Robert Plant Rocks Atlantic City For Last Stop Of US Tour [CONCERT REVIEW]

I was fortunate enough to see my favorite singer one more time this weekend (6/25/11) in Atlantic City, NJ. And it was so worth the trip! There is something so incredible about seeing your favorite artist isn’t there?

My buddy said he had never seen me like that before. He told me I was like a little school girl as I wore a three mile smile for almost 2 hours. I think it’s safe to say that there is probably nothing I enjoy more than going to see Robert Plant perform. It’s a buzz like no other for me just seeing him walk on to the stage. Moments later he grabs the microphone. And from that second on he just commands your attention for the rest of the evening. It’s like, when he grabs that mic, this rush of fantastic energy comes thru him, and then he transcends that positive energy on to the audience. Really, this is what I feel when I’m at a Plant show. If it sounds like I have a ‘man-crush’ on him, then so be it. I just know that I’m really, really happy when I’m watching and listening to him.

About the show itself, the band was lead by as Robert said “The Great Buddy Miller”. It also included Darrell Scott who added some mandolin, banjo and steel guitar. He also had Patty Griffin with him who has a very beautiful voice that sounds oh so sweet when she’s singing along with Plant. Some Zep fans may be a little bit upset to hear this. But it’s almost better than seeing Zeppelin at this point. Hey, I know Jimmy, Bonzo, Jones and Plant created some of the most amazing stuff and together, were thunderous. As a matter of fact, I think listening to live Zeppelin is more fun than the studio because it was so raw and those 4 guys could pull off anything together. But even back in the day you would get very little background vocals or harmonies. And with the band Plant has now you get the Zeppelin tunes, but with extra vocal abilities that just makes everything bigger and better.

So what Zeppelin songs did he play? He opened up with a super groovy version of ‘Black Dog’ that Patty harmonized the whole song with. He also did fantastic versions of ‘What Is And What Should Never Be’, ‘Black Country Woman’, ‘Misty Mountain Hop’ and ‘Rock-n-Roll’ as an encore. He did about 5 songs from his latest effort ‘Band of Joy’ and he even jazzed those tunes up a bit too. All in all, Plant still has it going on at age 62. His voice sounded great and he still has those little moves where you can clearly see that he still feels the music. He’s still smiling too. It’s fun to watch to someone who’s so great at something, and to see the joy they have in doing it. Robert Anthony, you’re still the man!

I couldn't find any footage from AC. But this is how Robert rocks the Misty Mountain Hop in 2011. (From Bonnaroo)