Been to London, Seen Seven Wonders

AT LAST
OUR ACCOUNT OF THE ZEPPELIN SHOW

Los Angeles to London takes 9 1/2 hours via Air New Zeppelin.

We get in Saturday morning and amidst a couple days of jet lag and tourism, we learn an outrageous fact -- London pubs close at 11 pm.

Sunday, the day before Lift Off, we take the tube from Belgravia to the O2 Arena. We stand in line for an hour with a United Nations of Zep Heads to get ticketed and tagged with wrist bands to prevent ticket scalping.

Can't help but notice this crowd is better composed than the freak fest seen at Madison Square Garden in The Song Remains the Same flick. That's mainly a good thing, although when it comes to rock, who knows?

We talk to people from San Francisco and Brazil. The buzz is a quiet but total dedication to seeing this show.

The day of the show, Monday Dec. 10, is the first non-rainy day we've seen in London.

We take a sunny tour of the Thames and see Parliament (the place that named the American cigarette that named the Plainfield, NJ doo-wop group, that became Parliament-Funkadelic, which is the original Mothership).

Then it's 6 pm, time to ride the tube back to Greenwich and the O2. The Zeppelin show is in all the London papers today, but it's business as usual in the underground. No one's blasting "Sick Again" on a boom box.

Still, there is a sense of kinship I feel with all the heads who rode the 1/9 train to the Garden to get some Zeppelin on the Houses tour back in the day... This time I trust Jimmy isn't on a 3-day sleepless bender.

We get inside the dome, then inside the arena, get our seats on the John Paul side of the stage high in the risers.

There is classic 1950s R&B playing on the p.a. -- Willie Dixon, Howlin Wolf, Memphis Minnie.

The tribute to Ahmet kicks off with something terrifying -- a prog rock cover of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" by members of Yes, ELP and Bad Company.

Then Paolo Nutini belts out some R&B, Paul Rodgers sings a little Free, and various singers, including Maggie Bell, do their thing backed up by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. Foreigner with a sound-alike singer does Ahmet's favorite prom tune, "I Want To Know What Love Is." Eww. Ronnie Wood, who's billed second on the T-shirt, never appears. Whatever.

At 9 on the dot, the lights go down. The moment we've been 27 years waiting for is here.

The screens show a news clip from the Tampa FL local newscast back in '75, with the squares trying to make sense of Led Zep breaking the Beatles' live attendance record at Tampa Stadium.

Then comes the double pulse of "Good Times Bad Times," the tune that literally started it all for the album gods to rule all album gods.

It's a rush to recognize they're actually doing that song. The song that's kicked off every Zep Out since Ann Arbor in '89. Going back to the origins. Robert, Jimmy and JPJ are in a tight cluster near Jason's drum riser, in solidarity, like back in the club days.

"In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man..."

Jimmy's solo is a ringer for the one we all know by heart. John Paul's bass breakdowns are right on cue. Plant sounds killer. Bonham extremely focused and confident. Of course -- it's not loud enough! Plus there's some feedback. I start to feel queasy -- is the music going to be too quiet in here??

"Ramble On" -- the folksy intro gets going but sound anxieties are still distracting. It needs to be 10 times louder. But when they kick into the riff, the screens capture a look between Page & Plant, kind of a "Here we go one more time" smile that is priceless. That's when I know for real we are at a Zeppelin show.

"Black Dog" -- by this one the feedback is banished, the volume is higher, thank Odin, and Page is better in the mix. The sound is fine for the rest of the night -- it just needed to be about twice as loud.

Black Dog's where I first really notice that Jason's drumming isn't just a recital -- he's expanding on his inheritance; he's actually getting freaky on it. The crowd is nutting up, the call and response is vivid. I gotta give Bonham Jr. the MVP award for this entire deal. He was outstanding. Pounding what I presume to be his pop's yellow lucite kit, with the Zep I album cover on the kick drum. So choice. I haven't been so proud of royal rock offspring since I saw Sean Lennon on bass, totally dedicated, driving the whole band forward for a Cibba Matto club show in Hollywood.

Now Plant delivers the ritual "Good Evening." The pagan revival is in full swing.

Then comes the first curve ball of the night. Instead of keeping the crowd-pleasers rolling, the band detours into Led Zep PhD. territory: "In My Time of Dying," followed by a tune never before played live, "For Your Life."

