This is a show I covered in a two parter about 5 years ago. Led Zeppelin in Cleveland, Ohio on April 28, 1977. I'm revisiting it now because it's an amazing show, worthy of another listen. The band is on and the power and mystery are on display. Bonzo seems locked in a little tighter, Jonesy seems a bit more front and center, and it makes for a glorious show. I play The Song Remains the Same, Achilles Last Stand, and a rare encore performance of Trampled Underfoot. This is a fantastic gig and a ...
Jul 06, 2025•35 min
This is a fantastic Two of Us recording of Lou Reed at NYC's St. James Theater, on March 21, 1989. He plays the entirety of the New York album before playing a second set of Lou faves. It's glorious.
Jul 04, 2025•29 min
You may be wondering about Part 1 of this series. No worries, I don't blame you. Part 1 was a couple years back, Ep. 188. I play different songs so there's no overlap if you want to 1, 2 it. This is June 28, 1972 in Tucson Arizona (such a fine sight to see) which was the last show of the US 1972 tour. They're playing Houses of the Holy material to an audience completely unfamiliar. Can you imagine hearing Over the Hills for the first time ever, and it's live? I play Over the Hills and Far Away, ...
Jun 29, 2025•57 min
This podcast has introduced me to some wonderful and amazing people. One of them provided this recording of Robert Plant and Saving Grace with Suzi Dian, in Malmo, Sweden on May 9, 2025. I play a strong acoustic Four Sticks, a lovely Down to the Sea (off Fate of Nations), and a haunting Gillian Welch song, Orphan Girl. It's nice to hear Robert out and about and enjoying himself.
Jun 23, 2025•22 min
This is a very enjoyable recording of Bad Company playing the Boston Garden on August 6, 1977. They were on tour supporting their album Burning Sky and KRW_Co did an excellent job digitizing the 1st gen reels. I play Burning Sky, Ready For Love, and a powerful Deal with the Preacher. Paul Rodgers sings like room temp butter spread on toast. Glorious. Enjoy.
Jun 20, 2025•26 min
Radiohead played an outdoor festival in Switzerland on July 2, 2016, which was broadcast on tv and radio. This recording is a matrix of three different sources of this show, giving us a complete, intro to outro, concert. I play Nude, Lucky, No Surprises, and Exit Music (From a Film). Each one of those songs is brilliant and I think you'll be very happy hearing them.
Jun 18, 2025•30 min
You can imagine my delight when I saw that Led Zeppelin Boots had created an updated edition of the 1975 soundboard compilation that'd been around for a bit. Choosing tracks from the extant soundboard tapes, Boots crafted a very enjoyable listener. You can think of it as a sampler. You get a taste of each show represented. I play Sick Again from 3/21 Seattle, Levee from 1/18 Bloomington, and Kashmir from 2/28 Baton Rouge.
Jun 16, 2025•35 min
North Bridge has released a new remix/remaster of Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden on June 7, 1977. This is the first night of their multi night residency in NYC. Jonesy's bass is very well represented, with a fat tone missing from many 1977 boots. I play Achilles Last Stand (Jonesy's bass dude...) and an epic, eternal No Quarter with the Nutrocker included. It's nuts. Then Bonzo and Jimmy go primal on the festivities, and we have another 1977 No Quarter in the books. Good stuff. I like the...
Jun 10, 2025•49 min
This is posted one day after the 52nd anniversary of this wonderful show. Led Zeppelin playing to 58,000 people outside, in broad daylight, at Kezar Stadium on June 2, 1973. This show is famous for the photo of Robert Plant holding a dove in his hand. I play a very nice 31 minuted Dazed and Confused followed by the show closer, The Ocean. It's a really nice show overshadowed by the shows directly before and after.
Jun 04, 2025•49 min
This is a very cool look at Jimmy Page's music mere months before the formation of Led Zeppelin. May 29, 1968 at the Concord Colosseum had The Yardbirds playing a very cool bluesy/psychedelic set to a very lucky audience. Given that Clapton, Beck, and Page all gestated within the Yardbirds, it's safe to say the Yardbirds were a guitar band. Unfortunately, they were marketed as a pop combo, so as the 60's evolved into the wilder, more improvisational psychedelic areas, the disconnect between thei...
May 26, 2025•39 min
I can't believe the Earl's Court shows are 50 years old! Jesus. For this episode I am featuring an audience compilation of the best of all five nights. I play In My Time of Dying from the May 25th, Tangerine from the 18th (great harmonies from all 4 gents), and Heartbreaker & Communication Breakdown, both from the 25th.
