I’ve known Leesa Harrington almost as long as I’ve played music so the novelty that one of the hardest hitting drummers out of Houston is a girl wore off long ago. Our friendship most likely has also affected my sense of taste so that the idea of an all girl line up for a Led Zeppelin tribute band does not add tremendously to the appeal. Besides, I prefer my tribute bands much closer to farce than accuracy. “Accuracy? They’re girls,” you say. To which I sally, wouldn’t you need a female singer to accurately mimic Robert Plant?
These days, after the torrent of Zeppelin I was exposed to in junior high/high school, I am still far from a desire to spend an evening with the golden gods. However the appearance of Lez Zeppelin at the Double Door last Saturday night was made much more appealing by the presence of one Leesa Harrington behind the drums. Although, I must admit that once there, the presence of a Led Zeppelin tribute band was indeed made more appetizing by the presence of hot gangly East Coast/West Coast musicians who, except for the singer, could also play quite well.
I won’t bore you with the details except to say that Lez Zeppelin didn’t just run through the hits –they picked their songs for jam potential (no Stairway to Heaven, yes No Quarter) and they did bring a piano (sort of), a theremin and a bow. Back to mimicing Robert Plant: new respect, he was not out orgasmed on Whole Lotta Love. I do hope Lez corrects this –given the heavenly creature they have at their disposal.
Tribute bands are popular in Chicago so I wasn’t surprised at the packed house (at 20 bucks a pop no less). I’d complain more about that if Chicago wasn’t also a fairly receptive city to original music. In any event, I wouldn’t have been there if I didn’t know Leesa. But I do and I was and in all honesty, it was a worthy night out.
Catch Lez Zeppelin in your town. They are on a mega tour right now, swinging by just about everybody on here…er…unless you live in Mumbai, India –then you missed them by a couple of weeks.
Now if you would, please give me a clever title for this post.
I recently got re-introduced to LZ via their How The West Was Won live CD and accompanying live DVD. And I feel comfortable in saying that I will never again listen to a non-live LZ recording. And if the Beatles reunited (with John and George coming down from heaven for the occasion) and Led Zep c. 1968-78 was playing the same night, i’d choose LZ. That live version of the Immigrant Song is what I hope their playing in hell when I arrive.