Skip to main content

Celebration Day

A few weeks ago, I took in a screening of Celebration Day, the (possibly) last-ever performance of Led Zeppelin. Thankfully, I never wished to hit the fast-forward button during its two-hour running time.

I say this because there was a time in my life when I ate up a 25-minute rendition of "Dazed and Confused." Those were my high school years when I had a desire to soak up an experience like The Song Remains the Same. I never watched it under the influence, and I don't regret that.

Given all the music I dig as an adult, I don't really feel the need to listen to The Song Remains the Same again and again. I'll take the studio albums over that any day, no matter my mood. That said, the production and the performance quality of Celebration Day is exactly what I enjoy as an adult. The editing is spot-on, the performance is nothing short of powerful, and the song selection shows the best of the band's sound.

I didn't watch Celebration Day under the influence either. But I did watch it on a friend's new home theater system, which includes a screen that took up almost an entire wall. Certainly was the closest to seeing the performance in a theater.

None of the songs felt long to me. The greatness of the band's material is on display here; not the excesses of their shows in the 70s. This is probably a better document of the band in a single performance, though I'd say the Led Zeppelin DVD is a definitive look at all of the band's time together.

So, whenever Amazon runs their special deals on DVDs, no matter how cheap they'll sell The Song Remains the Same, I'm more than likely to go for Celebration Day.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J