May 22 2013 – Another month and another excellent performance from Michael White & The White delivering Led Zeppelin’s Discography Series. On Friday May 17th Michael White was celebrating his birthday (as was his drummer Brian Wall) and the festive spirit was evident at the packed Sound Academy. The monthly series has been running for almost two years now and it has become a monthly destination for those in the know (as all Zeppelin fans usually are). Even a pair of panties was thrown to the father of Led Zeppelin tribute shows (White has been doing Zep shows since 1971!)
The choice of albums for this discography session was Led Zeppelin’s latest release – the live concert album called Celebration Day from their O2 reunion show a few years back. Michael White & The White performed this particular setlist back in January of this year and we were extremely pleased with that performance. We simply repeat the verdict below from that show as it is still valid tonight.
“As usual the show proved to be a euphoric delight for Zeppelin fans (and Toronto has many of them as evidenced by the monthly 1000 person turnout). Michael White is an incredible vocalist and showman and the fans love to see him belt out Robert Plant better than Plant does these days. We strongly endorse and recommend seeing Michael White and The White at the Sound Academy because to be honest hearing Zeppelin live at a bar is as good as it gets for a classic rock fan.”
The setlist was delivered in the same order as the album which is:
Good Times Bad Times
Ramble On
Black Dog
In My Time Of Dying
For Your Life
Trampled Under Foot
Nobody’s Fault But Mine
No Quarter
Since I’ve Been Loving You
Dazed And Confused
Stairway To Heaven
The Song Remains The Same
Misty Mountain Hop
Kashmir
Whole Lotta Love
Rock And Roll
Michael White and The White is composed of Dano Murray on Guitars, Davin Goudie on Bass and Keyboards and Brian Wall on Drums. This lineup does a fantastic job of belting out Zeppelin’s best songs on a consistent basis as was evidenced tonight with a particularly strong Kashmir and In My Time Of Dying.
A great part of the night was the suprise birthday cake for White and Wall and the crowd singalong. Totally taken by suprise the two birthday lads were grateful for their fans singing along in unison.
We also found out tonight that this show is the end of the monthly discography series – it actually moves to a bi-monthly cadence. So every second month we will get a Michael White Discography show and in the alternating months we will get two other tribute bands. In the case of June 1 the first two bands will be Bon Jovi and Van Halen tributes. The good news is that Michael White’s other band will be opening up these shows. This is bittersweet news because we have become addicted to the monthly dose of Zep but now perhaps we will discover some excellent new bands covering say Pink Floyd or Black Sabbath.
Speaking of tribute bands tonight’s opener was a Rush tribute band called My Favorite Headache. These guys opened up the show with the absolutely brilliant idea of playing Moving Pictures end to end. Not only is that a risky move, but a very difficult one to actually do well on. Needless to say the guys totally won over the crowd with their excellent rendition of Rush’s most well known album. We were won over by Frank Marino’s vocals as Geddy and we simply can not wait to see this band again. They are truly a joy to watch and although this was their first “big” show it certainly won’t be their last.
Hi Terry,
Great post as usual. Just want to add a footnote to give kudos to Amanda McBride for the amazing cake and to Brian McBride who presented it.
A fantastic evening as all of Michael’s shows usually are and a new experience for me because this was his first performance that I photographed and got some good pictures of. You can check them out at…
http://www.billimoriadesign.com/white/
Looking forward to the discography series kicking off again in July.
Hope to meet you there someday!
Cheers!
Daraious