Comments: By the magic of analogue audio you can travel back in time and add your name to the list of several hundred witnesses to one of Zep's most magic nights. Near the end of the concert Plant says, "This is the most fun Jimmy's had since the Yardbirds." And this is the Best Concert As the New Yardbirds on their first US tour. Tonight Page Telecasts and Tonebends his most spontaneous playing...the dense, distorted recording complements the warm and bassy 'woman tone' he uses for the guitar parts.

They roll through Train Kept A Rollin' aggressively, and Page steps off the Fuzzbox for the clean sound of I Can't Quit You Spontaneously creative, Page breaks off flurries of notes. You can hear him catch himself in mid-phrase, out of control, and extend the run. Jimmy's inspired playing will continue all night: the fills and riffs he adds to the songs are unique to this concert alone, and work in strange counterpoint to the mood of the pieces. Killing Floor unfolds with an unusual uptempo rythmic introduction and Page exploits the Yardbirds' old Rickenbacker amplifiers to make distorted noises throughout the song. Spikes of feedback surge up behind him when he stops playing. Robert 'Don't Care What I'm Feeling' Plant responds wildly to Jimmy's playing, and brings it down to answer his soulful, desolate runs during the "Lemon" lyrics.

To introduce Dazed And Confused, Jones doubles up his basslines, making them hop. Jimmy's unique fills zigzag as the song builds to the bow solo. The warm fullness of the recording swells as Page bows his darkly emotional lines, answered by Plant in New Yardbird fashion with Shapes Of Things When the fast guitar break comes back, you can't even hear the rest of the band, and you don't even care. The song ends but Page can't stop the flow, and he plays between songs as Plant talks to the audience. The band stretch out on a 12 minute version of You Shook Me. Page alternates between pretty and nasty sounds, and Jones lays out on the organ solo, showing off his chops.

Plant's vocal gets lost in a dense Communication Breakdown. The distance of his voice disappoints, as he seems to sing some alternate lyrics in most songs to improvise with Jimmy, but the words are hard to decipher. White Summer/Black Mountain Side sounds very good in the recording, and Page's unique guitar pronunciation alters the sound of many of the song's riffs. He fills every space in the song as spontaneous phrases erupt from his fingers. Jimmy continues in top form through How Many More Times and as the self-proclaimed son of Howlin' Wolf adds the "Smokestack Lightning" riffs. As the song grows, Plant leaves Page alone and he just testifies, tripling the length of the "Bolero" section with a wide palate of riffs and effects unheard elsewhere. Jones keeps it popping, riffing out of his inexhaustible R&B vocabulary. Plant comes back and sings "Duke, duke, duke, duke of Earl"! Maybe this is why they thought about firing him after the first US tour, or so it says in "Hammer of the Gods." The get back in the Yardbirds groove with a little For Your Love with the bow, and then the tape cuts out just before the "Rosie" section. How much more did they play tonight? Jones has said in interviews that they played for 4 hours one night at the Boston Tea Party...

Cobla makes a nice, authentic package with a a hot pink paper case replica of the original Trademark of Quality LP of this show, and a printed insert with the track listing. The discs are also hot pink, numbered 1 and 2 in big fat type. Too bad they don't make the spine of the case wide enough to fit both discs comfortably.

Sound Rating: 5-6

Eric Romano (6/2/97)

The review for "Killing Floor" is ©1997 Eric Romano, and may not be reproduced in any media, electronic or otherwise, without the express permission of the author.