One of the most prestigious double bills of the concert season appeared at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Friday June 28th, featuring two blues master vocalists, representing multiple generations.
Opener Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, played a hastened forty minute set to a half full bowl. In the eight years since their debut album Nothing But The Water, the Vermont band have achieved stardom, showcasing their talents at an endless progression of the biggest music festivals across the globe. The band portrays the souls of elder statesmen of blues rock, channeling 1960’s Janis Joplin and Big Brother or Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane.
Potter sings like a woman possessed, playing her trademark Hammond B3 organ, and a classic flying V guitar. The foxy tall blonde singer flailed about in the hot afternoon sun, wearing a long white garment, ingrained with multicolored sequence. The band played like a classic 60’s psych band and even covered Grace Slick’s signature song “White Rabbit”. The only fault found with the near perfect set was how quickly it ended. This band has become increasing popular in recent years and could have easily headlined at the bowl. The short set was particularly frustrating, preceding what was an unusually long 45 minute wait for the headline act Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters. The wait could have been blamed on a last minute costume alteration.
According to the Facebook page of one of the backstage bowl assistants, Mr. Plant apparently ripped his pants during the sound check, which serves as almost comedic foil, considering his wardrobe choices of decades past. The assistant had to rush home and sew them back together for the performer. She proudly displayed the pants on her Facebook page, a la the gaping hole. Why Mr Plant has only one pair of pants available remains a mystery. And, while the long delay combined with the dreaded 10PM curfew at the bowl seemed to shorten the band’s set time, the 90 minute set was actually the standard for the tour.
When Plant finally hit the stage with the latest version of his Sensational Space Shifters, the crowd was mesmerized by the opening classic, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You. The front-man has wisely chosen to become more of a blues and roots singer in his senior years instead of trying to recreate the mercurial vocals of his youth from the Led Zeppelin days, he has reworked the classic rock songs into slower bluesier drenched versions.
In one medley of the Zeppelin classic “Whole Lotta Love”, he evolved the song into Bo Diddley’s classic “Who Do You Love”. The Sensational Space Shifters are a consummate improve band, featuring an array of veteran musicians. The group features guitarist Justin Adams (Tinariwen, Sinead O’Connor), keyboardist John Baggott (Massive Attack, Portishead), bassist Billy Fuller (Beak>, Massive Attack), guitarist Liam “Skin” Tyson (Cast, Men from Mars), West African World music master Juldeh Camara, and drummer Dave Smith. Camara gave the blues drenched English rockers an additional dreamy layer of world beat rhythms that harkened back to Zeppelin’s dreamy world music experimentation on their later albums. The sounds suited Plant’s still mystical style and approach to performance, born in his Welsh roots and perfected in some of his Tolkien inspired Zep classics.
The feisty performers banter with the audience always has a surreal off beat quality, creating the mysterious onstage mood. The prancing singer still seems to go into a whirling dervish type trance when his band transcends into their seminal jams, much like in his 70’s days. It was obvious from the crowd’s reaction that many were there to hear the Led Zeppelin catalog, but when the band reached it’s most intense jam state it didn’t really matter what songs were played.
Setlist
Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You
In the Mood
Tin Pan Valley
Spoonful
Black Dog
Another Tribe
Going to California
The Enchanter
Please Read the Letter
Friends
Funny in My Mind (I Believe I’m Fixin’ to Die)
What Is and What Should Never Be
Whole Lotta Love
Encore
Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down
Rock and Roll
