Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Jason Bonham Does Hollywood

Some gigs are more important than others. Hometowns, for example. Or  New York. For James Dylan, singing with Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, it was Philadelphia:img_2357_std
Philly was very special for me because Averelle and our son and three daughters were there.

For anybody associated with Led Zeppelin, add Los Angeles to the list.

A week ago now, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience stepped on the stage at Pantages Theatre in Hollywood with Paul Stanley and Steve Lukather in the audience and Jason's sister, Zoe Bonham, waiting in the wings, the Experience broke into Rock and Roll/Celebration Day. Andrew Bansal from Metal Assault was on hand to bear witness to the night:
No concert involving Led Zeppelin is complete without "Stairway To Heaven". This was no different, and they did complete justice to the most beautiful song ever written.

Overall, Jason was absolutely flawless on drums and I could feel a lot of emotion in his performance... The same can also be said about vocalist James Dylan whose voice was truly magical throughout the entire two and a half hours that he was on stage. Guitarist Tony Catania was absolutely brilliant and possessed a natural likeness to Jimmy Page in terms of appearance and stage presence, without even seeming to make an effort to do so. Multi instrumentalist Stephen LeBlanc and bassist Michael Devin also did their parts excellently well.

John Bonham is no more, but now I know for sure that he continues to live on in his son's body and enthralls crowds across the world.

A deeply emotional, mesmerizing and entertaining performance.

Zoe Bonham, John's other child and Jason's younger sister, joined the band onstage to play organ on When the Levee Breaks. Levee was one of the show's highlights already, Jason letting a video clip of dad lay down the groove for the for the song.  Nice to have both of his children playing along with him.

John Bonham must have been watching on with a tear in his eye.



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