Tag Archives: led zeppelin

Thursday: Pallbearer & Royal Thunder at Ace of Cups

Pallbearer with Royal Thunder and Before the Eyewall play their only Ohio date at Ace of Cups on Thursday, September 13. Doors are at 8pm, show at 8:30. Tickets are $8 in advance (at Ace of Cups), $10 at the door.

How many times have I reviewed an instrumental band saying, “Not bad but find it hard to write more than a few words about the ebb and flow of the music. If they had vocals, there would be something I could latch onto and at least discuss that”? Arkansas’s Pallbearer has taken the metal instrumental sound (think of a heavier, doomier Mogwai) and added what could best (best? maybe not, but the best I can do) be described as early Ozzy-like vocals more for effect than for the listener to grab onto and singalong with.

On the current tour, sponsored by Scion A/V, Pallbearer is joined by (slipping into my Bill & Ted voice) the most excellent Royal Thunder who I had the great fortunate of interviewing earlier this year prior to the show at Ace of Cups with Baroness. For my money (and I’m sure some will disagree), Royal Thunder stole the show as Mlny Parsonz led the band through an amazing set of classic hard rock/stonerish anthems that I describe to the uninitiated as early Ann Wilson (Heart) fronting Led Sabbath.

Interview: Royal Thunder

Royal Thunder opens for Baroness at Ace of Cups on Wednesday night. The Facebook event page says doors open at 8, with Royal Thunder going on at 8:30. Tickets are $15 at the door.

On heavy rotation in my ears the past few weeks has been an advance copy of Royal Thunder’s CVI which Relapse Records will be releasing in all sorts of different formats (sorry, no cassettes) on May 22. In simple terms, the Atlanta band sounds like Ann Wilson of Heart fronting Led Sabbath – Royal Thunder obviously influenced by the early stoner rock bands of the ’70s.

Already making a wave in Atlanta and the south – where heavy music is thriving – Royal Thunder’s been invited to join Baroness on a few dates in the next week including a Columbus show at Ace of Cups on Wednesday night, giving the four-piece an opportunity to try new material out in front of metal-loving crowds.

Singer/bassist Mlny Parsonz was kind enough to answer questions via email and she responded within an hour of receiving them which makes for the quickest response I’ve ever received when conducting interviews this way.

I have 3 kids and I won’t answer the question, “Which is your favorite?” because each one brings joy to my life in a different way. BUT … I’m asking you to pick – If Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin both announced reunion tours running the entire summer of 2012 and somebody owed your booking agent a huge favor and gave you the option of opening one of these tours, which one would you pick and why?

When I was in high school, some friends and I piled into a van and drove to PA to see the Black Sabbath reunion tour with Pantera in the late ‘90s. So we pull into PA and turn on the local rock station only to hear the DJ say “The Sabbath show is canceled due to Ozzy having voice issues”. Being a HUGE Sabbath fan, I was surprised at how much I hated them at that moment. We went to a hockey game instead; I walked away a Pittsburgh Penguins fan(!) and finished off the night drinking booze, and sulking while we watched “What Dreams May Come”. Our tickets were good for the reschedule in ATL, so we eventually did get to see ‘em and needless to say it ruled.

Saw Page and Plant in the late ‘90s as well! They were doing some homoerotic tour together and I enjoyed every bit of that sexy display while smoking PCP.

All this to say, what was the better show? Sabbath. Who would I wanna tour with? Zeppelin. Sabbath. Zeppelin. Sabbath. Well fuck, what came first, the chicken or the egg? That’s how I feel about this question. Ha. Legends man, LEGENDS!!
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Interview (and mp3): Lez Zeppelin

You can pretty much judge this book by it’s cover – there’s not a big surprise with what you should expect to hear by a band named Lez Zeppelin. The all-female (duh!) four-piece has made a career of playing Led Zeppelin tunes, not note-for-note the way Messrs. Plant, Page, Jones and Bonham played ‘em, but, by bringing the passion and feeling to each song.

MP3: Dazed And Confused (from Lez Zeppelin I)

On Friday night, the ladies of Lez Zeppelin are going to bring that passion and feeling to Columbus as they’ll help Rock on the Rangers get pumped up for the big weekend-long hard rock festival at Crew Stadium. For my money, the pre-party to celebrate Rock on the Range’s 5th anniversary is better – and more diverse – than the festival proper.

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ZOSO (Zeppelin tribute band) @ The Newport on Friday night

For the briefest of brief moments back in 2007, I held out hope that Led Zeppelin’s one-off reunion show in London may be the spark to ignite a full-scale reunion tour. But Robert Plant’s surprisingly successful partnership with Alison Krauss has most likely killed any chance of a Zeppelin reunion.

With that in mind, the next best thing out there is ZOSO, the premiere Led Zeppelin tribute band that has been honoring the godfathers of heavy metal since 1995.

Seeing a band that looks like the original in it’s prime for $12 in a smaller venue is probably a better experience than seeing the real band in 2010 and paying $100 for a seat in the upper deck at the back of a stadium.

I talked to Matt Jernigan, who plays the role of Robert Plant, earlier this week. If there’s one quote to take away from the whole interview, it’s this one: “You know what the beauty of this gig is? We don’t ever do a bad song.”

Interview after the jump.
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Them Crooked Vultures @ The LC (10/6)

PromoWest has booked some big huge shows in 2009 but even they realize that Tuesday night’s Them Crooked Vultures is, if not the biggest, maybe the most anticipated – just one of 10 U.S. dates. The (truly) super-group featuring Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) started recording material for a debut this past summer though they’ve talked about working together since 2005.

This being the internet age, rumors of a release date for Them Crooked Vulture’s debut spring up on a daily basis but I haven’t been able to find an official release date (many are suggesting we’ll be able to hold a CD in our hands by late November – just in time for the holiday gift-giving season).

So … while the resumes of the members speak for themselves, is this project really worth plunking down $47.50 (plus services charges) to see considering you won’t know any of the songs and you shouldn’t expect to hear any songs by the bands these guys come from? Based on early reviews, it is worth is – TCV supposedly deliver an onslaught of RAWK and live up to the “supergroup” tag way more than a band like Velvet Revolver does.

If you want to do a quick cram session and get a (live) preview of what you’ll hear, there are a few bootlegs floating around. Here’s one from the Austin show this past weekend (can’t vouch for the quality). While I haven’t heard this one -the stuff I’ve heard definitely has a QOTSA vibe as can be expected.

WORD OF WARNING (from the Promowest website): NO CAMERA’S ALLOWED DURING THIS PERFORMANCE, INCLUDING CELL PHONES. IF YOU ARE CAUGHT TAKING PICTURES YOU WILL BE ASKED TO DELETE THEM. IF YOU ARE CAUGHT A SECOND TIME, YOU WILL BE ASKED TO DELETE THEM AND ESCORTED OUT OF THE BUILDING. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.