rock concert

Ex-Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant presented his new solo album "Mighty Rearranger" at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg. The condition of the rock legend's lungs and vocal cords was assessed by BORIS BARABANOV.

Robert Plant allocated three days in his schedule to St. Petersburg and not a single hour to Moscow. This is the logistics of the Russian touring business today. It is more profitable to bring artists only to St. Petersburg, especially for serious rock musicians, for whom Muscovites music lovers are ready to fork out for train tickets. During this year alone, Belokamennaya delegated entire trains of REM fans (who came in vain - the concert was canceled) and Dead Can Dance to St. Petersburg, now it’s the turn of the “zeppelinophiles”. The ice palace was packed to capacity. However, unlike the Moscow concert of Robert Plant three years ago, at which even at the stage one could see gentlemen in the uniform of top-level managers, the stands and the dance floor of Ledovoy were filled with the most democratic audience, many managed to warm up in the bar while a mediocre local played music on stage warming up And of course, the concerts of both cities were related by the age of the audience. This was not a case where the love of Led Zeppelin united "fathers" and "sons". The “fathers” made up the absolute majority.

Robert Plant and his current band The Strange Sensation gave a short press conference before the concert. According to the singer, if the blues is the music of dark-skinned slaves who were once exported to North America, then The Strange Sensation draws inspiration from the rhythms of the regions from which these slaves were exported. The appearance of a pirated version of the "Mighty Rearranger" disc did not go unnoticed. “We have a new album coming out in three weeks, but in St. Petersburg you can buy it now,” said Mr. Plant. And then, together with the group, I spent a long time looking at the design of the left CD brought by one of the journalists. The musical concept of "Mighty Rearranger" left its mark on The Strange Sensation's live sound. After broadcasting a ten-minute dub/drum and bass overture on Moroccan music to the audience, the team took the stage, with three of the six musicians holding large tambourines. The artists slowly built up the atmosphere with the help of a Bedouin beat until the audience finally recognized the composition. It was "No Quarter" by Led Zeppelin. In the very first song, Robert Plant showed that if his vocal cords do not become stronger with age, then his lungs are fine and he can still sing notes accessible to his throat longer than many young vocalists. "No Quarter" turned out to be a remake of a remake. The piece, built on the leading electric organ of John Paul Jones, was sung by Robert Plant ten years ago in a radically changed form during a reunion based on a shared love of world music with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Now this version has been revised. This is the whole of today's Robert Plant. If the completely new songs of The Strange Sensation play close to the album sound, then the numbers from the frontman’s past records have been changed beyond recognition. For example, in “Black Dog” the harmony and rhythmic structure were preserved, but the band played the main guitar riff half “wrong”; “Gallows Pole”, “When The Levee Breaks” and “Four Sticks” underwent the same kind of metamorphosis. These songs, as well as the new material, are presented by Robert Plant in an incredibly powerful psychedelic sound, in which the sharp electronic passages of Bristol keyboardist John Baggott, who went through the harsh school of concertizing with trip-hoppers Portishead and Massive Attack, look absolutely appropriate. Guitarists Justin Adams and Skin Tyson do not at all hide in the shadow of the famous frontman and do not shy away from the pathos poses typical of guitar heroes, but at The Strange Sensation concert you will not find a stupid squealing start or a ten-minute guitar piece in the “look what tricks I learned” style. . Everything is subordinated to the main idea - to convey by all available means, from guitar riffs and imitation of theremin to Arabic darbuka and simple handclaps, a shamanic atmosphere palpable by all senses, characteristic of the songs of Robert Plant. To emphasize the distinctiveness of the current sound of his music, the singer decided that one song in the concert, namely “Ramble On,” should still be performed in full accordance with the Zeppelin canon. This acted like a contrast shower on the already speechless audience.

The concert ended with the classic song "Whole Lotta Love", the most accurate musical analogue of sexual intercourse in history. Robert Plant let out a climactic orgasmic scream against the background of mirror balls spinning under the ceiling, just like in the legendary Led Zeppelin film “The Song Remains The Same”. One must think that in this way the singer made it clear that he was not going to renounce his roots. Led Zeppelin were by far the most poly-stylistic, most broad-minded heavy band, but The Strange Sensation is a testament to how far modern music has come from the hard rock of the 70s.

Robert Plant presented a pirated disc