Led Zepagain at the House of Blues, Hollywood, CA
Jan 14, 2004
BEFORE THE SHOW
After soundcheck, as we were eating dinner at the HoB restaurant, promoter Rick Ortiz came over to tell us that Jimmy Page had called the club, and was going to come by to see the show. Now, that is just one of those "I'll believe THAT when I see it" kind of things! However, we did know that Jimmy was in town, as he'd been spotted at the nightclub, The Joint, 2 days earlier to see his old friend Terry Reid, who is there every Monday night. Our friend George runs the sound there, and he had called Swan that night to tell him who was there. We made sure that Rick knew to tell Jimmy that we'd love to have him sit in with us, or at the very least, we'd very much like to meet him! Rick assured us he would. But still, "I'll believe THAT when I see it!"
I ran into George up in the dressing room after dinner, and asked him if he had gotten to meet Jimmy (and if so, did you ask him to come to our show!), but George replied no, he didn't get to meet him. Ah well, then he probably doesn't know about our show, and it's all just a rumor. Carry on with the show as normal!
THE SHOW
Time for the show and still no word on "the man" showing up. Rick gives us his usual rousing intro, and we launch into the opening to 'The Song Remains the Same.' The crowd is great, the venue is very full, and I get that shot of adrenaline I get every opening number when we play for a screaming crowd at the House of Blues! Many familiar faces in the front rows, some of the die-hards that keep coming back to see us over & over!
The show is going well, although the thought keeps popping into my head: "Jimmy Page just might be watching us right now! …naaaawwww" Every time that thought hits me, I have to concentrate extra hard to make sure I hit the right note!
Round about the 3rd or 4th song, and I'm starting to settle into the show, managing to push that thought further & further out of my head, when WHAM! I step back towards the drum riser, and Jim Kersey points his drum stick down to a piece of paper thrown down on the drum riser by one of our techs. "PAGE IN THE HOUSE." Jim & I give each other a wide eyed look, I tell him, "That's something I really didn't need to know right now!" and I turn back around to continue playing. Ok, try and concentrate on the job at hand! I tell myself, "well, I haven't actually seen him, so maybe they're just messing with us." After all, you know how these things go, someone says something, and before you know it, it gets blown all out of proportion. Besides, the VIP Foundation Room bar is up on the 3rd floor, so he's probably just hanging out there, and he'll be gone by the time we're done with our show. But the thought is still "Jimmy Page just might be watching us right now!" Still, I'm able to manage to keep that one a safe distance from the part of my brain that controls my ability to play guitar!
The show's going along nicely, till my guitar decides to go silent during 'In The Light.' Now, these things happen, and it's difficult enough to pinpoint and fix the problem when there are a couple of thousand eyes on you, and a couple of thousand ears all waiting to hear that wondrous guitar line. Throw into the mix that thought, and it's a wonder I ever got the thing working again! But I did, and just at the part of the song where it all kicks in. Luckily, I am amongst friends, and the sound of the guitar is greeted with a loud cheer! Thank you!
At some point during the show, it is whispered to me by one of the techs that we were NOT to say anything to the crowd about our guest of honor, or else he would pack up & leave. Fair enough, I'm really trying not to think about it right now anyway! Of course, Swan is the one with the mic, so telling me doesn't really do much good! And sure enough, after the next song, Swan begins to say to the crowd, "I heard a rumor about tonight..." NO!! I rush over to Swan and quickly whisper in his ear, "He doesn't want us to say anything, or he'll leave!" So Swan continues, "Uh, yeah, I heard a rumor about tonight" and introduces the next song with no explanation to the audience of just what that rumor might be!
Toward the end of the
show, I noticed SOMEONE in the band was definitely feeling the pressure:
Swan whispers to
Steve: "What's the first line in Kashmir"
Steve whispers to Swan:
"Oh let the sun beat down upon my face!"
Swan replies, "Oh
yeah!"
The rest of the show goes off pretty much without a hitch. I actually seem to
have gotten used to the idea that maybe Jimmy's out there somewhere, and during
Jim Kersey's drum solo, Swan & I quickly discuss extending the medley in
Whole Lotta Love, just in case, to make it a little better. We had planned on
just 'Communication Breakdown,' so we hastily add 'Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You,'
and 'Nobody's Fault But Mine.' Ok, you tell one Jim, I'll tell the other!
The main set over, we run off stage, where the House of Blues stage manager says to us, with a very serious look on his face, "Jimmy Page has gone up to the dressing room, and would like to meet you guys. So if I were you, I'd keep the encore short." GULP! We ask the stage manager if Jimmy is interested in joining us onstage to play, and he said no, he would just like to meet you. A quick decision is made, 'Rock and Roll,' and we're back on stage.
Now I'm just downright giddy! As Jim Wootten would later comment, that must've been the fastest version of 'Rock and Roll' we've ever played! All I could think of was "when this song is over, I'm going to meet JIMMY PAGE!" I wanted to let the crowd know too; after all, they're a bunch of rabid Zeppelin fans just like we are, and would just LOVE to know they're sharing breathing space with one quarter of the band at this very moment! These are our friends, and we have to keep our mouths shut!
