Last Friday Jason Bonham, son of the late and legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John 'Bonzo' Bonham, kicked off his latest Australian tour.
The tour, under the name Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening, performed a genre that they have been successfully and extensively touring since 2010. I'm not usually one for covers, but tonight was clearly very different – as punters fully expected.
The tour celebrates the 50th anniversary of one of Led Zeppelin's best known recordings, the double album 'Physical Graffiti' released in 1975.
Before getting into the music, tonight's act is differentiated as Jason Bonham is thought of as one of the only drummers who can do credit to his father's heavy work on the skins.
Adding to the authenticity, Jason has been tied to the remaining three Led Zeppelin members since his father's 1980 passing, having played with them individually and also on the rare occasions they have played together as the original band.
As with many in tonight's crowd (17 April), I'm a huge Led Zeppelin fan and have been since my early days. They probably deserve to be credited as the most original and musically-talented group since The Beatles, and released some truly incredible and diverse music over little more than a decade.
Image © Bill Prendergast
'Physical Graffiti' is one of their best-known releases, featuring the song 'Kashmir' and a broad range of musical genres from hard rock to boogies and stomps
Interestingly, Jason sees it as Zeppelin's key work, commenting as such in the lead-up to the tour: "For me, this isn't just an album – it's the album. . . 'Physical Graffiti' has always been my ultimate Led Zeppelin record." Many in the crowd agreed. It's not my top Zeppelin pick, but listening again tonight, it has again grown in stature.
As for the album's famous cover, I doubt there's a single guitar player who has been to New York without traipsing up and down the East Side looking for the famous building depicted in the photo (the same building that went on to feature in the video for The Rolling Stones' 'Waiting On A Friend').
The biggest concern I had going into the evening – which was quickly alleviated – was the vocalist required to sing Robert Plant's work.
Jimmy Page's guitar work and creativity was always exceptional, and bass player (and keyboardist) John Paul Jones made no less contribution to the musical creativity and sound of the band, but the plethora of cover bands show that someone could be filled into these roles.
Jason was expected to live up to his father's amazing drum work, so that left the enigmatic Robert Plant as my only question. I need not have been concerned, as singer James Dylan who has been with the JBLZE project since its 2010 inception was perfect for the role.
Image © Bill Prendergast
Clearly that is not in a visual sense, without the famous Robert Plant locks and buttonless paisley shirts, but his vocal work was ideal, and fit very well with the music.
The show itself was a 2 hour 15 minute explosion of sound. Bonham stated upfront they would do the full 1975 album but not in the correct order, to keep up the crowd's interest, and then they would follow it up with a couple of other Zeppelin classics.
The music kicked off with 'Custard Pie', moving into a hard rocking rendition of 'The Rover'. At this stage it was obvious that Jimmy Sakurai was going to be a visual focus, so clearly mimicking Page's looks, poses and guitar playing.
Sakurai's playing throughout the evening was perfect, picking up many of the nuances in the music in a positive sense. His slide playing in 'In My Time Of Dying' really made this an early highlight of the evening.
Interspersed between the music was Bonham's light banter and conversation, aimed at putting some further insight into the music, indicating why certain pieces were written earlier, yet didn't appear until this sixth studio album.
Image © Bill Prendergast
The song 'Down By The Seaside' we're told is a real Robert Plant song, written earlier when they were doing 'Zeppelin IV', but not deemed consistent with that album's style. Bonham tells the audience how much he loves playing this one in particular.
'In The Light' has always been one of my favourites off the album, and Alex Howland's keyboard introduction was perfect, fully faithful to the original. The intro is Pink Floyd-like, and the song works through a number of musical styles and themes, all played perfectly by Sakurai.
Bonham then led off into a lovely rendition of 'Ten Years Gone'. It's another great song, and he referenced his father and asked the crowd to join in commemorating him, 46 years after he passed away.
It was another outstanding version and was followed by a couple more, before the absolute classic off the album 'Kashmir', played perfectly (although clearly without the brass and orchestration of the original).
Interspersed in the middle of the set was an acoustic setup, featuring acoustic guitar (Sakurai) and mandolins played by Alex Howard and bass player Dorian Heartsong. The highlight of the acoustic set was either 'Bron-Yr-Aur' (for which Howard accompanied on an acoustic guitar with a violin bow), or 'Black Country Woman'.
Image © Bill Prendergast
After playing the album in full, the evening then shifted to three earlier Led Zeppelin pieces, each of which displayed Bonzo's massive drumming capabilities.
'Good Times Bad Times' was introduced by Bonham: "Let's go back to where it all started, song one, side side.". It was brilliant, of course featuring Sakurai, but also giving a couple of great bass riffs to Heartsong.
'Whole Lotta Love' is another that gave Bonham the ability to demonstrate his incredible drum skills, as did the final song, 'Rock And Roll' from 'Zeppelin IV'. This song, which has been overplayed on commercial radio for far too many years, was perfect in that it allowed Bonham to close the show out with the amazing drum wind-up that ends the piece.
Tonight was a night for Led Zeppelin fans. It would have been challenging without some familiarity with the music, as in some places these are long pieces, which often meander. However that was not an issue tonight.
This was a core of appreciative Zeppelin fans, young and old, who simply love this music, and the show was very faithful to the original music, rarely deviating – if at all.
Image © Bill Prendergast
Jason Bonham was chatty all evening, providing fascinating colour around the origins of some of the pieces, and thus fitting context and history around the album.
I certainly didn't know that some of the music on this epic album was specifically influenced by two of my favourite musicians ever: Jeff Beck and Stevie Wonder!
The title of my all-time favourite Led Zeppelin song really sums up the positivity, energy and fantastic music that made this evening great: 'That's The Way.' What a great show!
