Jimmy Page's 66th Birthday Celebration featuring Led Zepagain

Jimmy Page's 66th Birthday Celebration featuring Led Zepagain
Date: 01/09/10
Place: Grove Of Anaheim
Review by ~ Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal

The opening band was a Chicago tribute named 'Make Me Smile' but I missed them entirely because I was interviewing Led Zepagain at that time.

Next band to hit the stage were David Lee Roth era Van Halen tribute band Fan Halen. They had a pretty good selection of songs and most of the stuff that any Van Halen fan would want to hear. The stage at the Grove of Anaheim was quite huge, giving these guys plenty of opportunity to carry out their stage antics, like the singer jumping from the drum riser, chugging down a bottle of Jack Daniels and even doing a Sammy Hagar tease. Performance wise, I thought the singer was decent and was giving it his all. The guitarist did a very good job and 'Eruption' was specially great by him. The crowd got involved to a pretty good extent during their set. They didn't seem to do anything different from the previous time I saw them but I had a good time nonetheless.

Here's their complete set list:

1. Unchained
2. Panama
3. Running With The Devil
4. Ain't Talkin' Bout Love
5. Dance The Night Away
6. Eruption
7. You Really Got Me
8. Hot For Teacher
9. Jump

The Jimmy Page birthday celebrations were about to begin with the ever-amazing Led Zepagain hitting the stage at around 10.15. They know quite a huge number of Zeppelin songs, as you will find out while reading the interview, and they certainly know how to use their entire 'catalog'. This was the fourth time I was seeing them, and the set lists have been different every time. This is what separates them from other tribute acts and makes you want to witness the spectacle again and again. They not only change the songs in the set, they keep varying the length of the set too, along with other surprises here and there.

At this particular gig they made seven changes from the last time I saw them which was in October. This set appropriately featured some of Jimmy Page's finest moments with Zeppelin. It was amazing to hear songs like 'No Quarter', 'Immigrant Song', 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp', 'White Summer/Black Mountain Side' and 'Heartbreaker' among other the usual classics. During 'Kashmir' a dancer dressed in a traditional outfit graced the stage and I thought that suited the song very well. I had not seen them do this in the previous renditions of Kashmir. They do something new every time. As far as the performance goes, I have already given them all the superlatives that one could think of in my previous reviews. Steve's guitar playing looks more and more effortless every time I see him play. Swan was in his elements. Jim on bass, keyboards and mandolin was great, specially the mandolin on 'Going To California'. So if you haven't seen these guys yet, you should do so!

Here's their complete set list:

1. Rock And Roll
2. Celebration Day
3. Nobody's Fault But Mine
4. Immigrant Song
5. Over The Hills And Far Away
6. No Quarter
7. Going To California
8. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
9. The Song Remains The Same
10. The Rain Song
11. White Summer/Black Mountain Side
12. Kashmir
13. Dazed And Confused
14. Achilles Last Stand
15. Stairway To Heaven

Encore:
16. Heartbreaker
17. Whole Lotta Love

Check out the band's official site: www.zepagain.com

Interview with all four members of Led Zepagain by Andrew

Steve Zukowsky (guitar)
Swan Montgomery (vocals)
Jim Wootten (bass, keyboards)
Jim Kersey (drums)

Andrew: You are doing this Jimmy Page's birthday celebration here tonight. How are you guys feeling?

Steve: Umm, nothing with guitar tonight (laughs) No, but it is going to be just some of Jimmy's all time greatest compositions, solos and all the great stuff that he came up with.

Andrew: Do you guys do this every year?

Steve: We're lucky it came out on a weekend this year. It just worked out. We don't necessarily do it, but we try and make mention of birthdays of the band members if we have shows that fall on them. We don't plan those shows but when the dates come up it's a possibility.

Andrew: What do you think is more important for a tribute band, playing the music right or getting the other stuff right like costumes etc?

Swan: I think its all important. If you're going to pay tribute to a band, you know you've got to get the music down first. Then you've got to get the look and the guitars and drums. Some bands out there just get the music right and not dressing and looking right. It is not the same thing, you know.
Jim W: I think the visual thing with Led Zeppelin was so important to what they did.
Steve: Yeah it doesn't matter with some bands but with Led Zeppelin it was definitely a big part.

