Live Reviews

What Should Never Be

The Paul Green School Of Rock Boston Presents A Tribute To Led Zeppelin at the Middle East Upstairs, October 25, 2008

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 28, 2008

“WAYYYYY DOWN INSIDE!” Who says kids can’t play Zep?

“Does anybody remember laughter?”

On this Saturday afternoon, the legions of the School of Rock (Boston branch) were pretty much indistinguishable from the real Led Zeppelin, who were themselves teenagers when they formed in the late ’60s. Except: switch golden gods like Plant and Page with awkward adolescents in oversized Tool T-shirts, sub in a petrifying terror of screwing up for Zep’s sexual bravado, and replace arenas filled with screaming nubile groupies with, uh, the performers’ parents. You’ll never realize how tedious a rock-and-roll song can be till you’ve watched a group of really young kids struggle to complete “How Many More Times,” the reckless juggernaut of the original stretching into one musical hurdle after another, the band members bracing for every change as if they’re running over traffic cones on a highway.

The net effect of this was exhilarating, perhaps because it was more of a recital than a rock show — and had all the requisite drama and anxiety. It struck me more than once in this room filled with kids forced to play old rock and parents clearly unschooled on deep cuts like “The Rover” and “Night Flight” that I might be one of the few actual Zep fans in attendance. When Harley Spring sang, in “Rock N Roll,” “I don’t know but I’ve been told/A big-legged woman ain’t got no soul,” he was oddly convincing — though it felt messed up to be in a room with a child singing the orgasmic breakdown of “Whole Lotta Love,” complete with “wayyyyy down inside, woman you need it,” right in front of his folks.

I was especially impressed with the powerhouse drumming of Ben Dealy, who was able to channel the galloping whump of John Bonham even though he could probably have fit his entire body inside one of Bonzo’s legs. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that any of these kids who goes on to play in a band in the real world — that is, sans parents — will shudder at the memory of this gig.

Related: Chaos theory, Japanimayhem, High fidelity, More

Chaos theory
Health are a rock band composed of four earnest and ambitious Los Angelinos.
Japanimayhem
Japanese acts attempting to interface with Western audiences often do so from behind a veil of inscrutability. Never mind that Japanese artists emerge from an alternate J-rock history that seldom intersects with ours. Tokyo's enduring Polysics have bridged this gap by expressing themselves as plainly as possible: with screaming, bouncing, eyeball-popping pogo pop so spastic that it breaks the language barrier.
High fidelity
“It’s a complicated subject,” says Peter Kember — a man more commonly known by his pseudonym, Sonic Boom — on the relationship between music and drugs.
Fortunate one
It was no surprise to find Chris Brokaw in Hawaii last week, just two Saturdays before he’s due back in Cambridge to pull a double shift upstairs at the Middle East.
Them Crooked Vultures | Them Crooked Vultures
One day, maybe in a decade or three, somebody will dig this LP out of the future virtual version of a record crate in a Salvation Army and be blown away by the deep grooves this supergroup generate
Bettye LaVette | Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook
Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.
Ruse music
Not that they’d be the first band to pad their résumé in their one-sheet, but even by industry standards, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’s backstory tests the threshold of plausibility.
Mood swings
There’s nothing like getting socked in the head with a big fat metaphor — and if it’s carried along by some solid guitar playing, so much the better.
5 for '10
I love baby bands, and I hope the ones I mention here don't mind my calling them that.
Delta blues
Nneka, who comes to the Middle East next Thursday, sounds a lot different on the phone from what you hear in her songs. She speaks softly, allowing stretches of silence to throw her thoughts into harsh relief. On record, she's all business.
The Freeways | The Freeways
After reading too many shitty reviews that included summations like "band X screwing band Y on Z kind of drugs," I swore off comparing bands to more-famous bands. It's like quitting cigarettes, however.
Less

Topics: Live Reviews , Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin, John Bonham, More

| More

ARTICLES BY DANIEL BROCKMAN

THE CULT SURVIVES ROCK'S HIGHS AND LOWS | May 29, 2012
There is a difference between an unknown musical artist and a superstar, and that difference isn't necessarily musical — it's mythological.

RAZORMAZE ADDS FOCUS TO THEIR THRASH | May 15, 2012
For a kind-of goofy metal dude, Alex Citrone is pretty serious — especially when he talks metal, and especially when he's talking about his band, Boston shred titans Razormaze.

ZAMBRI | HOUSE OF BAASA | May 15, 2012
For those of us of a certain age who remember when school dances had a strict four-fast-songs-then-one-slow-one policy, the memory of bouncing around to "Let's Hear It for the Boy" with the anticipation of "One More Night" or "Take My Breath Away" still makes our palms sweat with hormonal anxiety.

CONFRONTING THE SWEDISH GLOOM OF IN SOLITUDE | May 08, 2012
When I am finally able to get through to the cell phone of In Solitude's tour manager, they have emerged from a massive dust cloud, their metal-mobile finding civilization after a long spell traversing the deserts of Arizona with no idea where they are going.

[R.I.P.] ADAM YAUCH AND THE BEASTIE BOYS | May 08, 2012
ADAM YAUCH, a/k/a MCA, was likely inspired to pen those words, that appear in a tossed off couplet in the middle of what would wind up being one of the band’s final singles, by his immersion in the world of illness.