Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience performed a series of Canadian dates, stopping by Toronto’s waterfront club Rebel. The venue contained mostly Baby Boomers, with a hand full of generation X and Y within the crowd.
Cover bands are a dime a dozen, just google Led Zeppelin tribute and your search engine will most likely explode with a massive variety of acts that pay tribute to the mega act from the 70s. Sure some are better then others, but the reality is that they bare no real connection to the actual band. Jason Bonham, son of the late John Bonham has been busy for the last 7 years, keeping the spirit alive.
Having not seeing them before, I wondered if Jason was largely riding on Johns coat tales. That idea was dispelled. I can easily say that the music was bang on. Jason selected an incredibly talented roster of musicians for this act.
What would make them so much more special then any of the other acts? Well it’s the “experience” portion. Throughout the show Jason told stories of days gone by. Even showing video footage provided by his grandmother of his father as a child, playing on the beach with his family. They paired the video along with the song “Thank you”.
So much pride exuded from Jason as he recanted stories. One in particular that I thought was interesting was how his father received writing credits for the song “Kashmir”. According to Jason, John was drinking in a bar one night and the riff materialized in his head. He hummed the melody to Page and “Kashmir” was born.
Songs such as “Whole Lotta Love”, “Rock and Roll”, The Immigration Song, and of course “Stairway to Heaven” made the set list that night.
Overall it was a fun evening and the crowd certainly enjoyed the experience.
