Killing Floor (Zeppelin Cover Band)
Venue: Tin Roof, Charleston, SC
Date: 04 October 2011
Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, and John Bonham stepped on stage for the last time in July 1980. Bonham died that fall, the remaining members disbanded out of respect for their dear friend...and the music world has missed them ever since.
I was born at the end of the decade that began with the death of one of the greatest acts to ever take the stage, so I never had a chance to see Led Zeppelin. After being at Killing Floor's show last weekend at the Tin Roof...I alllllmost feel like I can add Zeppelin to the ever-growing list of bands I've seen live. I have to give Killing Floor credit...making the decision to exclusively cover ONE band is more difficult than it might sound: the artist must have an extensive library, several recognizable hits, and a distinctly unique sound. Led Zeppelin certainly passes all three of those tests. Choosing to cover Zeppelin requires a singer with incredible range, a guitar player with serious chops, and a drummer who knows how to both lay in the pocket and explode with perfect timing and POWER. The members of Killing Floor had every bit of that and then some.
Before the band members took stage, I took note of an EDS-1275 Gibson double-neck guitar and a vintage amber Ludwig Vistalite drumset...two instruments that are not easily found at your local Guitar Center. John Bonham was one of the first drummers to popularize the Vistalite acrylic drumset when they were introduced in 1972, and their unique sound helped further distinguish his choppy, meaty signature sound that Dave Grohl describes as being "like someone who didn't know what was going to happen next—like he was teetering on the edge of a cliff.". The mere sight of his trademark 26" single-bass kit (most bass drums are 20-22" in diameter) is enough to make the concertgoer take a step back away from the stage to prepare for the blasts that you are sure must be coming. Double-neck guitars are nearly synonymous with Jimmy Page -- even after several well-respect guitar players who followed used them extensively. Page most often used his Gibson for live performances of "Stairway to Heaven" to avoid the need to switch guitars mid-song. Today they are somewhat of a novelty due to their extremely high price -- meaning it's not a purchase to be done on a whim. So as I scanned the stage, these two instruments alone were beginning to convince me this band might be serious about their Zep.
The show lived up to its billing -- the drummer hit every lick with perfect timing, the guitar player played each note to full effect, the bass player and drummer were in sync all night and carried the song forward when the guitar solo wandered off in its own directions...and Lindsay Holler sang her ass off. What a faithful rendition of the entire Led Zeppelin II album...and then a few other great hits to close out the show. I left very impressed and the show kicked off a sudden resurgence of Zeppelin tunes in my iTunes playlist.
**Sidenote: The Tin Roof is a great hipster dive bar. You know when you walk in to a pool table with a trippy mural of Willy Wonka behind it that you'll be drinking PBR and probably sitting on a barstool beside a guy with a handlebar mustache. Favorite part of the bar -- the old school TV/VCR behind the bar with the following movies: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Tombstone, and WWII in the Pacific (all VHS, of course).