For them to do "Dying" wasn't a shock because they said they would. It was just a strange place for it to land. Still the tempo whiplash and blues-slide growl come off well, and Plant wails to Jesus like a Delta preacher man.

But for them to bust out "For Your Life"? Most Unexpected. The slo-mo sophomore track from the silver-edged darkness of the Presence LP? This was actually the number ringing vividly in my head the next day...

So now all bets were off, you don't know what to expect.

JPJ unstraps his bass and gets behind the keyboards. Robert introduces a song modeled after Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and you know it has to be the greasy clavichord funk of...

"Trampled Underfoot" -- one of their greatest FM radio jams, and the sound that supercharged American muscle car culture in its dying days. Page smoking it on the Wah-Wah, just burning it up with a fever. Life is good.

It's startling that all this sound can come from three instruments and a pair of lungs. "Baby I can work all night, believe I got the perfect tools." Love it when there's a new twist on lyrics.

"Nobody's Fault But Mine" -- mean harp solo by Plant, solid blues rocker.

"No Quarter" -- here's where I actually get a bit misty. Maybe it's the dry ice. But I got a soft spot for Led Zep and their viking jazz odyssey. It's so musical, so full-on mystical. And to see JPJ on the ivories for this one... even without giant dingle balls on his shoulders, and no fantasy sequence where he's terrorizing the countryside on horseback, only to come home and tuck in his baby girls and play gothic organ by candlelight... whatever, this is exactly what I've been wanting for over a quarter century. Complete with theremin howl for the Dogs of Doom by the Dark Lord of Page. Valhalla, we are in the house.

"Since I've Been Loving You" -- classic blues from III. Page & Plant did this number on their 90s tours together. I was surprised they went there, because of Page's finger injury, but it sounded pretty sharp.

"Dazed & Confused" -- can you say, psychedelic warhorse? Can you say Lsd Zeppelin? Can you say BOW SOLO? And lift your $10 shot of Jack Daniels high in the sky? It was mean, even though they kept it by the book and didn't weave in a half dozen songs stream of consciousness style. Pagey, I will say you haven't looked that good under a green laser pyramid since you busted out the bow with The Firm in 1985... Love the new silver wizard hair too.

"Stairway to Heaven" -- wasn't done self-consciously, but briskly and professionally. The perfect 2007 prom number for a '70s man and his bride to do the 8th Grade Shuffle. Page nails the solo. Well done, lads.

"The Song Remains The Same" -- California sunshine? Check. Sweet Calcutta rain? Check. Honolulu starlight? Yep. Classic. Split from its normal "Celebration Day" molecule and sandwiched between two standards from zoso? I can get with that.

"Misty Mountain Hop" -- who doesn't love a sock hop in the Sierra Nevadas, and the story of a day in Golden Gate Park with the flower freaks? Get some, Jonesy!

"Kashmir" -- unreal, better even than the Page & Plant caravan version with the Egyptian orchestra in '95, and we won't mention the words Puff Daddy, because that was sacrilege. But to get this kind of panoramic sound from only three musicians?? Mind boggling fantastic. Jason is driving the sandstorm, piloting the Mothership of Moroccan Rock Epics, and the three vets of Zep are in the zone all the way. For my money the show peaks here.

Encores: "Whole Lotta Love & Rock and Roll" -- FM radio overplay to infinity but there's two Zep standards that still have some active ingredient alive inside.

2 Hours and change. 16 songs.

Our One & Only (?) Led Zeppelin Concert is a wrap.

Any regrets? Not hardly, just a bit of longing, like phantom pains. No cuts from "In Through the Out Door." The dearest songs in the canon -- "In the Light," "Ten Years Gone," "Houses of the Holy," "Night Flight," "Down By the Seaside," "The Rain Song," "Dancing Days" -- maybe for another day? The call of the Immigrant...

Will they tour? Let's put it this way, they were born to start something hot in London, then bring it on home to the birthplace of the blues, the wayward giant called the USA.

Let's check out Robert and Alison Krauss first this spring. After that...

Truly, I have no idea how they can serve the American millions and not burn out -- some kind of residency, like when Prince did 21 straight shows at the O2?? No idea, but then they're the show business geniuses not me.

Gentlemen of the band, I can assure you, you are welcome in Los Angeles any time. Where we probably won't be so well behaved as at the O2.