Andrew: Do you guys ever keep an eye out on the other tribute bands to see what they do differently?

Steve: Not at all, you mean there are others? (laughs)
Swan: Well we always see what's coming up through the ranks. Yeah its always good to see what the competition's like, to make sure that we're on point with every aspect like getting back to the music and the costumes and what's going on. And I think that's the downfall of a lot of the other Zeppelin tribute bands. Mostly it is the music. They don't really have it down and sometimes it's the costumes. That's where they fail.

Andrew: You guys come up with an almost different set for every show, despite playing so many shows. How do you guys manage to do that?

Jim W: We don't actually practice at all! In eight years we may have practiced may be 15 to 20 times as a group. But we know 71 of their songs. So basically what happens is, if we get into a new area we'll try to play all the stuff that we know people will be familiar with. If we come back on a regular basis, then we'll try to throw in some of the more obscure songs to make it fun for them, something which they've never heard before. But pretty much we have four or five songs that we play every show, song which people just feel like, you've got to play them if you are a Zeppelin band.

Andrew: 71! That is a huge number of songs!

Steve: Yeah! It keeps it interesting for us too because we're playing every weekend, and we like to come close to having a train wreck on stage (laughs)

Andrew: You guys went to the Led Zeppelin O2 show in 2007. What were you expecting going in and did it meet your expectation?

Swan: Oh it was phenomenal. In my opinion, Robert's voice wasn't as good as back in the 60s but it didn't matter. It was great just to see them on stage together. Magical is the word I would use. It was phenomenal. Then to watch the son of John Bonham stepping up, we understand through talking to him that it was very emotional for him and his family to be playing with Led Zeppelin. It was great!
Steve: For me it was more than I expected. I knew it would be something really cool to see but it took on that extra dimension, you know. And yeah like he said about Jason, that was really emotional and cool.

Andrew: What's your opinion on the possibility of a reunion?

Swan: I think Jimmy really wanted to do it because if you look at him on the show, he was so together. I just think Robert sort of moved on from it. He just wanted to give it his last and it even surprised me personally that he agreed to do it. I actually take my hat off to him. He is a man of his convictions. He knows when it was brilliant, it was fantastic then, and lets not beat it. It was great that they came out with the revamped version of it, that was cool. But where can you go if you're expecting it to be 1975?
Steve: Yeah if they were going to do it, it would only be good if they all really wanted to do it. Its clear that they don't, specially Robert like he's saying. So the worst thing would be for him to be forced into it because that would completely destroy the whole reputation of what Led Zeppelin was about. Its just best to leave it where it is. They're going out on a high after 30 years. They got up there one more time and gave it their all. That was phenomenal. But they should put it out on DVD at least.
Jim K: What they could do is Jimmy could come up to Led Zepagain and we could back him. He (Steve) would play all the double guitar parts. We just need someone to let him know.
Steve: We'll just wait for the phone to ring. (laughs)

Andrew: You guys played at the Loudpark festival last year. How did that happen?

Steve: Actually a Japanese girl who's a fan of ours, was living here in the US and she kind of goes back and forth to see her family. She just liked us and asked us, hey would you guys like to play in Japan and should I make some inquiries over there for you? Yes, by all means! She just hooked us up with the promoter of that festival which was phenomenal. It went great. We did a club show there as well and we are looking to go back again this year.
Jim W: We actually got a good spot at 3.30 in the afternoon. The Lynch Mob came out after us. So it was good!

Andrew: Other than Led Zeppelin of course, what other music inspires you?

Jim K: I'm into Gamut, classical Jazz and rock like Van Halen.
Steve: He's also into Britney Spears. Swan: Not for musical reasons though (laughs)

Andrew: Which is the longest set that you guys played?

Jim W: Four and a half hours!
Steve: It was in San Diego. It was called 'Zepstock' and it was in 2004. It was just a one off festival. We did take a little break in between though.
Jim W: We ended up playing 40 songs.
Swan: That time probably those were the only songs we knew!

Andrew: Thanks for the interview guys. It was great fun. Have a great night and enjoy yourselves on stage!

All: Appreciated, man. Thanks!