AFTER THE SHOW
Encore is over, we take our bows and walk off, ready for the hike up to the 3rd floor dressing room. Only there's a distinctly different feeling this time! When we get to the dressing room, there are more people than usual outside the door, waiting for us. Someone presses the security code, and Jim Wootten motions for me to go ahead. GULP! This is it!
I walk through the door and down the short hallway, which is lined with people I don't know. I hit the end of the hallway, and there he is, Jimmy Page, in the center of the room, smiling a huge, warm smile, and extending a hand to me! This is just too much! I reach out to shake his hand, and manage to say something like, "It's really wonderful to meet you!" Then he gives me a hug! By then, the rest of the guys are in the room too, and Jimmy greets & hugs each of them too! All of us are thanking him for coming to see us, and meet us. He tells us he loved the show. (HE LOVED THE SHOW!) He said, "It's amazing how much like us you sounded." (Did I hear that right?!) He said the attention to detail was fantastic, and we really got inside the music. "WOW," and "THANK YOU," was all we could say in reply! Ok, that's it, all those years learning to play guitar, back to when I sat trying to figure out Led Zeppelin songs from my old records, and now JIMMY PAGE is paying me the hugest compliment imaginable!
There's a bit more chatting, he tells us, "I can tell you guys really love the music." I wish him a happy birthday (he turned 60 just 5 days before), Jimmy talks to Swan about where he's from in Ireland, we introduce Jimmy to Roni Shea, our dear friend & guest singer on 'Battle of Evermore,' and then we ask Jimmy if he wouldn't mind taking some pictures with us. Fortunately, our trusty friend & photographer, Philip, is right there with his state-of-the-art digital camera! We line up for a shot, and Jimmy says, "I should have my arms around you guys!" After the shots, one of Jimmy's entourage tells him they should be going. We say our goodbyes one by one, each of us again thanking him profusely for coming to the show, coming up to meet us, and for everything he has just said to us!
As he's walking toward the door, he's held up talking to a few more people. Suddenly it hits me: I didn't even get an autograph! I run over to grab the only piece of paper I can find, a flyer for another of our shows, and grab a pen from somebody. Whew, he hasn't left yet! I walk up & ask Jimmy if he wouldn't mind signing something for me. He says, "Sure," and looks up, searching for something thoughtful to say, before writing, "STEVE - THANKS FOR SOUNDING SO GOOD!! JIMMY PAGE" I thank him, and he asks me where I'm from. I tell him I'm from California, northern, and that I saw him and Zeppelin in Oakland back in 1977. His eyes light up, and he says, "Oh, those were wild times back then!" I reply, "Yeah, so I've heard!" He says it was a shame that stuff didn't get recorded, as he's "seen the bootlegs." I compliment him on the great new Zeppelin DVD, and he tells me what's really remarkable is how little footage there actually was, and again, it's a shame nothing was recorded in 1977. He said "Of course, Robert lost his son right after that, and we had to stop then." Those 2 shows in Oakland would be the last shows Led Zeppelin would ever play in the US, as Robert Plant's son died a few days later, and the rest of the tour was cancelled. John Bonham died just as their 1980 US tour was announced. I get one final chance to tell him how much it means to all of us that he came to our show, and that he came to meet us, and he again tells me he thinks we're fantastic, and "sounded just like us." (Yes, I got to hear him say that TWICE!) One more handshake & hug, and he's out the door.
The overall feeling I got from Jimmy that night was a great sense of pride, on many levels. First off, he seemed really proud of us, for doing a good job with his music, and that is the best feeling in the world for us! Second, he seemed really proud of himself right then. After all, he was responsible for creating what our band was doing, and he had just witnessed close to a thousand people really getting off on that. I think that was very special for him, as it gave him the opportunity to see the effect of his music on a crowd from actually within the crowd! Of course, he's been getting accolades & standing ovations from audiences for most of his life, but I think it's different to be able to sit & see someone else do that with your material. It makes it timeless!
When I first walked into that dressing room and looked at Jimmy Page, the look on his face conveyed to me both that he was happy to meet us, as well as a confidence that he knew it would be extremely important to us to meet him. Yes, he knew it would blow us away! That look, as well as his compliments to us, instantly made me feel at ease talking to him. He was very reassuring in his manner towards us.
After the meeting, friends of ours immediately began telling us Jimmy's actual reactions while watching our show. Every single one of them told us that he was smiling, rocking out, and really enjoying it! Our friend Mark burst his way up to him at his table to meet him, and Jimmy said to him, "These guys are too good!" After he had gone up to our dressing room, while we were playing our encore, Jimmy was watching us on the tv monitor up there. He asked our friend Celeste if the sound could be turned on, but it wasn't working. He said, "That's ok, I can tell what they're doing, that's 'Rock & Roll!'" Celeste's brother Roger asked for his autograph, and he said, "Sure, but not now. I want to see this!" He pointed at me on the screen and said, "That's me up there!" He pointed at Jim Kersey on the drums and said, "Bonzo!"
Without a doubt, an evening that neither I nor the rest of Led Zepagain will EVER forget!
-- Steve Zukowsky 1/18/04