I wondered for many years if I would ever have the opportunity to see Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in any form other than The Song Remains the Same, No Quarter, or marginal quality bootleg videos. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw the night of June 12th, 1998.

I was driving in with my brother Todd in the passenger seat towards Minneapolis through a hailstorm of biblical proportions. There was a good chance my car would like an oddly shaped golf ball from the gigantic sized hail, but I didn't care. I was going to see Page and Plant. We got there a couple hours early to see the pre-concert activity and meet some friends.

After the opening band left the stage and the short intermission was over, the excitement in the jam-packed seats was overwhelming. Page and Plant's entrance was complete with psychadelic video on the screen, colored lights, Arabic sounding hurdy gurdy music, and just before The Wanton Song began, there were colored lights from behind the stage which created a silhouette of the two greatest Rock and Roll performers ever. They were standing like dieties on the smoke-filled stage. This, my first image ever of my two greatest heroes is something I will never forget.

Right when The Wanton Song began, or perhaps before, I knew that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were still in their prime. If it weren't for a few wrinkles on their faces, I would have thought they were nineteen years old. Robert wore grey or silver loose pants and a aqua shirt, and Jimmy was dressed in all black.

All the way from The Wanton Song through Rock and Roll, they dominated the crowd. With a single lift of a finger, Robert could change the attitudes of thousands of people, and needless to say when Jimmy raised his infamous Gibson Les Paul high in one hand, and a violin bow in the other, the crowd nearly blew the roof off the target center.

Robert gave an occasional speech and would make hysterical comments. Once he pointed up to a vip box where there was a TV on showing a basketball game. He stopped in mid sentence, pointed to the box and said "There's a TV on way up there! I can't believe it. I'm doing a gig with a TV on!" Another funny episode was when a beach ball was thrown on the stage from the crowd. Robert kicked it out of the way during the song, and when it was over he picked it up and said, "Does this have something to do with the beach? Somebody think's they're at the beach!" He kicked it back into the crowd later in the concert in the middle of a song.

They played mostly Zeppelin tunes with a few cuts from Walking into Clarksdale in the mix. The most memorable songs for me are "No Quarter" which had excellent keyboard and phenominal guitar. It sounded similar to the version on TSRTS, except for I would argue the vocals were better. "How Many More Times," which was when Jimmy brought out his trade mark violin bow. The song had a "Down by the Seaside" interlude. "Tangerine" complete with solo done on the mandoline. "Whole Lotta Love" featured Jimmy creating psychadelic sounds with the theramin which echoed across the stadium. I think the best vocal performance was "Rock and Roll." Robert's vocals sounded just like on Led Zeppelin's fourth release. It proved that his voice had not deteriorated with time atleast not nearly as much as I suspected.

Of course Page and Plant would not forget the rest of their band; drummer Michael Lee and Bassist Charlie Jones. Michael Lee gave a thundering drum solo at the end of "Rock and Roll," and delivered an excellent pound for "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You."

The first time Page, Plant, Jones, and Lee left the stage, the crowd demanded their return. They delivered two encores including "Thank You" and "Rock and Roll." They left the crowd in an uproar, and after a two minute tease, the lights came on and it was all over. The show had exceeded my expectations from a Page/Plant concert, and besides the absence of John Bonham and John Paul Jones, lived up to my expectations of a Led Zeppelin concert.

Needless to say that I was aggravated when the shirt I bought at the concert was stolen in Pisa, Italy. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this show, email me at pehresma@d.umn.edu Thanks for reading!

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