahold of that, i really had a chance to take a listen to what they really sounded like, other than depending on a cell phone / digital camera video or that bbc footage.

all i can say is WOW. i have listened to that show about 8 times in the last three days, most of those times just standing in one place in the middle of room just enjoying it.

personally, the power and the feel of that show was awesome. i thought they interacted great together in the music. of course there were times of little miscues or whatever, as to be expected, but in a whole body of work...the music rocked. i've been lucky to see page/plant twice and page and the crowes once, but i would have traded them both to be there to see this one show.

the recording, and my big time thanks goes out to the source, was great. from what i imagine from his description, it appeared he had seats similar to the ones i always seem to get at shows, a ways up and back. but i kind of like those seats personally anyway, so i can picture where the sound is coming from. also, i really kind of dig an audience recording. to be able to hear the crowd, to be able to hear bits of conversation, or exclamations from those in attendance, but still be able to hear the music well.

by all accounts the beginning opened up sort of slow, and there were sound issues (as can be clearly heard on the slowburn recording during GTBT, Ramble On). still some good stuff, like i just felt chills when there was that second pause right before page goes into the GTBT solo and the crowd just starts going crazy in anticipation. but by black dog there was a whole different feel. the thing i liked in the song was how they played it somewhat alternating between the "vintage" sound and newer ways they have played it (there are several time where they seem to play passages reminiscent of the version page/plant did for the music awards show which can be seen on the extras portion of the "no quarter" dvd). the way the crowd is just so into it when they trade off with plant at the end.

from there on, i was floored. i thought plant's little intros to the songs were awesome. i thought the sound of his voice was sincere. i thought he sounded like he was having fun. i heard his "laugh" that he does that i've heard over the years during zep concert recordings that indicates he was having a good time. i heard TIGHT playing. i heard AWSOME phrasing during the songs. i thought page did an awesome job in his playing, he was strong, had control, and had that "sound" coming from his guitar that was so powerful, cutting through, and having that metal on metal crashing at times that i always thought was something i only heard from him.

IMTOD all the way through SIBLY...unbelievable. mesmerizing even. FYL - a dream come true for me to hear this song live - and they didn't disappoint. they played that song absolutely amazing and just as i could have imagined it would sound live. plant was awesome in that song and really had the energy going. he did through all those songs. page...just awesome. bonham, outstanding. jonesy, what can i say, he makes this whole thing work and him being there is just the part that makes it whole.

jpj's organ parts were spot on. the sound he gets in trampled - incredible. they nailed that.

NFBM, they just completely hit that one too. (kind of wish plant would have said "oh jimmy!" right before the solo, but hey, you can't get everything :)

no quarter, again, was excellent. the piano, the guitar sound itself, the sound of plant - this was vintage zeppelin no quarter - not the "no quarter" no quarter if you know what i mean.

it was almost like they got a bit off after dazed, and unfortunately that was stairway time, but it wasn't a total disaster or anything, i actually liked it. but even if there was anything to be sad about with stairway - it was all gone as soon as they got into TSRTS. and you can hear the approval of this song by the reaction of the gentleman on the recording. i love this guy. from thebeginning till the end you can tell he's really loving what he seeing, but it's hear to the end where you can hear him several times and it's great, i totally would be making noise at this show too.

the break before MMH, classic. and the song rocks too.

then the break before kashmir and how they come into that song...

the crowd reaction after that, then coming back out for WLL...the crowd again, rock and roll...special.

anyway, to the poster that said it sounded better on the ipod - i agree with you. however, i played around with it a little and tried to boost the sound a tad. i am NOT A SOUND ENGINEER AT ALL, so the following might be absolutely the wrong thing to do, but anyway...i ran the flac file(s) into audacity one at a time, selected the entire file, normalization effect (default options checked), then amplify effect (10db straight across for the first three files (intro,gtbt,ramble) and 6db for all tracks after (4-19). i then would export each file as mp3 at 320kbps. then burned those files in itunes as an audio disc, no spacing between tracks. (you have to make a 2 disc set, all will not fit on one disc when making an "audio cd") after i did that and ran it through my 100watt sony receiver on stadium surround - the volume only on about 2.8 out of 10 ( i had been running it through my ipod on full volume, into the receiver at volume 5 or 6 to get sound not even this good)...it was sweet. you could really start hearing nuances here and there you couldn't before. that's when i started staying in the middle of the room listening, not moving for songs at a time, turning slowly in the surround sound and taking it all in... ;)

overall, i am just happy and grateful that we got this performance from them, and for the exceptional person that shared it all with us. thank you! even though i tried to "enhance" the files for myself, i thought they were awesome in the first place. and i thought the recording was excellent! he even said in a post i read that it was not enhanced by him or he had not tried to do an "editing" job on it or anything. but this recording will always be the "one" for this show for me...thanks again.

we all got led zeppelin as close as we will ever see them, thank you JPJ, thank you Jason, thank you Robert, and thank you mr. Page. i love you guys!

