The wife and I went to see the much renowned Zeppelin tribute band Celebration Day last night at the Pageant. The group features members from other locally popular bands including El Monstero, Joe Dirt, The Feed, and Dr. Zhivegas. Celebration Day lived up to the hype and delivered an outstanding performance despite a small mistake here or there. They are a 5 man band, utilizing a separate bass and keyboardist, and provide the authentic 70’s zeppelin experience with a nicely done stage show and video presentation.
The guitar player Jimmy Griffin was definitely the star of the show. He channeled Jimmy Page without a doubt and had his slow, burning presence. After a riff he would light up the audience by himself with a smile of pure joy and wickedness. Of particular note was the incredible two song section of Babe I’m Gonnna Leave You and Dazed and Confused. They employed a guest guitarist (ugh, missed his name sorry) for the dual acoustic beginning. Mark Quinn singing lead was at his best in these two songs as well and the accompanying bass, keyboards, and drums were as tight as you could get making for a powerful performance.
Mark Quinn’s overall vocal performance was excellent. Of course it is a rare human being that can ever match the vocal stylings, much less the stage presence of Robert Plant and Mark did an excellent job, and he has THE hardest job in this tribute band in my opinion. But, as my wife noted, he just wasn’t as ‘Robert’ as she wanted him to be. John Pessoni on drums was about as passionate and into a set as I’ve seen a drummer and pulled off a blistering and rocking performance of Moby Dick, bare-handed drumming and all.
I thought the set they played was incredible and well thought out until they lost my energy by playing No Quarter and Since I’ve Been Loving You back to back. I was very happy to hear them play two more of my favorites, That’s the Way and In the Light.
Side note: Galactic is scheduled at the Pageant on Wednesday 3/14, touring for their new Carnival Elictricos album.
Actionsuit Alert! 
After the show we overheard a group of 20 something youngsters talking all authoritatively about how Mark Quinn really hit some good notes and about how Robert Plant was too old and just couldn’t get near those notes for years. Tracy and I had to hold each other back but luckily we turned the other direction and didn’t have to listen any longer. We both wanted to say, ‘Bitch, I JUST saw Robert in the fall at the Fox and he can and STILL does kick ass with his voice thank you very much. Now get off my lawn!’
Sounds like a good show. Enjoyed the write-up quite a bit.
Hard not to have high expectations and a nostalgic longing for the Rock-n-Roll days we were too young to experience at the time. Only Plant is Plant (evermore). There can be only one.
— sorry, mixed media reference —
Enjoy the Galactic show on 3/14. That’s a little tough to work around (from up here).
Ciao.