Artist: Led Zeppelin
Date: 1979-07-24
Venue: Falkoner Theatre
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Source: Audience
Lineage: Master>DAT(4)>cdr(3)>eac(secure mode/read offsets corrected)>wav>flac(level 8)
Tracklist:
Disc 1
01. The Song Remains The Same
02. Celebration Day
03. Black Dog
04. Nobody's Fault But Mine
05. Over The Hills And Far Away
06. Misty Mountain Hop
07. Since I've Been Loving You
08. No Quarter
09. Ten Years Gone
10. Hot Dog
Disc 2
01. The Rain Song
02. White Summer
03. Kashmir
04. Trampled Underfoot
05. Sick Again
06. Achilles Last Stand
07. Guitar Solo
08. In The Evening
09. Stairway To Heaven
10. Whole Lotta Love
Original Notes:
Recorded from the balcony using an Uher tape deck and sennheiser mics. This is an excellent+ audience recording. This is debatably maybe the best sounding audience recording circulating for any zeppelin show. If not the best then at least one of the top 2 or 3 best. This is very similar sound-wise to Copenhagen warm-ups (TDOLZ).
After the unfortunate end to the massive 1977 US tour Led Zeppelin's future seemed very bleak. There was wide speculation in the media of the group breaking up, which was only fueled by the band's habit of media isolation. However, the group did not break up and after much soul searching the band launched itself back into the music scene by producing its ninth album "In Through the Out Door", which also turned out to be the band's last studio album. In order to promote the new album the band were scheduled to play at the massive UK Knebworth Festival in August of 1979, but before these shows the band were to play two warm up gigs in Copenhagen. However, by 1979 the music scene in the UK had changed greatly from the last time the band had played there in 1975, hard rock had been eclipsed by the punk movement and bands like Led Zeppelin were increasingly seen as "dinosaurs" of old rock. In an effort to stay current the band introduced many changes. One the most drastic changes came with their revamped live set, which hoped to do away with the past excesses including many of the long solos and improvisations (Jimmy's guitar effects solo was retained). Instead the band opted to integrate more songs into their set and the new live set incorporated songs from all of their albums, including their still unreleased ninth album. All of this had the effect of re energizing their live set and the members themselves, particularly jimmy who suffered from sluggishness and inconsistent playing in the last tour. In a sense the Copenhagen 1979 shows were the embodiment of this new found energy and optimism.
As for this show in particular, it's one of those rare shows were the quality of the recording reflects the quality of the performance, which is near excellent. The audience recording perfectly captures the wonderful atmosphere of the gig, it is very three dimensional (but not to the point where it is overly boomy) and at the same time clear sounding which really gives the listener a sense of being present there among the audience. The audience themselves are wonderful, even though the shows were pretty low key gigs with only around 2000 people, they are packed with energy and excitement. This is exemplified by the fact that the audience are constantly clapping along and even singing along (a good example is Black Dog), which only enhances the intimate atmosphere. As for the performance itself, the show starts of slightly sloppy but that quickly disappears as the band power through The Song Remains The Same, Celebration Day, Black Dog, and Nobody's Fault but Mine with much guts. A good Over the Hills and Far Away is followed by Misty Mountain Hop and Since I've Been Loving You, a song pair from their 1973 setlist but this time without the scorching hot transition between songs, nevertheless this SIBLY was very reminiscent of those intense, heavy 1973 versions. That is followed by a compact No Quarter, which was back to its 1973 length, and featuring some nice fluid soloing from page. After No quarter takes a small left turn with Ten Years Gone and a lovely Rain Song, while sandwiching a peculiar and out of place Hot Dog. In nice contrast to the mellow rain song follows the epic combination of White Summer/Kashmir, now really becoming a force of its own. Steamrolling in is the gutsy hard rock/funk of Trampled Underfoot and Sick Again. After this comes the epic Achilles Last stand followed by the last vestiges of Led Zeppelin's "self indulgent" music, jimmy's bow solo and snippet of john bonham's moby dick with tympani effects, which segue into a great In the Evening. The show closes up with a faithful rendition of Stairway to Heaven and is followed by the sole amazing encore of Whole Lotta Love, complete with its revamped middle section featuring an evil/funky sounding take on the original riff. Overall the Copenhagen Shows along with the Knebworth gigs were Led Zeppelin's swan song and definitely proof that these "dinosaurs" were far from being extinct. Enjoy!
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