7/20/1977 Tempe, AZ (master>cassette>dat)The Battle of Evermore, Going to California, Black Country Woman, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, Trampled Underfoot, Kashmir, Achilles Last Stand, Stairway to Heaven
The tape begins with a barrage of firecracker blasts as the band prepares for the acoustic set. Plant is still having trouble with his voice, completely losing control toward the end of The Battle of Evermore. The taper can be heard fiddling with his microphone throughout Going to California. Plant's weak voice forces him to alter the song's melody to compensate. Page wanders aimlessly through an uninspired guitar breakdown during Bron-Y-Aur Stomp. The band plods through a lackluster Trampled Underfoot. Someone near the taper can be heard shouting "The Lemon Song!" as the piece comes to a close.
Page abandons White Summer tonight, playing only a few bars of Black Mountain Side before jumping directly into Kashmir without the rest of the band. Unfortunately, a cut in the tape near the end of the song leaves us at the beginning of the bow section during the experimental guitar solo. Achilles Last Stand is a disaster. Page constantly gets lost in the arrangement, resulting in a chaotic cacophony of mistakes as the band struggles to get back on track. The studio recording of All Right Now can be heard bleeding through the tape as the song ends. The distracting effect continues through the initial verses of Stairway to Heaven. As the band leaves the stage, Plant announces "thank you very much, you've been too kind... really."
The tape is quite muffled and distant.
6 comments:
So you're actually telling us that Seattle was worse than tempe?
What brought you to that conclusion?
His review does rather understate the. . .badness. However, Tempe is definitely one of those things that you have to hear yourself to believe.
To me, this show isn't good, but the only song which is really embarrassing is Achilles' Last Stand. As a whole, this concert shows that even at its worst, Led Zeppelin was not bad.
IMO Tempe isn't quite as bad as its detractors make it out to be. Sure, Page was apparently out of it but Robert Plant's completely shot voice is the main culprit here. I think it was another '77 show like Louisville where the crowd was so rowdy it was distracting the band and they just wanted to get the performance over with and get out of there.
After 1973's tour,they pretty much sucked live....Sad but true after hearing the boards from 75 through 80.Pagey's tone and technique was awful,Percy's voice a horse cracking yelp,Bonzo still great but a shadow of himself and Jonesey wih that AWFUL synth in 80 and that HORRENDOUS Alembic Bass 75onward.Too much money,too many drugs
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