Robert Plant gets the ‘Led’ out as KAABOO Del Mar concludes; 2019 dates are set for next September
Robert Plant, meet Robert Plant!
The primary reason that Led Zeppelin has not reunited for its 50th anniversary this year is that Plant, the legendary band’s former singer, has repeatedly stated his desire to focus on his genre-bending solo career and look forward, not back.
So what did the 70-year-old singer do Sunday night at KAABOO Del Mar, where his performance overlapped with that of fellow festival-headliner Katy Perry?
Delightfully and a bit bewilderingly, he performed a whole lotta Led Zeppelin, from the show-opening “Good Times, Bad Times” to the show-closing “Whole Lotta Love.”
In between came such choice Zeppelin gems as “Going to California,” “Black Dog” and “The Lemon Song.” All told, eight of the 14 selections in Plant’s set came from his days with the mighty English band, which broke up in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham.
Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones have only played together a handful of times since then, and only once in this century (at a single show in London in 2007).
Yet, while Plant was happy to embrace his Zeppelin legacy, he was even happier to do so by taking artistic liberties at will. He did so, in part, by adding unexpected twists and recasting some of his former band’s songs with different tempo, key and approach.
It was a fascinating demonstration of pride of musical ownership. In this case, that pride was demonstrated by an equal degree of reverence and daring. Plant and his excellent, six-man band, The Sensational Space Shifters, treated these songs as vital, living works that could be — and were — performed with a welcome elasticity of style and mood.
Accordingly, “The Lemon Song” was sped up and underpinned by a brisk blues shuffle beat, while “Black Dog” was slowed down and featured a slower, more sultry groove than the original version.
Likewise, “Gallows Poll” was recast with violin, banjo and upright bass, and re-contextualized so that it alternately sounded like a Cajun hoedown and a Celtic jig. And the reconfigured “Whole Lotta Love” dispensed with the orgasmic vocal moans Plant became famous for with Zeppelin.
It featured, instead, a tasty violin solo and was performed as part of a medley that included both “Bring It On Home” and the more than 160-year old sea shanty, “Santianna.” Not for nothing does Plant call his band The Sensational Space Shifters.
He devoted the rest of his set mostly to some of his more recent solo numbers, including the terrific, Middle Eastern-tinged title track from his musical borders-leaping 2017 album, “Carry Fire.”
Plant sang with palpable passion throughout. His vocals received a little electronic sweetening from time to time, especially when it came to hitting high notes few 70-year-old rock singers can reasonably be expected to reach. But his spirit was willing, his band was on fire, and his audience heartily cheered for recent and vintage songs alike.
During “Turn It Up,” a bluesy Americana-meets-West-Africa song from Plant and the Shape Shifters’ 2014 album, “Lullaby and The Ceaseless Roar,” he sang: I’m stuck inside your radio, so turn it up and let me out.
As Plant’s rousing Sunday performance confirmed, he does not want to be stuck inside a radio — or confined by nostalgic expectations. Should he unexpectedly team up with Page and Jones for a final Led Zeppelin reunion at some point, it seems clear Plant already has a specific, space-shifting template in mind.
Speaking of templates, the upscale KAABOO Del Mar clearly has its template down pat after four years, as befits a three-day festival that this year sold out, in advance, for the first time.
The 2018 lineup included Plant, Katy Perry, Post Malone, Blondie, Imagine Dragons, Foo Fighters, Wiz Khalifa, Jewel, Earth, Wind & Fire and enough other veteran and young acts to ensure its multi-generational appeal. There were also enough VIP amenities to ensure that even the limited number of $15,000 Ultimate Hang passes sold out.
The festival’s largest stage, the Sunset Cliffs stage, this year was re-titled the Rolling Stone stage and bore the logo of the pioneering rock-music magazine, which this year turned 50. If nothing else, the stage name change may have been a savvy move to ensure some additional national coverage.
Some tweaks are needed, including adding on-stage video screens to either side of the Trestles Stage and streamlining the wait and logistics for attendees using ride-sharing services.
It also remains a mystery why an entire building on the KAABOO site — which covers much of the Del Mar Racetrack and fairgrounds — was this year devoted to housing an air-conditioned roller-disco, which appeared sparsely attended for most of the weekend.
And it might make the achievement of selling out for the first time more impressive if the producers of KAABOO would finally disclose attendance figures, which they declined to do this weekend for the fourth year in a row. (Del Mar Fairgrounds’ CEO Tim Fennell estimated attendance at the sold-out event was between 38,000 and 40,000 each day, adding that he would need to confirm those figures.)
But no matter.
KAABOO Del Mar announced its 2019 dates — Sept. 13-15 — almost before the 2018 edition had concluded Sunday, and began its early-bird sale.
That came as music to the ears of San Diego Realtor Mike Boehme, who has attended KAABOO for the past three years — each time after purchasing a Hang Ten VIP pass.
“I bought my 2019 Hang Ten pass seven minutes after they went on sale Sunday night,” said Boehme, 55, who estimates he spent $7,000 this year on his Hang Ten pass, a room for four nights at the Del Mar Hilton and two Hang Five passes for his adult daughters.
“It’s worth every penny. The Hang Ten pass is really is the only way to go, because you get all the perks. I really like to do the backstage meet-and-greets with the performers. And you get priority spaces in front of the stage — or on platforms on the stage — which is kind of cool, and tables up front at the Humor Me comedy stage..
“Plus, you don’t have to do a lot of walking. They will shuttle you between stages on a golf cart that goes around the back of the racetrack, so you don’t have to deal with the crowds.”
Boehme’s only disappointment is that Robert Plant declined to do a meet-and-greet with Hang Ten pass-holders Sunday.
“But I got to stand right in front of the stage next to Judd Apatow and rub elbows with a lot of the performers while Plant was performing,” Boehme said. “So, of course, it was worth it.”
george.varga@sduniontribune.com
Twitter @georgevarga