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Bravo!! I hate that I have come to realize that Plant is/has been not so enthused as the others. It is selfish of me, I know. I'm sure he has other plans and ideas, but DAMN!! This reunion and the hope of a tour was, for a while, looking like a dream come true! So much frickin potential to reignite the fire that once was, and he wants something else... Sucks. God Bless him anyway, the Wizard! Just wish things were different.....

I got the sense that Robert's motivation was to do the show as a favor to Ahmet and Jason whereas the others got just as much personal satisfaction from doing it.

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Sorry, I guess I didn't quote you, but thanks for clarifying the name of that Fleetwood Mac song.

That's a great tune and the comparisons to Black Dog are obvious.

The melody seems to be a bit kinder to Robert's vocal chords. :)

Nice Easter Egg of sorts.

I'm with ya rockthang !!!! Glad you kept those full files on your iPod !! Slowburn was HERE yesterday for a bit ... I spoke with him briefly. He didn't know if this was HIS recording or not...he didn't have computer speakers set up for the broadcasting......

Wish you were here now for the listening party !!!

cheers

Joelmon, you know slowburn? Nice, with a handle like that, I should have known. I didn't check the link posted above, I am just commenting on what I've got.

If you are saying it took some getting used to you are sugar coating it a bit. It was good but plant can do better and he knows it. On some of the songs not all. Must agree that it isnt close to some of the old performances of the 70s. Know you dont want to hear this, but thats the way it is.
Well, I don't think I'm really sugar coating it. I'm just being honest. At first, like you, it didn't impress me so much. I was just happy for them to have had a good show and for me to get some documentation of it. However, the more I listen to it, the more I genuinely begin to enjoy what they are doing. It deserves more than a casual listen for it to reveal its secrets.

I would agree 100% that it's nothing like the shows from the 70s. I'm sure the band would be quick to admit that as well. There's a kind of immediacy and urgency from the early 70s shows especially that just blows everything on the planet away. I would never say 'It's just like 1972 all over again'. Nope, I didn't say that at all. I appreciate your critique of my comment, though. Thank you for the perspective. :)

There is a new source on Dime - Taper Maia. Definite upgrade to Slowburn.
a new source is now up and running at Dime. A bit clearer on the high end than the slowburn version, yet it requires a bass boost during playback. I'm still waiting for the full version of the Shoepps sample I've heard. It's really good!!!
Sweet! I'm not holding out. I'll get 'em all! :):lol: That's what DVDR data backup is all about! :):lol:
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I got the sense that Robert's motivation was to do the show as a favor to Ahmet and Jason whereas the others got just as much personal satisfaction from doing it.

my son & I saw Plant @ the Beacon in NYC last year for a benefit and he sounded great.

He sang 4 Zepp songs and the crowd was delirious and he clearly enjoyed the intimate setting.

I think the prob for him is that he feels his contribution to the band is diluted from what it was. Whereas JP, JPJ & Jason can kick it, Plant has lost his Mojo. He's like a 5th wheel in a 4 man band.

If he can get over his EGO, he'd realize Zepp loyalists don't care what he looks like.

For me and millions others, he sounds fine.

When Joe Dimaggio was asked why he was retiring, he said because he doesn't play like Joe D. anymore.

Perhaps Plant feels the same way

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^ Oh that'll get some good responses. :rolleyes:
First post no less. :rolleyes:

Does have a couple good points, though,

esp. about how most of the fans completely accept Robert Plant's current vocal interpretations.

I'll be kind...

I think one thing he missed was it's not so much about feeling like a fifth wheel, (and that has nothing to do with his looks! :blink: ) but the intimacy of the gig where he saw him lovin' it.

Perhaps it has more to do with the kinds of venues and relationships that can be formed with the audience.

On top of that, perhaps the 'millions of emotions' had a big impact on his recent performance.

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