...I saw Led Zeppelin.
They were not good.
They were not good.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
55 years ago tonight, at Madison Square Garden...
- Thread starter dougjwray
- Start date
Awww shucks. I saw them there a year later, I thought they were pretty awesome, but the Garden has lousy gym acoustics....
Yeah, not the same concert, but I walked out of a showing of The Song Remains The Same due to sheer bordom, and while I had a chance to have seen them in the spring of ‘69, I was under the weather. It was way before I could drive anyway, but in speaking with some older kids who went, apparently it was a trainwreck gig with Bonham supposedly puking on his drum kit. As well, there’s plenty of dire sounding bootlegs, and I’m not talking about the recording quality.
I’ll give ‘em props for the ‘70 Royal Albert Hall show, though.
We were at the MSG concert when Plant was wearing that white jump suit with the dragon on the leg..I think it was the Physical Graffiti tour ??
How much was the face value of a ticket for a Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden show in 1970?...
Was there an opening act?
Was there an opening act?
Too bad you didn’t see them in ‘69, I saw them at the Winterland in April ‘69 and they blew the roof off the place, those were the first shows that they were the headliner act, they were young and hungry and they knew the Winterland was a huge starting point for the tour, Jimmy Page was still playing his Telecaster from the Yardbirds days, there is a famous poster of the show , the green avocado with eyes, Brian Auger opened, still one of the best concerts I’ve been to.
Last edited:
Yeah, but if I had gone to that particular show, I would have been dissapointed, judging from the account of those who went, plus the second opinion of someone I met years later who also saw the show. Even they said it was a sloppy, drunken, DGAF mess. Once again, I’ve heard some cringy bootlegs.
I’d seen Hendrix in a much larger auditorium a few months earlier, and he was just phoning it in, just another gig on a long tour. Not awful, but not enthusuastic. I get it, not every night can be magic. What made it worse was this stupid band that opened, Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys, an outfit he had some connection with.
Saw Led Z IF I remember in the Amphitheatre in Chicago. Basically a cattle slaughter house - turned - indoor music stadium.
I definitely saw Yes there too. Acoustics were SOO bad! ( like an Echo Chamber from Hell )
The Auditorium Theatre was a much better venue back then acoustics-wise. So were the bands
I definitely saw Yes there too. Acoustics were SOO bad! ( like an Echo Chamber from Hell )
The Auditorium Theatre was a much better venue back then acoustics-wise. So were the bands
Saw them earlier in September 1970 in Honolulu, when I was still in the Navy. My friends and I stood out with our regulation haircuts and lack of any facial hair. Great show. I think I paid about $6.00 for a ticket at the old International Center Arena. Don’t know if it is still there.
Page was a legendarily sloppy live player, even some of his recorded solos sound like they were played while tripping down a set of stairs, but it didn’t matter… usually. Like every band, they had some bad gigs, probably alcohol or substance related, but that was the norm in the 70’s, and the hall acoustics were awful. The last big name concert I went to was Aerosmith at the TD Garden in Boston. It sounded like a bad recording of the band playing in another room, just mud. Most sports arenas were not designed with even basic acoustics in mind. The only band I ever saw with absolutely perfect sound was Pink Floyd, and they had something like 10 huge speaker stacks distributed around the hall for full stereo sound, amazing. Zep was probably playing through some crappy hall PA system designed for hockey games.
OP here.
My post was really about how I couldn't believe it had been 55 years. I added my appraisal of the band as a footnote. But I really need to be fair. My father and I went, because we'd heard "Whole Lotta Love" on the radio, and we were both amused by it as a fun novelty song. But live, they were just a mess. The sound equipment in the Garden was indeed terrible at that point. But I'd seen the Doors there in January '69, and attended the amazing "Soul Together" benefit concert there in the summer of '68 (Aretha, King Curtis & the Kingpins, Sam and Dave, Joe Tex, Sonny and Cher and the Rascals), and at both shows you could hear musicians playing with nuance, soul and subtlety. Zep's bombastic schtick sounded like an apatosarus lumbering through a tar pit... with an obnoxious, shrieking pterodactyl riding on its back! The acoustics didn't help at all, but I don't think I would have liked them outdoors with a 2025 sound system, either.
Anyway, I was already quite a blues purist by then-- I admit that. After seeing B.B. King, I wasn't impressed by Page's approach to the blues.
Sorry, that's just me. Never much of a Zep fan.
My post was really about how I couldn't believe it had been 55 years. I added my appraisal of the band as a footnote. But I really need to be fair. My father and I went, because we'd heard "Whole Lotta Love" on the radio, and we were both amused by it as a fun novelty song. But live, they were just a mess. The sound equipment in the Garden was indeed terrible at that point. But I'd seen the Doors there in January '69, and attended the amazing "Soul Together" benefit concert there in the summer of '68 (Aretha, King Curtis & the Kingpins, Sam and Dave, Joe Tex, Sonny and Cher and the Rascals), and at both shows you could hear musicians playing with nuance, soul and subtlety. Zep's bombastic schtick sounded like an apatosarus lumbering through a tar pit... with an obnoxious, shrieking pterodactyl riding on its back! The acoustics didn't help at all, but I don't think I would have liked them outdoors with a 2025 sound system, either.
Anyway, I was already quite a blues purist by then-- I admit that. After seeing B.B. King, I wasn't impressed by Page's approach to the blues.
Sorry, that's just me. Never much of a Zep fan.
Last edited:
I saw the Presence tour, Capitol Center, Largo MD.
So that must have been '76 or '77. I don't remember too much detail but I do recall going to the restroom during Bonzo's solo.
So that must have been '76 or '77. I don't remember too much detail but I do recall going to the restroom during Bonzo's solo.
I was a BIG Led Zeppelin fan in my teens, but Bonham died before I would have had a chance to see them live.
That said, it's easy to imagine how easy it would be for all that bombast to just turn into mud in a concert - especially one in the typical late 70s rock and roll setting - racetrack, football stadium, livestock show arena, etc.
I will say that I went to the Who concert in the Astrodome (82?) and even though the Astrodome was a TERRIBLE place acoustically - imagine standing on the bottom of a coffee can - the sound was great. So "loud rock and roll band" and "lousy acoustics sports arena" don't HAVE to add up to "can't hear a thing, just bass mud all night" if you're willing to spend enough money to hire competent SOBER people.
I have two older friends who saw them. Neither were impressed. Both were high. Make of that what you will.
Back then, the joke (or maybe not a joke) was that fans of "HEAVY!!!!" music chose cough syrup for their drug. (Cough syrup with codeine was available over the counter.)
Vanilla Fudge fans, Black Sabbath fans... maybe some Led Zeppelin fans, too!
Last edited:
Subscribed to this Zeppelin-bashing hatefest.
I started going to shows when I was about 11. First concert ever was The Who on the Quadrophenia tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd opening. I was actually really close to the stage. Saw all the big 70's headliners and on into the 80's. To this day one of the best if not the best sounding show I recall ever experiencing was Heart at a huge sports arena show, late 70's. Everything was clear as a bell. A perfect live mix. I've heard far worse sound recently, even at places like the Hollywood Bowl and other venues that are dedicated to music! (some of that is due to stylistic decisions of course, like every band regardless of genre being mixed so the kick drum sounds like "The 808 that Destroyed the World").
Saw this tour in Dallas. I was blown away (I was 14 and likely very high, but very memorable show!).
I saw Led Zeppelin preform 40 years ago at Live Aid at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
Jimmy Page had a few in him.
Phil Collin was not doing it for me filling in on drums.
Jimmy Page had a few in him.
Phil Collin was not doing it for me filling in on drums.