May 19, 2025•47 min
This is an amazing send off for Robert Plant's higher range. December 8, 1972 at the Hard Rock in Manchester, UK is a great performance of a great band reaching their peak. The recording is clear and nice, and the instruments are all well balanced and represented. I play Since I've Been Loving You, and a raucous 27 minute Whole Lotta Love, with jams and medleys aplenty. It's great. It's 1972 Led Zeppelin. You should get the whole recording.
May 12, 2025•46 min
I was delighted to come across this wonderful recording through Led Zeppelin Boots' amazing YouTube channel. April 14, 1970 had Led Zeppelin playing Ottawa, Alberta in a brilliant, exciting, explosive kaboom of awesomeness. The tape itself in fragmentary and incomplete, but what's here is gold. I play Dazed and Confused, Heartbreaker, and an incredible White Summer/Black Mountainside. This show was a delight!
Apr 28, 2025•43 min
Boston was always a big Led Zeppelin town, starting back at the very beginning with the marathon Tea Party gigs, through this show right here. July 20, 1973 is the last time Zeppelin played Boston. The crowd is wild at this gig, so much so that the band eliminate Misty Mountain Hop, Since I've Been Loving You, and Moby Dick from the setlist. All to keep the crowd from going Chernobyl. No encores either. I play Celebration Day, a smokin' Stairway, and a brilliant No Quarter that presages the bril...
Apr 22, 2025•40 min
This is nice stereo FM master recording of Aerosmith in Detroit on April 7, 1974, broadcast on WABX back in the day. The band is rapidly ascending to the top of Rock Mountain with Get Your Wings, the album they're supporting here. I play Mama Kin, Dream On, and Same Old Song & Dance. It's good ol' dirty rock and roll a la The Faces or The New Barbarians. Good stuff.
Apr 17, 2025•30 min
Eight days after the shambolic Live Aid reunion Jimmy Page joined Robert Plant onstage at the Brendan Byrne Arena, in East Rutherford, NJ. The contrast between the two gigs couldn't be greater. Robert's voice is virtually perfect and Jimmy's guitar (and Jimmy himself) are in tune. I play an aching beautiful Young Boy Blues from his then current Honeydrippers EP, and then I play the two encores Jimmy played with the band; the first being a standard blues number (I don't know if it has a name), an...
Apr 14, 2025•42 min
This show, February 27, 1996, is the third to the last for Page/Plant's No Quarter tour, and it is smokin'! The band hasn't lost a step since their legendary Japanese shows of a few days prior. This is an excellent audience recording which maintains the high bar set in Japan, quality-wise. I play a ridiculously hot In The Evening, and the two encores which took the roof off the place. Black Dog and Rock and Roll. The latter two are sung with Robert Plant going alllllll out; hitting notes one doe...
Apr 07, 2025•34 min
This recording was liberated by the Dogs of Doom back in the day, and boy oh boy is it cool! Cream playing Dallas State Fair Music Hall just 7 months before they called it a day. The recording is rough. The bass is super loud and overloaded. The vocals are buried behind the music, but that because that's how they sounded, basically. PA systems hadn't yet been developed to keep up with cranked Marshall stacks. That would be a year later. I play a blistering Sunshine of Your Love, and and even mor...
Apr 04, 2025•32 min
This is a very nice stereo recording (AUD patched w/ SBD) remastered by Winston, of Led Zeppelin playing New Orleans on May 15, 1973. This is a fun performance which is one of the best of their May shows. I play the final trifecta of the night; Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love (with medleys aplenty), and Communication Breakdown. All performances are great and you will enjoy them. You will enjoy them.
Mar 31, 2025•40 min
Led Zeppelin always seemed to bump it up a notch when touring the West Coast/PNW, and this is no exception. March 19, 1975 in Vancouver, BC is one of the better shows from this tour. I have covered this show before, but it's been almost 5 years since then, so.... fair game. I play Sick Again, Kashmir, & In My Time of Dying; all of which new songs for this tour.
Mar 24, 2025•37 min
On July 1, 1980 Santana played Frankfurt, Germany at the same venue in which Led Zeppelin played the night before. Jimmy Page hung around and attended the show, and even joined the band for a couple of tunes. What is noteworthy is how good the jams are. 1980 Jimmy can be very hit or miss. This is a hit. A hit out of the park. First of all Santana is an incredible band as is the recording (Master Soundboard) which was remastered by Dario Romero. They did a great job. I play a raucous and extremel...
