CONCERT REVIEW: Lez Zeppelin @ the Fillmore New York Irving Plaza 9/13

Okay, so the Fillmore East is no longer in its same location, but it’s pretty damn close. And no band could possibly be Led Zeppelin, but I must say that Lez Zeppelin is pretty damn close. There’s nothing like a nice cool almost autumn breeze coming from the open window of the ferry on the way back from yet another long night of hard rocking.

So I get into this place like right when the doors open at 8 (show starts at 9) and I’m directed to the wristband station and I’m just looking around scoping the joint out. The building looks really classic like as you walk up the stairs you have the framed pictures on the wall of all the acts that have been at the Fillmore. Photos of Eric Clapton, the Grateful dead, Pete Townshend, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello and this is all off memory, im leaving out like 40 others; Radiohead, The White Stripes, Tom Petty and Jane’s addiction. I felt the rock and roll history flowing through my veins right there while walking up that stairway to heaven even though it’s 2 blocks away from the original. They (Livenation and Irving Plaza) did a very good job in making that place an exciting venue to see a show, I wonder what Liquid Swords is going to be like tomorrow night.

I get done looking around, scouting out where I’m going to be situated. There are two floors, the top balcony upstairs where people are soon to be hanging off ledges rocking out and the main floor which is like 50 feet of free roaming space to stand and cause a complete “moshpit”; that’s where most of us wanted to be and ended up. It’s sick because the floor looks like a gym floor with the wood finish and shit, and the stage had a theater-like screen in front of it before they pulled it up so the band could play; the place was smaller then a one of the theaters at the South Avenue United Arts, which is a fucking incredibly great thing if your seeing a rock concert. And there are bars everywhere. 2 upstairs, like 3 downstairs and a beer on tap like near the door. And the “Smoking section” is one of the exit doors only they gated off like 15 feet of space for us to smoke. Because us smokers nowadays need to be confined to little hidden corners and back doors because we are not human because we smoke cigarettes (and by the way, yes I did light up some pot right there just for spite of it). So since I’m early, it is time to get drunk and quick. I had already smoked mad pot outside and sticked up to an entire different extent. So I hit the bar grab a beer or two before the opening act “In Flight Radio” comes out to do there set.

From what I’ve read about the band “In Flight Radio” I really wasn’t looking forward to it too much. I thought they would get the absolute opening act treatment considering who the fuck are these people to rain on our Lez Zeppelin parade? To my surprise, the band wasn’t bad at all. Not going to say that I’ve joined the fan club or anything, just saying that they had my head nodding and had won over the crowd by the time the lead singer known as “Peira” put her powder blue electric guitar down and starting tuning an acoustic for a song. It’s kind of quiet for like a minutes already and I’m waiting for someone to scream it, I’m looking around like where is the dude who’s going to say it? Well, I had to do what needed to be done. I screamed “Freebird!!!!!!!!” and a shit load of people near me were busting out laughing and Peira while chuckling says “I was waiting for that one”. She didn’t see me personally I was too far back at this point, but her being able to hear it makes it so great a place to see a concert. I’m fucking deaf right now.

A little while after In Flight radio went off I went to the bar to get a vodka tonic (look at me, I’m a baler ordering 9 dollar drinks). So I see a familiar looking face coming towards the bar from like this side of the stage door thing where they kept spare equipment and shit. Guess who the fuck is coming to bar to order a drink? It’s fucking Peira, the lead vocalist/guitarist of In Flight Radio. And like I’m leaning on the end bar and Peira orders a drink. No one is like coming up to her or anything, so I say “hey great show, how bout an autograph?”. This chick looks dead in my eyes, sips her drink and walks away from me without saying a word. Memo to people in bands: You can’t big time someone when your small time yourself.

And to the main event, Lez Zeppelin: The only credible Zeppelin cover band I could think of and the crowd that was there knew that. I was actually wondering how the atmosphere was going to be, but everyone there kicked fucking ass, everybody was cool. I hung out with like 5 different pairs or trios of people like just shooting the shit smoking cigarettes.

When these chicks hit the stage, it was freaking insane the amount of energy they brought with them and bounced those vibes off to us the audience. I was seriously no more then 25 feet(estimated because I’m not taking a Math class this semester) from the guitarist Steph Paynes who I can’t say enough good things about. No, of course she’s not Jimmy Paige but she holds her own without a doubt. Along with bringing out the double neck 18 string guitar for a song or two, some of her solos(along with drugs and the light show) put me in a dazed and confused sort of state. And they were moving into each song quickly as if you didn’t know the other song stopped. They performed all of Led Zeppelin II, and of course they did “Heartbreaker” then going directly into “Living Loving Maid”. And they lead singer of Lez Zeppelin Sarah McLellan was like fucking amazing hot looking. I was singing the songs, looking at her and her on stage movements and shit and I was like “this chick is getting me pretty horny right now”. And that’s probably the effect Robert Plant gave off to the females (or gay dudes[not that there’s anything wrong with that]) at the old scholl Led Zep shows. She was wearing these jeans and the way she held the microphone wire, damn. That show was friggin’ great. Are they a band played on the radio? No. Have they ever toured Japan? No, but in two weeks they’re going. Point is, this shit fucking rocked, and I’ll go to any show at the Fillmore NY Irving Plaza now, anytime any day. What an amazing show, great venue and such good times.

But, as the song says “Good Times, Bad Times”. One flaw to the show, which was very peculiar to me, was the fact that they didn’t play “Stairway to Heaven”. Are you freaking kidding me? No stairway?? I had half a blogged mapped out on the amazing solo I was going to see when they encore with that song. But it was not to be as they encored with Kashmir, which is a great song and was performed top notch but just I’m sitting there wondering where the hell “Stairway to Heaven” is? It Led Zeppelin’s like signature song!! I leaned on the stage as they took apart the set just to make sure that they weren’t going to come out and play it. Well, I guess when she gets there she knows that the store are all closed.

All and all as rambled on in this thing, it was a great show. Next up on the Jay Porks Never ending concert circuit is Weezer at Madison Square Garden September 24th. I guess that’s the next time you’ll be hearing from me.