from Mariuca:
I have no backstage stories, no miracle meetings to tell, just the concert. It was my first time – I’m still under spell, just 2 hours since and waiting for my train all night, but I take a deep breath and try to tell you how it was.
I’ve heard some live Robert performances (’93, ’94, ’98, 2000-2006) and I say this: I’ve NEVER EVER heard Robert singing so well, he was just perfect! The sound was crystal clear in the loudspeakers and I heard no mistake. He played songs from L.Z. I, III and IV just as you can hear on the original album! I could have closed my eyes and dream of Madison Square Garden ’73 (I wasn’t even born then ). He just exceeds every artist I’ve seen live, of any age/sex/style, with his energy, charisma and incredibly perfect voice. What’s this guy doing, getting younger every year ? The concert lasted 2 full hours (yeaaah ) and in the end Robert was still jumping over the boxes on his way out!! He’s in big shape, very lean and flexy, great hair, just a shadow of beard (I’m in the no-goatee party ). He wore a black t-shirt with some pirate’s skull and crossed daggers on, tight blue jeans and as I remember, no jewels but his blue-stone ring.
As for the band – they seem to get tighter and tighter, they work on as one, they did superb improvisations, they’re just so right with this music, and they seem to be so caught by on stage. There were some changes from last year, especially on Roberts’ vocals, the Delta calls…
So: they started up with an explosive Tin Pan Valley, great song to win your audience with! People around me didn’t seem much aware of his solo tracks, but they got caught up in the rhythm very quickly. Robert had this gesture afterwards, that really won him the audience: he was calling us with his hands to come along, and like gathered our vibe, put it in hollow of his hands and direct it to the microphone, very nice… Then an equally energetic 7 & 7 Is and a very much-expected Black Dog ( I was very proud to know how they’d changed the song and react to it well ).
Takamba then and Friends . The latter has a lot of original Led Zeppelin and brand new orchestration; the guitars brought back the ancient flavour, somehow lost in the ’94 retake.
Then followed a very emotional Going to California. Robert seemed so moved. It’s great just how sincere all these songs sound… it makes you feel the 70’s were not a lost, exotic age, but something to keep in your heart.
Four Sticks woke us up (from dreaming..), with great Clive Deamer and Skin’s performances. With a long, dramatic intro (with Robert mesmerizing with his hands’ moves), Slow Dancer was… well, I was confused too! I had listened to the song the day before and I was quite curious about the retake, cause it has so many common points with what they play now. Its slow parts were some of the most beautiful blues moments I’ve heard, Robert’s voice and Skin’s guitar went magically together but I felt a bit frustrated in the stronger parts. They were hard, fully instrumented, but something was missing… maybe in time it will change, or maybe others feel ok with it just like that.
Then I almost fainted: they began Babe I’m Gonna Leave You with the same original notes. It was the only song in my life that made me cry, even after a douzen replays . So I was…. Robert said that it’s a feeling that comes back and that he has it now…
Freedom Fries shook us up well, everybody was jumping, clapping hands, yelling (by the way, even unaware as it seemed, the audience - from 12 to 60 but with large majority of youngsters - was completely taken over all along the gig). I had no idea Romanians are up to this at a concert, they‘re usually shy and don’t fully respond to an artist’s calls. A strange short moment followed: Robert played some tape/cd with somebody’s speech (and I was too close to the stage to understand), while the band was playing something very moving (and unknown to me), with Robert singing a few lines about how everybody dies someday. Any idea, anyone?
Gallows Pole ended the main show, just as strongly as it started. Everybody on stage and out of it was dancing (John Baggott pitching the keyboards and jumping around), even the bodyguards were stamping their feet
Now we really had to BEG for the encore! I knew what was coming, but got a bit worried cause they weren’t responding. After how unleashed they all were, they deserved a breath… Enchanter has a different rhythm section, very well pointed, very tensed. I liked it a lot like that, a really mesmerizing interpretation. Then Robert ironically pointed to the lights above him and that the day before was LIVE EARTH (somehow his concert was related to it, as the tickets were also available for a local 24 hours “live earth” concert). And we’re supposed to shut up the lights among other things, and all these gigs consume a lot of light
What can I say more – the whole crowd sang along Whole Lotta Love. It came with my favourite arabic bit and all those great rhythmic passages. It was like fireworks inside…
Though I’ve heard them before, never saw them properly, so I was blown away by what Robert does on stage! He’s such a belly dancer . Him and Justin were moving the crowd with their dancing and clapping hands and left no one stand still! And Robert was very playful and said jokes, about the United Kingdom of America and President Blair and how he was supposed to be a pope, but these I cannot tell, you had to see him!