Mar 16, 2025•29 min
June 17, 1980 is the first date in Led Zeppelin's Tour Over Europe, and on that date we find the band in Dortmund. They come out of the gate with something to prove, and they deliver. The show opens with an intense and dangerous Train Kept A Rollin' followed without a breath by Nobody's Fault But Mine, which now is truncated as the intro guitar is eliminated going right into the song. I like it. The Rain Song is perfection as it usually is with Bonzo bringing fury and bombast, which will diminis...
Mar 09, 2025•40 min
This show has been around forever in lower quality but this is transferred from the reel master. Heinz Esser is the taper of this awesome Free concert, and he also taped Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple (and more). He caught a great performance by Paul Rodgers and Co. for sure. Paul Kossof is a master of tone and technique at only 19 years old. Andy Fraser's thicc bass and Simon Kirke's tight drumming create a powerful engine, with Paul Rodgers at the controls. I play The Hunter (Zep fans will recog...
Mar 03, 2025•20 min
The very last time the Firm played publicly was May 28, 1986 in good ol' Seattle. Everyone in the band knew it was the end of the project, and they all play their hearts out. Paul Rodgers outdoes himself with delivery and passion. Jimmy is very upbeat and talkative. This show is really good. You know how I am at best lukewarm on the Firm, overall, but the Mean Business tour sounds streets ahead of the 1985 tour. You're going to enjoy the energy, the music, and the balls of this show. I play an i...
Mar 02, 2025•49 min
The 1996 Page/Plant tour of Japan has been extremely well regarded, and documented, for close to 30 years. Thanks to the fantastic audio and video captured, with the ok of the band, by Third Eye, we have a magnificent full stereo recording of February 12, 1996 in Tokyo. We hear a tender Tea for One (only ever played on this tour) with orchestra, a brilliant and bombastic Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, with a nice Stairway tease, and a supremely tight and cool af Whole Lotta Love, which contains the o...
Feb 24, 2025•50 min
I once again revisit one of the finest Zep concerts, at least of the post 1973 era. July 24, 1979 at the Falkoner Theater in Copenhagen is absolutely brilliant concert by the biggest band in the world, playing a 1200 seat venue, as a warmup to their 200,000+ Knebworth shows the next month. I play Trampled Underfoot, In The Evening (2nd time played), and a raucous Whole Lotta Love with a new arrangement for a new era. All this in anticipation of the newly discovered live film from this show, to b...
Feb 17, 2025•46 min
Only the first two songs of this show are publicly extant, and I always have love for the runt of the litter, so here we go! Led Zeppelin played Wallingford, Connecticut on August 17, 1969 and we are able to hear Train Kept A Rollin' and I Can't Quit You Baby, at least. Thank god for tapers!
Feb 11, 2025•17 min
There's a good reason I'm coming back to this show, after almost 5 years. Watchtower has released a version of this show in fantastic quality, without the noise reduction that muffled prior releases. It's also one of the best shows from one of the best years of one of the best bands around. So there's that. This is band's first night of their first Japanese tour and they're out to impress the people of Tokyo. I play a superlative Since I've Been Loving You, which you should listen to right now. ...
Feb 04, 2025•45 min
On August 19, 1971 Led Zeppelin began their North American tour in Vancouver, BC and we have the pleasure of hearing peak Zep, thanks to an intrepid taper. Last time I touched upon this show we featured the first few songs; this time we're back for more. I play a scorching Black Dog (sung like the record), a powerful (better than the European ones, imo) Gallows Pole (on the doubleneck 12 string), and a raucous and frenzied cover of Eddie Cochran's Weekend. Each performance is pure fire, as is th...
Jan 27, 2025•29 min
May 11, 1986 is the date The Firm played the Cleveland Colosseum for concert which was broadcast on the Westwood One Radio Network, back in the day. Thus the quality is professionally mixed stereo. The fantastic sound quality brings out the virtuosity of the band. Tony Franklin and Chris Slade are a beautifully solid rhythm section, fluid enough to let Jimmy weave in and around the beat like a dervish. I play fantastic performances (I mean it) of Prelude/Money Can't Buy, You've Lost That Lovin' ...
Jan 20, 2025•40 min