Ageless vocalist Robert Plant and his band The Sensational Space Shifters made an appearance this past Saturday night at the historic Massey Hall in Toronto before a sold-out crowd. Plant is on tour in support of his latest offering “Carry Fire.” The Sensational Space Shifters consist of Billy Fuller on bass, John Baggott on drums, Liam Tyson and Juldeh Camara on guitar and Seth Lakeman on Fiddle (who also opened the show).
Plant’s solo career has been well established since his days in Led Zeppelin. His different ventures into rock, then bluegrass (with Allison Krauss) and now his recent love with Americana has given Plant the zest to continue to grow and expand his musical horizons. “Carry Fire” kind of continues from where 2014’s “Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar” left off. Plant and his band uses a lot of experimentation with mid-eastern textures and tones. The show incorporates the mood of these with tempo changes and structure changes to very familiar songs like “In the Mood” or “Misty Mountain Hop.”
Plant said very little throughout the hour and half set. He primarily let his amazing band and the music do most of the talking. Plant did offer some insight talking about how “Gallows Pole” was first captured by Lead Belly and how he expanded his collaboration with Allison Krauss on the song “Please Read the Letter.”
Most of what Plant delivered from his latest solo work offered a different vibe. A vibe that everyone enjoyed seemed to enjoy. Plant wasn’t afraid to let the band take the spotlight when it was called upon. Of course, most of the excitement was exuded by the audience when any Led Zeppelin number was called. Plant made each song his own as the tones were primarily in Americana. Regardless of the way the Zeppelin songs were played in, the crowd ate it up. Plant’s voice is still strong enough and diverse enough to still hit all the major cylinders when it was needed. In talking to some of the audience members, they mentioned this was a “bucket list” show for them. If you have a chance to see the Golden God (Plants nickname) at any point, you take that chance. For the sold-out crowd, it was more than a chance worth taking as they received something special back tenfold!
Setlist:
New World
Turn it Up
The May Queen
That’s the Way (Led Zeppelin song)
All the King’s Horses
Please Read the Letter (Jimmy Page & Robert Plant song)
Gallows Pole (? cover)
Carry Fire
Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You (Joan Baez cover)
Little Maggie(The Stanley Brothers cover)
Fixin’ to Die (Bukka White cover)
Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin song)
Encore:
In the Mood
Bring it on Home (Jimmy Page & Robert Plant song)/Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin song)/Santy Anno (The Kingston Trio cover-snippet)/Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin song)
We would like to thank Zack Kraimer from Big Hassle Media for the credentials to review the show.
