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Conducted by Brent Havens, the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and the tribute band, The Music of Led Zeppelin, gave an outstanding performance at the Plaza Theatre on Aug. 24 with many of Led Zeppelin’s classic songs such as “Good Times, Bad Times,” and “The Ocean.”
The Music of Led Zeppelin began with “Good Times, Bad Times,” the first track on Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut album. Although the original song has no orchestrated work, the arrangements done and performed by the orchestra gave the song something that an “all-time Zeppelin” fan doesn’t hear often.
The show continued with songs that normally wouldn’t require an orchestra to be played live. An example of this was “Ramble On,” which was featured in Zeppellin’s second studio album “Led Zeppelin II.” The orchestra accompanied the band with the melody of the song, daring to substitute a guitar riff or rhythm with another instrument, which worked perfectly and gave the song a fresh sound.
In contrast, other songs naturally required strings, brass and other instruments such as “Kashmir” from their sixth studio album “Physical Graffiti” and “The Rain Song” from their fifth album “Houses of the Holy.”
The Music of Led Zeppelin featured Randy Jackson, lead vocals and guitarist for Zebra, Allegra on electric violin, Powell Randolph on drums, George Cintron on lead guitar and Dan Clemens on bass.
Although the show featured some unexpected songs such “The Songs Remains the Same” and “Dancing Days,” the song list could have used more variety. Songs such as “No Quarter,” “Achilles Last Stand,” “The Battle of Evermore,” “Thank You,” “Tea For One,” and “Rock & Roll” that would have had a great orchestrated potential, were regrettably left out.
Other interesting songs at the show were “Heartbreaker” and “Misty Mountain Hop,” which were combined by Cintron, who interrupted “Heartbreaker’s” solo and began playing “Misty Mountain Hop;” after this excerpt, Cintron went back to the original song and solo accompanied by Allegra, who played the rest of the solo on the violin. However, “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)” wasn’t played, as it has traditionally been done
The concert was a great show overall, yet the most outstanding songs of the night were “The Rain Song” and “Since I’ve Been Loving You.”
“The Rain Song,” a beautiful ballad that normally can’t be played without a keyboard, was replaced by a live orchestra that made it sound much better, and furthermore with Jackson’s vocals, twelve-string acoustic guitar and the rest of the instruments, the song sounded just as it was meant to be.
One of the most challenging and powerful songs of Led Zeppelin repertoire “Since I’ve Been Loving You” from “Led Zeppelin III,” was performed as a beautiful slow tempo blues rock song with deep vocals and incredible guitar riffs and melody. The powerful orchestrated arrangements of “Since I’ve Been Loving You” made it almost as enjoyable and full of energy as the original track.
The concert ended with one of Zeppellin’s most known songs, “Stairway to Heaven.” The audience was singing along with the band and often times repeated famous phrases that Led Zeppelin’s original singer, Robert Plant, used to shout at concerts. “Does anybody remember laughter?” is one them. By the end of the song, audience members gave a standing ovation to the musicians and thanked them for an utmost enjoyable concert.
Leonardo Montañez may be reached at theprospectordaily,[email protected]
