Zoso at Mill City Nights, Minneapolis (28 June 2014)

Setlist Rock and Roll Good Times Bad Times Communication Breakdown Heartbreaker Immigrant Song Ramble On Black Dog Since I’ve Been Loving You That’s The Way The Song Remains the Same Stairway To Heaven -- Encore -- Kashmir Tour Dates 07/04 Rockin' On The River Cuyahoga, OH 07/05 River Rock at the Amp Warren, OH 07/10 The Pink Garter Jackson, WY 07/11 Whiskey Jacques Ketchum, ID 07/12 Lo-Fi Cafe Salt Lake City, UT 07/13 Belly Up Aspen, CO 07/17 Animas City Theatre Durango, CO 07/18 Bluebird Theater Denver, CO 07/19 Smoke on the Water Des Moines, IA 07/24 Kress Live Biloxi, MS 07/25 Varsity Theatre Baton Rouge, LA 07/26 Cypress Bayou Casino Charenton, LA 07/31 Highline Ballroom New York, NY 08/01 Stadium Theatre Woonsocket, RI 08/07 The Belmont Austin, TX 08/08 House of Blues Dallas, TX 08/09 House of Blues Houston, TX 08/14 Star Theater Portland, OR 08/15 Nectar Lounge Seattle, WA 08/16 Bing Crosby Theater Spokane, WA 08/21 The Orange Peel Asheville, NC 08/22 The Windjammer Isle of Palms, SC 08/23 Greenfield Lake Wilmington, NC 08/27 Rockin on the River Troy, NY 08/29 Lock 3 Park Akron, OH 09/06 State Theatre Falls Church, VA 09/11 Ram's Head On Stage Annapolis, MD 09/12 Heritage Amphitheater Chesterfield, VA 09/19 St. Andrews Hall Detroit, MI 09/20 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH 09/26 Oktoberbest at Foster Park Kokomo, IN 09/27 Thompson House Newport, KY 10/25 Larose Civic Center Larose, LA 11/14 The Downtown Cabaret Bridgeport, CT 11/21 Rhythm & Brews Chattannooga, TN Read More Led Zeppelin Much like those documentary-type books, such as Queen Live: A Concert Documentary and The Smiths: The Visual Documentary, the iOS application, This Day In Led Zeppelin, is chock-full …

Last Saturday night Zoso, a Led Zeppelin tribute band, rocked out Mill City Nights. Not only does the band attempt to capture Zeppelin’s sound, but each member has embodied their characters down to the finest of details with Matt Jernigan playing Robert Plant, John McDaniel as Jimmy Page, Adam Sandling as John Paul Jones, and Greg Thompson as John Bonham.

For those of you that don’t know, Zoso is a symbol picked out by Page for their 4^th, untitled album. In that album, each member picked out a symbol to represent themselves. Thus making Zoso apropos for a tribute band that tries to not only symbolize Led Zeppelin, but also the Rock ‘n Roll era which they came from.

Before attending their concert, I had no idea how big the “tribute band” business was. I met a couple of people that make it a priority to attend at least one Led Zeppelin tribute band concert a week! They could rattle off all the different bands and gave critiques of which was better in sound, appearance, and overall showmanship. Unfortunately, these “groupies” weren’t very coherent as they seemed to have pregamed the event very well.

Matt Jernigan and John McDaniel

Zoso opened up with “Rock and Roll” and the crowd went wild. Greg Thompson played John Bonham perfectly with that drum intro and Matt Jernigan took on Robert Plant with great confidence. They all had the clothes, hair, and demeanor of their alter egos.

They got loud with “Communication Breakdown,” mellowed out with “That’s The Way,” and showed off some of their individual skills with “The Song Remains the Same.” In between “The Song Remains the Same” and “Stairway To Heaven,” Adam Sandling wailed on the drums for a good 7 minutes. I couldn’t believe he had my attention for the whole solo. Sandling went from the traditional Rock ‘n Roll drums to bongos then smashed the massive gong behind him for an exclamation point.

After he was done the rest of the band members came back on stage. John McDaniel, along with the double guitar he started playing during “The Song Remains the Same,” belted out some more sweet riffs a la Jimmy Page.

Zoso

It was a great concert overall. Other than a little reverb coming above stage left, Mill City Nights worked as a decent venue. Jernigan (Plant) did a great job in connecting with the crowd by holding short conversations with them in between songs and McDaniel (Page) raised the crowd’s volume with his great technique and ability to improvise.

If you’re looking to relive the ‘70s or catch a glimpse of a time you were too young to live, go to a Zoso concert. They won’t let you down.

Zoso at Mill City Nights, Minneapolis (28 June 2014)

behzad ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ zosoontour.com

Comments

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Greg Thompson plays Bonham, not Adam.

[W♥M]

Thank you - I have corrected the error.