Classic Albums Live – Led Zeppelin II

Classic Albums Live performing Led Zeppelin II

November 11, 2012 – Classic Albums Live perform classic rock albums live on stage in a note for note, cut for cut reproduction of the album. Classic Albums Live have been reviewed by T-MAK World previously, including Led Zeppelin IV here and Queen’s Night at the Opera twice, here and here.

No, that isn’t Robert Plant, it’s Phil Naro

Last night, it was Led Zeppelin II that was performed to a sold out Regent Theatre in Oshawa. Like previous shows, the musicians wore black and there was no banter with the audience. If you closed your eyes, you’d swear it was Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham up on stage, but it wasn’t, it was Phil Naro on vocals, Dominic Polito on guitars and theremin, Russell Gray on guitars, Mark Yannetta on bass, Rick Vatour on drums and Will Hare on keyboards. 

Dominic Polito uses the violin bow during How Many More Times

Rick Vatour

OK, I mainly like this picture because of the demonic face in the fog

What Classic Albums Live gets absolutely right is the understanding that Page’s so-called “Guitar Army” can’t be reproduced on one guitar. They aren’t a “tribute” act that attempts to copy the members of the band. Instead, the focus is on musicianship and they use as many musicians as necessary to faithfully reproduce the sound. For A Night at The Opera, that meant at times using four guitarists!!

Will Hare and Russell Gray

Mark Yannetta

Fool In The Rain (and another creepy face in the mist)

The first half of the show was Led Zeppelin II. It starts simply enough with that famous E-chord riff of Whole Lotta Love but after that it’s straight into the deep end with the theremin sound effects, moaning, cymbals of the middle section. Naro’s vocals caused goosebumps when he sang Plant’s trademark powerful wail at the end of the song in a way that Plant himself surely could no longer manage.

Phil Naro and Russell Gray in background

Dominic Polito

What Is and What Should Never Be featured the very cool stereo effects of the two guitars from opposite sides of the stage playing off each other. Phil Naro evoked the sound of Plant’s voice in the gritty blues of The Lemon Song. The highlight of the album was Dominic Polito’s guitar solo on Heartbreaker. Gray’s acoustic guitar on Ramble On was amazing and drummer Vatour, who lives in Whitby and was cheered throughout by friends and family in the audience, played a great drum solo on Moby Dick, losing at least a dozen drumsticks in the process as he pitched them up in the air.

A quartet for Celebration Day

Led Zeppelin II was released in October 1969, a year after they formed and just nine months after their first album was released in January of 1969. Unheard, Atlantic Records had signed the band with an incredible $200,000 advance ($1.28 million in today’s dollars), on their first album which they recorded in just a few days. For Led Zeppelin II, they brought in engineer Eddie Kramer who’d engineered Hendrix’s Are You Experienced?, Axis Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland, which were three of the best albums ever recorded, before or since. Musically and lyrically, it was the band growing from the raw blues of the first album. The result was a harder edged sound that began to define what Led Zeppelin would become. Last night, 43 years later, Led Zeppelin II came to life again.

Phil Naro

At the conclusion of the album performance, there was a brief intermission. It was in fact too brief to get a beer in the unbelievably slow line-up that virtually didn’t move for 15 minutes. Note to Regent Theatre, seriously, that was beyond ridiculous and totally inexcusable, you could have easily tripled sales of refreshments if they were handled efficiently.

Rick Vatour

Dominic Polito during Kashmir

Review and photos by Steve Mallinson

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Author: Steve Mallinson