Does Anyone Remember Laughter? Gilmour Floyd and Heartbreaker '05 (Part 3)

Mary and I waited a few minutes before venturing into the small lobby of the Tower Theater after Gilmour Floyd's performance. She went to use the ladies room and I remained in my seat to further people-watch. Smiles all around on the people hiking up the incline of the aisles. Then I saw what I thought was just your typical Dark Side Of The Moon t-shirt on a woman. As she came closer, I realized that the familiar prism design had Gilmour Floyd printed across it. A tribute band with their own merchandise? It struck me as a little strange. I liked the band very much, but I couldn't see buying a shirt, especially one with a design so derivative of an original Pink Floyd image.

When Mary returned to her seat, I went out to hit the head and get a beer. I got into the long beer line and was right next to the Gilmour Floyd merchandise table. The shirts were pinned on the wall behind the table staffed by a handful of ladies. On the table itself were what looked like candles and incense, the kind you'd find at one of those Tupperware-style home "parties". Cute. I figured one of the band member's wives thought it would be a great idea to put that crapola out alongside the t-shirts. Now that's rock 'n' roll! Also on the table were what looked like blown up digital photos of Gilmour Floyd in concert. I overheard one of the ladies at the booth tell a very drunk guy that the band would be happy to autograph a photo......for $2. He shrugged and dished out the two bills. I moved ahead with the beer line and shortly, he staggered up to his buddy who was right in front of me. He smiled wide and showed his pal the photo. "Cool", the friend exclaimed. "Where'd you get this?"

"Right over there", he said, pointing to the table. "Two bucks."

"You paid for this?", his buddy asked. The guy nodded, a little confused. "Well, I hope you're not two dollars short for this beer, Eddie." I snickered a little and the friend looked over his shoulder and winked at me. Eddie simply said, "Heh, yeah" and looked lovingly at his prize.

Back at my seat, we watched the crew strip the stage and set up for Heartbreaker. Gone were the nice risers and video screen. Instead, the stage was flat and plain plus a banner lifted up behind the drum kit with "Heartbreaker" in the same font used in the most recognized Led Zeppelin logos. It read:

Heartbreaker

A tribute to

Led Zeppelin

The letters in Led Zeppelin and Heartbreaker were the same size just in case you didn't know that they were indeed a Led Zep tribute band. Before the banner, I suppose some people thought that Heartbreaker were the world's worst Mott The Hoople tribute band, saying after the show, "Jeez, they didn't even play All The Young Dudes and what was with all that Zeppelin stuff?"

The lights went down and the band came onstage and started in on the barrage of Zeppelin hits. The crowd was very enthusiastic, with some standing and others pumping their fists. Mary and I looked at each other and mouthed the same words to each other; "This sounds like shit". I looked back at the mixing board to see a different guy than before furiously twiddling knobs and glancing quickly up at the stage. He looked like he was playing some sort of rock and roll Whack-A-Mole.

After the first tune, the sound got much better. Following Gilmour Floyd and their pristine sound (helped also by the subtleties of Pink Floyd's music in contrast to Zep's aural assault) turned out to be a short-term problem as Heartbreaker sounded even better than our previous exposure to them. I marveled at the costumes; the singer with his tight, low-cut denims with a silk blouse tied loosely at the waist,the guitar player wearing a very cheap looking knockoff of Page's "Dragon Suit", the bass player wore something of a Seinfeld-esque puffy shirt, and the drummer appropriately wore jeans and a t-shirt. (Bonham never was flashy---my favorite photo of Led Zeppelin is one with them standing in a field, with Jones, Plant and Page each wearing a stylish-for-the-time casual jacket and tie with pleated pants. Then there's Bonzo, wearing faded jeans and an Adidas t-shirt).

Each player also wore a wig, except possibly the guitar player, who could have been simply wearing his natural hair in the short-long shaggy Page look. The singer's wig was certainly necessary, because Robert Plant wore such an identifiable mane. The bass player had a wig that matched John Paul Jones' Prince Valiant phase and the drummer wore a non-descript long black piece, but was also adorned with a laughable stuck-on mustache like you'd find at the Halloween costume stores that pop up in vacant building around late September. I watched him off and on all night to see if that spirit gum would hold. (It did.)

Mary and I both thought that they sounded much better than the Warnor's Theater show. Mary noticed that the singer seemed to push foot pedals down after some songs and we wondered if that affected his mic at all. I had no doubts that he was singing live, but now had some concerns that he was masking some inadequacies in his voice. Even so, the vocalist reached some powerful highs and while, to my ears, he didn't sound all that much like Plant in the higher register, he was spot-on in the lower. He also pranced and stutter-stepped about the stage mimicking Plant in quite the fey manner. If it weren't for multiple viewings of The Song Remains The Same on VHS back in my all-nighter days, I'd wonder what the hell this guy was doing. Before seeing the movie, all I'd seen were stills and those showed Plant in marvelously statuesque Rock God poses. Nowadays, with the ability to view the wonderful Led Zeppelin DVD set as proof, Heartbreaker's lead man knows his Percy.

In actuality, the rest of the band were fairly pedestrian aside from dressing the part. This is not a knock on their talents as musicians. They obviously have a respect for the original material and most likely maintain a passion for the band, but only Zep sounds like Zep. I will admit, at times, when I'd just let the experience wash over me, I could easily imagine that this was something like seeing Zep around late '69 or maybe '70 when they played venues similar in size to the Tower. That feeling didn't last long because, in its essence, this show was an overblown production of standard readings of Led Zeppelin's catalog boosted by costumes and volume. Still, even saying that, I'd see them again anytime. It's just that fun.

At the risk of sounding like the old timer in his rocking chair, pointing at you with the butt of his pipe cradled between thumb and index finger; "Someday, remind me to tell you about the best fuckin' Zep cover band around. Seen 'em over 20 times, I have. They're called Dread Zeppelin and if you look hard enough, you can find 'em performing live sometime, somewhere."