Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Day 86: 9/27/1971 Hiroshima, Japan

9/27/1971 Hiroshima, Japan  Live in Japan 1971
Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I've Been Loving You, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That's the Way, Going to California, Tangerine, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love

After a brief soundcheck, Immigrant Song comes thundering out of the gate. Plant exclaims "rock on!" as Page begins an excellent guitar solo during Heartbreaker. Plant complains about his microphone cutting out before introducing Dazed and Confused. There are some distracting volume shifts during the intro. The end of the bow solo is drenched in wah-wah. There is a cut in the middle of the frenzied guitar solo/workout section. 

Jones is on fire during a frantic Celebration Day. Plant's introduction of Going to California  gets a big reaction from the crowd. The band plays a tongue-in-cheek country-flavored interlude before Whole Lotta Love. The theramin freakout is bookended by an excellent heavy jam. The medley includes Boogie Chillen, a great unidentified old rock song (Plant's lyrics are indecipherable), and an excellent, foot-stomping rendition of Be-Bop-A-Lula. Unfortunately, any encores are missing from the recording.

The tape is fairly clear, if a bit overloaded at times, with minor tape issues here and there.

4 comments:

Mr. K. said...

Check out Black Beauty for a full version of this fabulous show.

chris said...

Underrated show, without question.
Great sound. I'd rate it alongside 23.
What a tour! I'd wager the greatest series of concerts Japan ever witnessed from anybody.

Anonymous said...

The newest source (on Empress Valley's 'Love and Peace') really elevates this show to a 71' Must Hear, alongside, well, every other show from Japan that year. Excellent clear and balanced atmospheric source, kind of reminds me of the 'First Attack of The Rising of the Sun' bootleg from the first night of the tour.

Anonymous said...

just a note RE:unknown R+R peice that's part of the WLL medley is ''nine times out of ten'' by cliff Richard a uk '45 from 1960