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ROBERT PLANT AND THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS In Ottawa, Canada By Andrew Depedro, Ottawa Corespondent Tuesday, September 24, 2019 @ 7:19 AM
Since ZEPPELIN’s immediate demise following the death of famed drummer John Bonham in 1980, the surviving members of the legendary band have continued with their music careers. John Paul Jones has found fame as a music producer and Jimmy Page has been largely touring and recording on a lower profile (that’s when he’s not otherwise publicly quarreling with his close neighbor Robbie “Rock DJ/Fat Dancer From Take That” Williams over zoning bylaws. Yes, this is actually a thing if you do a search on it.). And Robert Plant has forged a healthy solo career stemming 11 studio albums and two compilation albums. He’s also ventured into new musical territories with various side projects including crooner pop supergroup THE HONEYDRIPPERS (with Jimmy Page) in 1984 and his 2007 collaboration with bluegrass/country songstress Alison Krauss. And his solo backing band of sorts run the proverbial gamut from THE STRANGE SENSATION to THE BAND OF JOY (who headlined the Ottawa Jazz festival a few years earlier) to his current intergalactic world beat squad THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS.
And it was on this night that Plant not only out-David Byrned himself with the international world sound vibe which captivated the 10,000+ faithful O-town crowd at Lansdowne Park, but he also dug deep into the Zep catalogue and played some ambitious deep cuts. Because, seriously, do you really need to hear fucking “Stairway” or “Whole Lotta Love” again?
While Plant’s not known for his political leanings any more than, say, Joe Strummer or Bono would be known for their sky-high falsetto vocals, he still reads his audience well. Opening the show with a clip of acclaimed teen environmental crusader Greta Thunberg speaking at an environmental conference in Poland (because world beat music needs an actual world for it to thrive, and let’s face it, our leaders aren’t really doing much to address it), Plant, with his SENSATIONAL SPACE crew, open with the mellow blues Zep classic “What Is And What Never Should Be” to respectable applause. At 71 – and actually younger than the late Ric Ocasek by four years – Plant really does look like the poster boy for the secret of eternal life. He still has all of his hair from the past five decades, a solid six-pack you could bounce pocket change off of and even his famed voice has matured without having simply aged. The trick, of course for Plant, is to locate the right pitch and the right major lift of the song; if it means slightly playing the song in a different groove without disrupting the tempo, then that’s how it’ll roll. You’d be surprised at how pretty damn catchy a lot of the Zep catalogue can be when it’s treated to Middle Eastern-style interludes (not just referring to “Kashmir” either, since he didn’t play it). Even though we’re all familiar with the 20-something version of Plant harping through the driving folk jam of “Gallows Pole”, chanting during the chorus of the moving groove of “Black Dog” and aligning his voice with the mandolin-based tones of “The Battle Of Evermore”, his new spin on the Zep classics gives the listener a better appreciation of the music thanks to him using his voice at the right time and limiting any unnecessary use.
Even if it’s been a long time since he truly rock and rolled, Robert Plant can still bring his own brand of indelible swagger to every genre he’s experimented with, and it seemed fitting that the closing number of the night was “Ramble On” as he thanked the Ottawa crowd for “letting the Sensational Space ship land in friendly territory”. Few if anyone missed being denied “Stairway…” that night as Plant’s made his own path to the stars long since then.
https://www.robertplant.com/
Setlist:
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