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Events and Reports - Robert Plant - Live at Skanderborg Festival, Thursday August 7th
Robert Plant probably became the biggest rock star with the release of Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut album in 1968. 25 years later he was headlining the beautiful Skanderborg festival in Denmark.
The concert started off with a long instrumental intro from Plant's band "Strange Sensations" and it was obvious that everyone was anxiously awaiting Robert Plant to enter the stage. When Plant sang his first line it gave me the shivers. His characteristic voice still sounded good.
Plant is definitely the godfather of Heavy Rock. He looked good for a man at age 54. He pleased the audience by playing Four Sticks as second song. The new bass player in Strange Sensations did a good job on the funky rhythm on the classic song. The third song was Morning Dew from Plant's latest album "Dreamland". The song has a great atmosphere, where you visualize Morning Dew created by the great sounds.
Mainly tracks from Plant's latest album and Zeppelin classics alternated. The 2 guitarist in "Strange Sensation" were each representation the 2 different directions. The longhaired Skin was man for the electric stuff, while Justin Adams represented the more "experimental" direction. Besides guitar he also played mandolin, hurdy-gurdy and other instruments with origin from the Far East. Plant has kept the mystique in his present music as in Zeppelin's music.
Robert Plant seemed very happy with the response from the audience of around 10.000 people. He even made the statement that "he was not sure if he and Strange Sensation were a band big enough to headline". Plant made several comments about his dissatisfaction with Tony Blair. In Plant's own words, he played The Girl From The North Country written by one of the few true presidents, namely Bob Dylan.
Around half way through the concert the band kicked into a fantastic version of Gallows Pole. Who knew folk music could rock that hard? Unfortunately the band played their slow and weak version of Hey Joe immediately after Gallows Pole. Hey Joe is a showstopper, because the arrangement lacks the nerve of the original version.
Highlights included Ramble On, where Plant did hit the high notes on the chorus. The show ended with an amazing version of Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You. This time Skin played the acoustic, while Justin Adams played the electric. We got a long version close to the original. It was quite entertaining looking around the audience and see people in their 40's and 50's closing their eyes and wishing them back their youth - a time of peace, love, Happiness and Led Zeppelin as the biggest rock band.
When Plant returned for the encores he was drinking the local beer called "Thor". He took a zip, looked at the label and all of a sudden his face was one big smile and he made a great remark "How funny is that - Here I am drinking the hammer of the gods". Note to non-fans - Led Zeppelin was called the "Hammer of the gods" and there is also a biography of Led Zeppelin titled "Hammer of the Gods".
The first encore was a brilliant version of Darkness, Darkness from the Danish Grammy nominated album "Dreamland". The last encore was Whole Lotta Love, which was played with such passion and energy that it must have been close to hearing Led Zeppelin, when they peaked in the mid-seventies.
Since Plant carries such a strong legacy of songs it was a bit disappointing that we got so many cover songs. Overall the concert was floating between Hard Rock and Celtic inspired music. The concert was good, but it seems like Plant don't know what leg to stand upon concert wise. He has to please the Led Zeppelin fans, because 90 percent of the audience want to hear the older songs. Instead of the many cover songs I would have wished for more tunes off his great solo albums. I was very surprised that he didn't play the huge hit 29 Palms. However, both his "Fate of Nations" album and "Manic Nirvana" album contain lots of great songs that I would have preferred instead of old Arthur Lee tunes.
Setlist
That's Allright Mama
Four Sticks
Morning Dew
Bummer In The Summer
Battle Of Evermore
The Girl From The North Country
Gallows Pole
Hey Joe
Ramble On
A House Is Not A Motel
Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You
Encores:
Darkness, Darkness
Whole Lotta Love
| You can click all pictures for a bigger version.
All pictures taken by Borg | Written by Michael
Wednesday, August 13, 2003 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by criticalgenious (Anonymous) - Monday, April 19, 2004 | Robert is a dud at this point in his career. But you are good enough to write a nice review of one of his shallow and abbreviated concerts. Very nice...
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| Comment by honey (Anonymous) - Tuesday, April 20, 2004 | Thank you for the review.
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| Comment by Fatliplouie (Anonymous) - Tuesday, April 20, 2004 | I hear you michael. Kind of bittersweet is he not? But my opinion is that ,of late, Robert takes a kind of perverse delight in not giving the 90 percentile of fans what they would like to hear in concert. That includes his great solo back catalog. It's almost as though the fans of yesteryear are subject to a curse wherein one knew of great live shows of delight, and one must now merely dream of the days of wine and roses - evn though the great poet still lives. And all the while, fans of other famous entertainers get to hear a belly full, summer after summer - with little bummers. Therein lies the tragedy. The irony. To see the iron , and not have it be pumped. It is Greek in scope, is not it so?
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| Comment by Roy (Anonymous) - Wednesday, October 27, 2004 | EL TIEMPO NO PASA EN VANO, SOY CHILENO Y UN GRAN SALUDO A TODOS EN CHILE FANATICOS DEL ROCK AND ROLL, EL ROCK CLASICO LAS LLEVA MIERDA!!!
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| Comment by Jenna (Anonymous) - Friday, January 14, 2005 | WOW!!robert plant got reallie OLD...
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| Comment by Max (Anonymous) - Thursday, March 3, 2005 | Robert Plant became realy very very old as you can see in the picture compared to other pictures of him in the 70's
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| Comment by Drizzt185 (Anonymous) - Thursday, March 10, 2005 | Is that Robert Plant or...MR BILBO!!!!
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| Comment by DayDreamer (Anonymous) - Thursday, October 19, 2006 | Robert might be getting older but he's still got the voice and the sex appeal that he has always had,
He will always be one of the top Rock Artist through out the years.
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