I had an opportunity last night to go see a screening of the new Led Zeppelin documentary "Becoming Led Zeppelin" in IMAX (lot of grey hairs and Zeppelin tees there last night. Nobody broke a hip).
First It must be said that the sound was unexpectedly glorious! I could never hear "Whole Lot of Love" again and that would be fine with me. As we got towards the end of the film they played the complete version (most of the songs in the doc are complete versions with not much voice over) and it was played LOUD!
All of the music sounded amazing. Full stop. The panning and effects that Jimmy put into the middle of "Whole Lot of Love" filled the entire room and was swirling throughout every pore in my body and brain. It certainly helped to have speakers over our heads as well as in every corner and wall of that theatre. I'm glad that was the last time I have to hear that song because it truly was incredible sounding.
There are new individual interviews with the surviving members. There is also a 'never before heard' interview with John Bonham that is played at points throughout the film as well.
Some of the parts that I particularly liked were; Jimmy Page seeing footage for the first time of Zeppelin at the Bath Festival, JPJ's reaction to Bonham's comments on JPJ's playing, Robert stating that Bonham's wife Pat was not a fan of Robert. All of the band members reactions as they are hearing the Bonham interview for the first time is fantastic as well.
I'd recommend this documentary to any music fan. It is a well produced documentary film and, as one would expect if Zeppelin is involved, quality. I won't make recommendations to Led Zeppelin fans because they will go see this regardless.
I will also strongly recommend going to see this documentary in the theatre if you can. The sound will blow you away (and blow your hair back, too). Just the music is worth the price of admission but the doc is top shelf, as well.
