includes: We're Gonna Groove, Dazed and Confused, Heartbreaker, White Summer / Black Mountain Side, Since I've Been Loving You, Organ solo / Thank You, What Is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, How Many More Times
Press Review: Fans Finally Loosen Up With Good Old Rock
Led Zeppelin, the four-man demolition squad disguised as a rock group, pushed aside a series of boring solos Monday night and laid out Portland music fans with some good old rock and roll.
Playing to an estimated 7,000 people in the Memorial Coliseum, they plodded along with excessive instrumental solos, repeatedly asking the crowd to loosen up until they heard what they came to hear – loud, driving rock music.
After the feeling in the audience reached across the void to the stage, Led Zeppelin got it on and the fans reacted. Swarming down from everywhere, the police and usherettes could do little more than hope a riot would not break out.
But rock freaks do not riot. They just like to move when they get the urge. Led Zeppelin provided the urge and the crowd moved. No one was hurt, nothing was damaged. It was just a peaceful reaction to a sound they all related to.
Performing many of the tunes from two record albums, Led Zeppelin climaxed the show with a blistering version of How Many More Times. Shining through the other boring solos was a guitar piece Jimmy Page performed with a violin bow. For brief moments, drummer John Bonham’s Moby Dick was virile energy in the best sense of the phrase.
But capping it all was the strutting Robert Plant, writhing, grinding and giving away the dirty blues lines with just the right inflection and gesture.
Considered by many rock critics the latest of rock ‘n roll sex idols, Plant explained why he sings the way he does: “The only thing that makes me do it is that I’m excited about what we play. Had the group been a drag, I would have just stood there all night.”
Led Zeppelin was not a drag and neither Robert Plant nor the audience could sit still all night. [-S.Smith/Oregon News/3-24-70]
includes: We're Gonna Groove, Dazed and Confused, Heartbreaker, White Summer / Black Mountain Side, Since I've Been Loving You, Organ solo / Thank You, What Is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, How Many More Times
Press Review: Fans Finally Loosen Up With Good Old Rock
Led Zeppelin, the four-man demolition squad disguised as a rock group, pushed aside a series of boring solos Monday night and laid out Portland music fans with some good old rock and roll.
Playing to an estimated 7,000 people in the Memorial Coliseum, they plodded along with excessive instrumental solos, repeatedly asking the crowd to loosen up until they heard what they came to hear – loud, driving rock music.
After the feeling in the audience reached across the void to the stage, Led Zeppelin got it on and the fans reacted. Swarming down from everywhere, the police and usherettes could do little more than hope a riot would not break out.
But rock freaks do not riot. They just like to move when they get the urge. Led Zeppelin provided the urge and the crowd moved. No one was hurt, nothing was damaged. It was just a peaceful reaction to a sound they all related to.
Performing many of the tunes from two record albums, Led Zeppelin climaxed the show with a blistering version of How Many More Times. Shining through the other boring solos was a guitar piece Jimmy Page performed with a violin bow. For brief moments, drummer John Bonham’s Moby Dick was virile energy in the best sense of the phrase.
But capping it all was the strutting Robert Plant, writhing, grinding and giving away the dirty blues lines with just the right inflection and gesture. Considered by many rock critics the latest of rock ‘n roll sex idols, Plant explained why he sings the way he does: “The only thing that makes me do it is that I’m excited about what we play. Had the group been a drag, I would have just stood there all night.”
Led Zeppelin was not a drag and neither Robert Plant nor the audience could sit still all night. [-S.Smith/Oregonian/3-24-70]
June 4, 2014 4:30pm Mike Navalinski
awesome website... I have been to over 200 shows and this was right at the very tippy top of that list but I remember that evening ending with How Many More Times, to the point I would be willing to bet my soul on it. As it concluded with Bonham coming back in to send it home after Plant hit 'that high note', the lights came on, we all lept to our feet not knowing what exactly had hit us. With that, they exited. Please help stablize my sanity........
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Concert review, Portland Oregon, March 23, 1970
August 14, 2015 11:22pm NCline
My wife attended this. She thought it was Fall 1969, but it must have been this show, as there doesn't appear to be a Portland Oregon show in the Fall of 1969. It was her Mt. Everest of hard rock shows. She says she never attended a concert from any group or performer that was as intense as this one was, before or after. She does recall that they didn't do Whole Lotta Love, and a lot of people seemed a little bummed about not getting it played. Equipment malfunction? Missing equipment? She was tired of the song by that time (still heavy rotation) and didn't miss it at all. And to repeat, this was the hardest she had ever been rocked.
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