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Rating: From the reaction to the review of "Live On Blueberry Hill," I realized that there is still a lot of "hunger" for Led Zeppelin, so I decided to present a very important episode, albeit artistically negligible, in the career of our heroes.
Let's move to the description: August 1979, the Knebworth concert is highly anticipated, they are expected to play in front of 300,000 spectators, and it had been two years since they performed live; their last performance in their home country was back in May 1975! The Led Zeppelin were charged, they had an album ready ("In Through The Out Door," which would be released shortly after) and they were eager to get back to what they did best: playing live!!
The concert will last over 3 hours during which our heroes clearly give their all, the setlist is quite extensive, starting with "The Song Remains The Same" as in the last tour of '77, "Celebration Day" makes its return to the setlist after the American tour of 1973, Plant gives an interpretation somewhere between the studio version and that of the mentioned tour. It continues with two more energetic tracks "Black Dog" and "Nobody's Fault But Mine": it will be a hard-hitting concert, without even the acoustic set. "Over The Hills And Far Away" precedes two other welcome returns from the '73 tour: "Misty Mountain Hop" and "Since I've Been Loving You", which were then played in a continuous flow tied by a Page solo, now they are two standalone pieces. The 18 minutes of "No Quarter" are the only marathon of the concert, it is the track that highlights the skills of John Paul Jones, as does the subsequent "Ten Years Gone" which sees him engaged with a special three-neck guitar and bass pedals! Led Zeppelin announces a track from a new album: it is "Hot Dog", performed faithfully. "The Rain Song" is played for the first time alone without following "The Song Remains The Same", then Jimmy Page sits on a chair and performs in solitude "White Summer/Black Mountain Side" which merge into the monumental "Kashmir".
It's time to return to hard rock and Led Zeppelin unleash three gems: "Trampled Underfoot", "Sick Again" and "Achilles' Last Stand", the latter possibly the best performance of the evening. Page's solo with the bow cannot be missed, introducing "In The Evening", with Jimmy switching to the Fender Stratocaster!! And we are at the end with "Stairway To Heaven" which generates the well-deserved ovation of the audience. There is no concert without an encore, and Led Zeppelin performs 3 super classics: "Rock And Roll", "Whole Lotta Love" with a new arrangement, and the grand finale with "Heartbreaker".
A concert that can leave you breathless, but also leaves a lot of bitterness and sooooooo much nostalgia for the better years. Jimmy Page does not play well at all: the solos are confused and uninspired, and he even makes some mistakes; Robert Plant could no longer reach the highs of the early records even by 1973, and here he has lost much even in terms of timbre, poorly rendering the classics and not doing well even in the more recent tracks. Bonzo plays diligently, but without his known energy, resulting rather weak. And even J.P. Jones shows a regression, at least in sound. In short, a concert that can only be appreciated by fans, but should be avoided by everyone else!
N.B. the concert is available in its entirety as a bootleg, even on video, both the date reviewed here and that of August 11th, almost identical in setlist and quality, but the remastered part of the official DVD, although incomplete, is by far the best document on the Knebworth concerts... two historic milestones!
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