Robert Plant Celebrated His Birthday In Schenectady New York?

Today is Tuesday August 20th and musician Robert Plant is celebrating his 76th birthday. Plant is still going strong with 4 or 5 performances each week on his current North American tour.

55 years ago Robert Plant was just getting his career going and hitting the road with his new band Led Zeppelin. It was on that tour that Plant arrived in the Capital Region of New York for 2 shows and 1 birthday celebration. Robert Plant celebrated his 21st birthday in Schenectady.

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Over the 40 year career of Led Zeppelin played shows all over the world including the Aerodome, located at 1588 State Street in Schenectady. According to the Daily Gazette, Zeppelin played two shows on August 20, 1969. There was an 8pm show and 11pm show AND it was Robert Plant's 21st birthday!

Tickets were $4.00 in advance and $4.50 at the door! To put this in perspective, by August 1969, Led Zeppelin's first album had only been out 7 months and "Good Times Bad Times" was the only single officially released to FM Radio.

*notice the misspelling of the band's name in this Gazette advertisement 

LedZeppelin.com documents the set list from the shows in Schenectady:

1. The Train Kept A-Rollin'
2. I Can't Quit You Baby
3. Dazed and Confused
4. You Shook Me
5. How Many More Times
6. Communication Breakdown

What is interesting about the list is that "Good Times Bad Times", the band's only single, is not on the list. Even though Led Zep didn't play it live very often you would think it would be part of their first North American Tour.

Based on the Wikipedia article, the Aerodome had a capacity of approximately 3,000 and held live performances by Janis Joplin, Billy Joel, Chicago, Jeff Beck Group, Vanilla Fudge and more.

Today, the address from the Aerodome location is approximately where Aldi is on State Street. Check out Led Zeppelin's 1969 Tour Book.