It’s a brilliant, and simple, concept, as the very best concepts so often are. Pick a band who aren’t playing any longer—it might be The Beatles, it might be Fleetwood Mac; last night it was, again, Led Zeppelin—and assemble some of Aotearoa’s best musicians to play one classic album, straight through. Toss in a quick greatest-hits set, and you have a chance to hear music you didn’t think would ever be played live again.
And so, at Auckland’s Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, the Come Together band took their second trip to the very deep well of Led Zeppelin’s music. Last year they played Led Zeppelin IV; this time it was II, and the experience was every bit as joyous.
II might not have quite the same catalogue of absurdly well-known and well-loved songs as IV, but there’s still enough there for the band to have some serious fun. The night kicked off, unsurprisingly, with Brett Adams crunching out the primal awesomeness that is the riff to Whole Lotta Love. This was, as all last night’s set was, a very faithful reading of a classic song, the tempo punched up just a tad but with all the energy, the filth, the sleaze you’d want from the song, from Seamus Johnson’s howl to theremin wails.
And so the show progressed. Heartbreaker gave Adams a chance to show of his guitar skills, just as the original song was intended as a showcase for Jimmy Page’s playing. Julia Deans found lightness and depth in Ramble On; Devilskin’s Jennie Skulander was as rude as you’d want someone singing The Lemon Song to be.
And then came Moby Dick. Drum solos, you’d think, belong back in the 70s, and you’d be right, for the most part. But a full performance of Led Zeppelin II is going to have to involve a drum solo. Fortunately, the Come Together band have Alistair Deverick on the drum stool. Deverick didn’t look the part—the white button-down shirt and the short hair were much more 1990s Madchester than Jon Bonham in 1969. But the drumming was spot-on. The track was conceived, apparently, as an opportunity for Bonham to show off on record the drum indulgences of his live performances. It’s every bit as overblown as it should be, and Deverick was more than equal to the challenge of reproducing Bonham’s excesses, pounding the skins with sticks, with his hands, with the passion and fire that you’d want from a Jon Bonham tribute.
Led Zeppelin, of course, were more—a little more, at least—than just the prototypical heavy metal band. Ramble On was surprisingly lovely, and the brace of acoustic songs that preceded the greatest-hits set—The Battle Of Evermore; Gallows Pole—remind that Zeppelin did have range to match their power.
Part two was the best-of set, from the overwrought splendour and inevitability of Stairway To Heaven to the barking magnificence of Immigrant Song, all performed with, as we’ve said, a faithfulness to the originals that shows both the sheer talent within the Come Together troupe and the affection they all clearly have for these songs; the joy in, especially, the five—five!—vocalists you need to truly capture Robert Plant’s vocal range was quite apparent.
Not every song, I’ll happily admit, was perfectly chose; the band’s reading of No Quarter was quite authentic, but the problem lies with the song. In the hands of Page, Bonham et al, it was a rather tiresomely rambling and tedious piece of self-indulgence, and I’m really not sure it was the best song to include in last night’s set. I’d have picked something like Fool In The Rain, but last night’s set tended toward the earlier part of the band’s career. And the intensity and sheer brutality of When The Levee Breaks, from Deverick’s drums to Milan Borich’s harmonica, more than made up for the weirdnesses.
A couple of IV rockers to close out the show—find me a stronger opening to an album than Black Dog and Rock and Roll; go on, just try—and we went home a happy crowd.
Nobody else is playing these songs any longer. But there’s an audience that wants to hear them played, and played with joy, precision, fidelity, and passion. And that’s the genius of the Come Together concerts. And let night was as good an example as any.
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