Led Zeppelin Concerts - Characteristics

Characteristics

Led Zeppelin's reputation as a compelling live act is often attributed to the tight understanding and musical chemistry achieved between all four group members, combined with a shared willingness to try new things on-stage, which resulted in dynamic, unpredictable performances. As is noted by Led Zeppelin experts Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett:

Led Zeppelin live was an extraordinary animal. From the very beginning no two performances were alike. Such was the creative spark between the four that the basic structures of their songs were repeatedly reworked, extended and improvised on, making their studio counterparts almost unrecognisable.

Led Zeppelin have been described as the kind of group that actually rehearsed on stage, experimenting with the reaction of the audiences to new material and letting the pieces mature through the live experience. Several tracks from their albums were debuted on stage well before their official release on vinyl. Jimmy Page himself has said that most of the band's songs were designed for live performance.

Every show we did was different. You never knew when you went onstage what you might do by the end of it ... Once a song was recorded, and it went into the set, it began to mutate. The whole improvisational aspect, the riffs coming out of the ether ... it was a magical vehicle collectively soaring into the stratosphere. And as more albums came out, the set got longer and longer.

In an interview he gave to Uncut magazine in 2005, Page elaborated:

The beauty of playing in the band was that when we went onstage we never actually knew what was going to go on within the framework of the songs. They were constantly changing. New parts would come out on the night. The spontaneity was on the level of ESP, which meant it was always exciting.

Led Zeppelin concerts typically included expanded, live versions of their song repertoire, often incorporating elements of James Brown, Stax and Motown-influenced soul music and funk (favourites of Jones and drummer John Bonham). The quartet also loved American rock and roll, being inspired by the exuberant styles of Fats Domino and Little Richard. Led Zeppelin would additionally perform rockabilly songs originally made famous by Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran. As described by Cameron Crowe, " Zeppelin live was a direct descendant from Elvis' early shows. Raw, direct, a reminder of when rock was young."

With such shared enthusiasm for playing a diverse range of musical styles coupled with their emphasis on extended improvisation, Led Zeppelin's concerts frequently extended for several hours. Recalled Jones:

Things got extended a lot to keep ourselves from going mad. Every tour we tried to cut it down, especially in the later years. We'd say we're only going to play an-hour-and-a-half. After a week, it would creep back up to two hours. By the end of the tour it's three hours!

After their 1977 tour of the United States (which turned out to be their last major tour), the band chose to abandon much of the "mystical" image that surrounded them up to that point, the members would wear ordinary street clothes during their concerts and the setlist was toned down by excluding long, elaborate solo numbers like John Bonham's Moby Dick and Jimmy Page's trademark bowed guitar solo accompanied by a laser show. Note that the latter was included in their four 1979 concerts but omitted from the 1980 tour.