Was the O2 concert as good?

[poortom]

I was fortunate enough to be at The O2 for the night of my dreams, i have been a Led Zeppelin nut since i was 13, im now 43, too young to travel the 600 mile round trip to see them at Knebwort in '79, what i really want to know is, did the O2 concert show the true Led Zeppelin with all that power and force as in earlier concerts with Bonzo? I thought that Jason Bonham was immense, can still feel them boom of his bass drum going through my chest now. But was there anyone who saw them earlier and was at the O2 was it the same force?

[poortom]

I was fortunate enough to be at The O2 for the night of my dreams, i have been a Led Zeppelin nut since i was 13, im now 43, too young to travel the 600 mile round trip to see them at Knebwort in '79, what i really want to know is, did the O2 concert show the true Led Zeppelin with all that power and force as in earlier concerts with Bonzo? I thought that Jason Bonham was immense, can still feel them boom of his bass drum going through my chest now. But was there anyone who saw them earlier and was at the O2 was it the same force?

likely not then i take it

[chef free]

I have only seen the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute show (why call it O2?!) on video, it was far better than when I saw the band live in '77!

[Lee]

Well, in my opinion, they certainly had the passion, gusto and commitment in December 2007 that they had in August 1979. In both circumstances they had something to prove, I think.

Obviously there were differences, the three remaining members being twice as old as they were in the 1970's, but I'm quite sure their performance was as good as some of the 70's gigs...and probably better than a few of them. Especially considering Zep would usually need to play a dozen or so gigs before they really hit their stride. They didn't have that option last year.

[ledzeppIV]

I have only seen the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute show (why call it O2?!) on video, it was far better than when I saw the band live in '77!

You must have caught them on a bad night.l

[chef free]

Yeah, the last US show, 7-24-77, a total disaster! I posted a review of it somewhere around here.

[FireOpal]

Yeah, the last US show, 7-24-77, a total disaster! I posted a review of it somewhere around here.

Chef, I searched your posts for the review but no sign of it. Maybe it was on the old board?

[chef free]

Oh Yeah! Oops, here's a reprint:

I finally got to see my favorite band on what was to be their last show in the US. I had heard all about the Kezar (in Golden Gate Park)'73 show, so loud that rock shows were banned from this venue (complaints poured in from a local hospital seven miles away!) I had tickets to the Oakland '75 shows: canceled due to Plant's car crash. So in 1977 I bought tickets to the second Oakland show, it was to be a "Day on the Green", Bill Graham's summertime tradition of ramming about 65,000 people into the Oakland A's/Raiders stadium for 8-10 hours of drunken sweltering in the sun.

But of course disaster struck and the tour was postponed (due to Plant's laryngitis), but so what? I was going to see my heroes live on stage, I could wait a couple extra weeks, I'd been waiting for four years already!

Some friends of mine had gone to the Saturday 7/23 show and they were PSYCHED! It was so hot that they were trying to score tix for Sunday. We showed up early to get a good spot on the outfield close to the stage. I think the supporting bands were Judas Priest and Rick Derringer.

We waited and waited for the Zeppelin as the set break dragged out longer and longer. The crowd was getting restless. Bill Graham came out on stage and gave us some BS about Jimmy "having trouble with his double guitar" but no one was buying it. As the heat of the day (and all the booze) wore on the crowd became increasingly ugly. Some tweaker sitting in front of us kept turning and staring at us, he finally spun around and shouted "If you guys don't stop doing that I'm gonna kick your asses". We had no idea what he was talking about. And still no Zeppelin!

What we didn't know (hey, this was way before the internet!), was that the day before, during Pagey's solo, Peter Grant's 11 year-old son Warren attempted to take a Led Zeppelin sign off one of the back stage trailers. Well, the (notorious) Bill Graham security thugs didn't take kindly to this and gave Warren the "treatment". When Grant found out he and Bonham took said security guards into one of the trailers and returned the favor, by all accounts beating the holy shit out of these guys.

There was no problem with equipment, the band was holed up in the bar of the Mark Hopkins hotel in San Francisco, telling Graham's people they weren't playing.

Meanwhile, back in Oaktown the situation continued to deteriorate. People shouting obscenities, throwing things, some people were actually LEAVING! Things hit rock bottom when some drunken asshole standing at about second base chucked his empty fifth of Jack Daniels towards the stage. Being no Willie Mays his throw didn't make it anywhere near the stage. We watched in horrified silence as the bottle tumbled through the air and nailed some poor little blonde chick square in the back of the head. Down she went amid a chorus of boos. They carried her out over our heads on a stretcher.

Things were getting so bad that even the tweaker left!

At last Led Zeppelin took the stage. Page looked totally pissed, Bonham wore very large sunglasses, and Jonesy stood stock still with a blank look on his face. Their performance seemed short, perfunctory and completely unremarkable.

There you have it, my one and only time of seeing my favorite band. It sucked.

CODA: Well, it didn't totally suck since I had always wanted a US Army field jacket and the tweaker forgot his so I took it and wore it for the next ten years! There were even some roaches in the pocket!

[Styrbjorn]

Nice story. Well, not nice, it's a shame all that happened. But hey, at least you got to see them and Tempe Arizona was an even worse show.

[harlequin]

Well I have only seen the 3rd Eye bootleg dvd of the tribute show, and in my opinion this, IN NO WAY COMPARES to them in the 1970's. Firstly there are the limitations of the DVD sound naturally. It's taken from quite a way back in the audience and it just doesn't catch the atmosphere that there must have been on the night. Actually being at Earls Court and Knebworth is an unfair comparison but I have to say that on viewing the DVD doesn't make me froth at the mouth and jump outta my seat screaming THEY GOTTA TOUR!! but if I try and take the sound limitations of the bootleg and atmosphere "problem" out of the equation. What I saw was certainly a different Led Zeppelin. Jason put everything into it but proved he isn't his Dad (no one can be) Obviously the band have aged now and part of the Led Zeppelin viewing experience WAS the movement on stage. I'm not denying Pagey put everything he had into it. Remember this is an opinion of someone who wasn't there. Ask someone who was they'll probably say the opposite and I'm talking bollox!!

[NickZepp]

It's better than the band was for most of 77-80. Not better than the band was for most of the early to mid 70s. Although Plant's voice is probably in much better shape and he's a much better singer now than he ever was in with Led Zeppelin.

I don't mean that his range is as good but he's a much smarter singer and can give a better performance now with his voice. At times in the 70s he just tried to sing as loud as he could. That's great, but it can wear down a voice.

[Nick C]

After watching the 02 show a few times and comparing it to a 77 show i have, i have to say the 02 show was better overall. Jimmy may not play as fast or as long as he used too, but what he was playing made much better musical sense in the 02 show. Roberts voice was great all show and jones and jason were rock solid.