The Principle of Moments

Hey, know what?  I was thirty feet from a legend last night.

(gave enough of a shit to correct the width)

Robert Plant brought the Band of Joy to the Riverside, and we had floor-right seats, ostensibly labeled Row D, but on the side, they were the front row.  Right in font of the speaker hangs, which became very important.  Could see every line in his face.

Even though the band played several songs from That Other Band (I forget the name) and some old classics, there was little time for nostalgia. The band took the sound Plant and Krauss created on Raising Sand, and built it into a layered, complexly woven monument that conjured equal parts Roar and Whisper, landed on the solidly American foundation of blues and country.

And in front of all that, a man who looked "older than Jesus" (in Wife Sublime's words) but could still Roar himself.

Last week, I saw Bright Eyes with a very well done, complex light show presentation; comparably, this was minimalist, just a "Band Of Joy" backdrop.  But with music like this, what else would you need?

Helps, of course, to have a Rawk Gawd on the mic.

Although Plant is no diva.  He started introducing the band early, and let the other primary vocalists all take a song at various points while he faded into the shadows to sing backup or play harmonica.

Oh, let me tell you about those vocals for a minute.  Oh yes, do let me tell you about them.

On Raising Sand, Plant and Krauss' vocals wound around each other sensuously, taking turns holding each other up or joining in sublime anthemic chorus.  The vocalists in Band of Joy go so much beyond that.  To the point where just the four of them merely singing "Oooooohhhhhhhh" will send chills down your spine.  It may be less angelic than on Raising Sand, but more earthy;  while most reviewers of the new album were less enthralled with the combination of Plant and Patty Griffin, the combination, in tandem with Buddy Miller and Darrell Scott is best appreciated in a live setting, where the immediacy of their vocal collaboration and their ability to work with each other in the moment will remind you why people make music in the first damn place.

And the band was completely up to the task of interpreting the songs.  The old stuff from that Other Band was re-imagined to play to the strengths of the band, as well as reflecting the directions that Plant is interested in exploring.  Not to say it was quiet, oh my no NOT AT ALL.  Hell, they opened with Black Dog, and even recast as neo-bluegrass-alt rock stomp, it was all kinds of lively, even for the oldish crowd.

The band, particularly guitarist Buddy Miller and musician-of-all-trades Darrell Scott, strayed pretty far from the folk, country and bluegrass roots, delving DEEPLY into psychedelia and alt-rock drones; A single song could start out simple, start to build into a crescendo, which peters out and then leaves Plant muttering into the mic, suddenly erupting again into a noisy little freakout that culminates in all those beautiful voices raising a fucking ruckus.

And when the band is starting to concentrate on the noise and really lean into the song, they had a charming habit of all moving inward, and facing, each other; to really work from the individual cues, while Plant faded to the side with a bemused smile as he watched his band  really work together. 

Band of Joy, aptly named.  Maybe it didn't thunder like the old days, it's not the old days anymore, is it?  Even if he did sing a song that name-checked Mordor and Gollum, albeit with with a bit of irony.

And you know what happened?  I watched this wonderful band, fronted by ROBERT FUCKING PLANT,  play vital, visceral music both decades old and relatively new; the speaker hang fifteen feet in front of us blew in one ear and out the other, along the way tripping a few rusty old switches and like in some past cases, bringing tears of joy.  I once said that if music ever stopped bringing me that feeling, just bury me because I'm either dead or might as well be.

I'm not dead yet.

For those interested, the setlist.  I put my favorite parts in bold.

1. Black Dog
2. Down to the Sea
3. Angel Dance
4. Black Country Woman
5. House of Cards
6. Monkey
7. Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go (Buddy Miller vocal)
8. Silver Rider
9. A Satisfied Mind (Darrell Scott vocal)
10. Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down
11. Twelve Gates to the City/Wade in the Water/In My Time of Dying
12. Ocean of Tears (Patty Griffin vocal)
13. Please Read the Letter
14. Houses of the Holy
15. Ramble On
Encore:
16. Tangerine
17. Harm’s Swift Way
18. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall