“I am a Golden God!” Robert Plant is said to have yelled out the statement from a balcony back in his glory days as the front man for Led Zeppelin.
Decades later, the exclamation still rang true when Plant took the stage on April 22 at University of California, Berkeley’s Greek Theatre.
The concert began 8 p.m. with the North Mississippi All Star Duo as the opening act. Brothers Luther and Cody Dickenson, sons of Memphis musician and record producer Jim Dickenson, played a lively set of southern rock/blues that went down well with the audience.
A little after 9 p.m. Robert Plant and the Band of Joy took the stage to a full house.
Plant began with a folk/country rendition of Zeppelin’s “Black Dog,” and continued on with a few more covers, ranging from songs by Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, as well as a couple songs found on his latest album, Band of Joy.
The other Band of Joy members got their share in the spotlight as well, with guitarist Buddy Miller, multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott and singer Patty Griffin managing to hold their own during the two-plus hour concert set.
Miller and Scott do a good job of musically re-inventing what some consider untouchable songs such as “Tangerine” and Griffin’s voice lends the perfect harmonies to songs like “Ramble On.”
This was definitely not a Led Zeppelin-style concert as Plant interpreted the play list much differently than he would have when with the legendary band.
Plant still managed to wow the audience, hitting all the right notes and doing some of his signature dance moves, albeit much more tame than back when he was in his 20s.
If you want to hear Plant’s music, go buy his albums.
If you want to really get a feel for a true rock icon, there is nothing more exciting and amazing than watching Robert Plant perform live.