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| Michael White and The White |
April 13 2012 – We are major fans of Michael White‘s work and he is the most reviewed artist here on T-Mak World. Not only did we interview Michael we also reviewed The White’s presentations of Zeppelin I, Zeppelin II, Zeppelin III and the amazing Orchestral Zeppelin. Michael White and The White performed Led Zeppelin’s fourth album on Friday night, the latest in their Discography Series. It was actually Led Zeppelin’s second self-titled album. While the second and third were called out as such, the fourth had no such designation. It went by many nicknames, most often IV, Zoso or Zofo.
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| Michael White rocking Zeppelin IV |
So it was not surprising then that this show was biggest of the Discography series to date with a thousand people cramming into Sound Academy. And it was also undeniably the best show yet. This iteration of The White gets stronger with each performance and on this night there were no low points. Michael was at his best and unlike the previous show, the sound was fantastic. Each instrument perfectly in balance and the vocals loud and clear.
Rock and Roll, of course, opened the show and was followed by Black Dog which, true to The Song Remains The Same form, was introduced by the riff from Out on The Tiles. While they play all the songs from the album, The White changes the song order to make for a better show, so rather than Battle of Evermore, next up was a thunderous version of Four Sticks next featuring drummer Brian Wall playing with four sticks. We hope it becomes a regular addition to future White shows. In the early days of Led Zeppelin, Los Angeles was the band’s home away from home and Going To California was their acoustic ode to their American home. Guitarist Dano Murray switched to acoustic guitar and bassist Davin Goudie played mandolin.
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| Michael White during The Battle of Evermore |
Battle of Evermore is Robert Plant at his lyrical best. The opening line is “The Queen of Light took her bow, And then she turned to go” and as the song slides into the darkness of night, what follows is a mystical tale of dragons, wraiths, dark Lords and war. But ever the optimist, Plant ends the song with the hope of the morning light. Michael brought on guest Queen Craven to sing the haunting vocal parts sung by Sandy Denny on the original recording and she sang them beautifully. With the fog machines on, a magical environment was created with the spotlight piercing through the thick fog. Goudie and Murray were perfectly in sync and nailed this complex song. Michael was at his very best. This might have been the single best performance this writer has ever seen The White perform (of very many).
Misty Mountain Hop was next with Davin on keyboards. It was the first time we’d heard The White play Misty Mountain Hop and it was done perfectly. A strong rendition of the anthem Stairway to Heaven followed and the album was completed with an intense and again thunderous When The Levee Breaks.
As is always the case, a few extra songs were added to the end of featured album. They played Ramble On, an extended nineteen minute version of Moby Dick before closing the show with Whole Lotta Love. They returned for an encore of The Immigrant Song.
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| Brian Wall of The White on Four Sticks |
It was great to see such a big crowd out to see Led Zeppelin‘s music performed by Michael White and The White. It was particularly great to so many young people who weren’t born when Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980, let alone when this album was released in 1971.
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| Michael White |
And who did we see enjoying the show but none other than Charlie McKittrick, Pat Wilken and Ryan Watson, three quarters of TimeGiant. Regular readers of T-MAK World will recall that TimeGiant was our consensus favourite act of Canadian Music Week. The TimeGiant show was the best all round entertainment. Great songs, great musicianship, great energy and great fun. It was nice to chat with those guys again. It seems they’ve been in the studio lately recording their next album. They have upcoming gigs planned in Hamilton and Toronto and we’ll be looking forward to seeing them live again. We were lucky enough to get a copy of their incredible first CD at the Supermarket show and will be featuring it soon in an upcoming article. It amazes me that this CD isn’t all over Canadian radio airwaves now but we think it’s just a matter of time. There are arenas in this band’s future. They’re great guys and we wish them well with their promising career and can’t wait to hear their next album.
Houses of the Holy is next up in the Michael White and The White Discography Series on Friday May 18th at The Sound Academy and Michael White recommends visiting his website or Facebook to get on the guest list. So do we.
Verdict: This was THE best show the current lineup of The White has performed and see you all on May 18th! Check out our Youtube videos below.
Review by Steve Mallinson, Photos by Michael Litt, Edited by Terry Makedon
Check out our reviews of others shows in the Michael White and The White’s Led Zeppelin Discography Series:
Great show and an excellent review of it too. Just one thing though, being just a foot or so away from Dano's monitor, it seemed like the guitar may have been a tad out of tune during Immigrant Song, hard to explain but there was definitely something not quite right. But the jam component of Stairway.. one word.. Immaculate!! (I wish they would do an extended 1 hour session of just that Stairway component – What a high!)
Listen guys .I was there 30 yrs ago when Michael ,Phil Bolene,Scott Gaines and Ray came to Canada .Remember Michael ? “THAT WAS THE WHITE”!!!! Ray beat those drums just like Bonzo!!! ,and there isn't and will never be a better tribute to Jimmy Page than Phil Bolene dressed in that dragon outfit whalin on his Les Paul. I was there in Pickering Village Ontario 30 yrs. Ago when the boys hit the circuit.I'll tell you not a better Zeppelin Tribute has been seen since.It's nice to see Michaels got a regular gig with Q107's house band.He's a survivor that's for sure. Anyways I'm turning 48 and I was just reminiscing about Michael and the boys when they REALLY KICKED ASS!!! We didn't get to see Zeppelin
because of Bonzos untimely death but in those days THE WHITE got us that much closer.KEEP ROCKIN MICHAEL!!! Your friend Rob (one half of YOGI AND BOO-BOO)