Get the Led Out - Tralf Music Hall Buffalo November 22

I’ve seen Get the Led Out: The American Led Zeppelin six times now. Yet at their third time at the Tralf in Buffalo on November 22, they managed to throw in a number of surprises. Of the sets opening numbers, I had heard them do one of the first five before.

Starting with Good Times Bad Times, Andrew Lipke providing harmony vocals to Paul Sinclair’s lead, Paul Hammond killing the solo, it was a great opening. Follow that with How Many More Times, Hammond and Lipke each working the violin bows to recreate Page’s middle section. Houses of the Holy, a great fun rocker, The Ocean, the one song I’d heard them do before, followed by Ten Years Gone. Now that’s an opening five.

They weren’t done. however, and after finishing the first set with Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, Ramble On, Dazed and Confused, complete with Paul Hammond lit violin bow solo, and then the acoustic set of Going to California, Battle of Evermore and Hey Hey What Can I Do. Battle of Evermore, featuring Diana DeSantis in the Sandy Denny part, is always a Get the Led Out Highlight.

They opened set two with one last surprise, Achilles Last Stand, before finally letting keyboard player Lipke put down his guitar and play keys on Thank You. Moby Dick, was followed by a couple of underrated, but great, fun songs, Fool in the Rain and Hot’s on for Nowhere. Kashmir finished out the set before an encore of Misty Mountain Hop, Stairway to Heaven and Whole Lotta Love.

Get the Led Out is a seven piece band, and there are no passengers. Everybody is a great player, everybody has their moments. Sinclair is spot on vocalist, pitch perfect on things like Babe I’m Gonna Leave You and Kashmir. Drummer Adam Ferraioli impresses every-time with Moby Dick. Bassist Billy Childs is rock solid, but a song like How Many More Times allowed him a chance to shine as well. And you have to hear Jimmy Marchiano playing the Stairway to Heaven solo to understand how good a solo it is. He nails it, he nails all his parts, every time.

Their third time in Buffalo, The Tralf changed their seating from “Led Zeppelin dinner theatre” to concert style, taking out a number of tables and putting in their place a hundred-and-fifty or so seats. Reports of a city buried deep in snow, four feet in some sections of Buffalo, didn’t deter the fans, and the Tralf was about 90% full. They came for a Led Zeppelin fix, and Get the Led Out didn’t disappoint. But then no surprise there, they never do.