By Savannah Brown
Led Zeppelin has always been my favorite band (hot take, I know…said sarcastically). Also, I love going to tribute bands (which probably is actually a hot take). Yet, even though I’d seen WOW’s advertisements for ZOSO: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Experience for a while, they didn’t really sink in. But then, I came across the ad again at like 6 p.m., on March 7 — about two hours before the show. I had this impulse to Google “Best Led Zeppelin Tribute Bands in the Country,” and lo and behold, they showed up all over the results. I knew it was my Led Head obligation to go. I called my roommate, who I knew would be out for another hour (and who had never listened to Led Zeppelin), and told her that we were about to do something irresponsibly spontaneous (we both had a lot of work due). By the time she got home, changed, and the bus showed up (late — after we missed the first one) and several other detours, we walked into WOW as the band came on to the stage.
They were awesome. ZOSO perfectly emulated Led Zeppelin in a way that I was not expecting could be possible. I have gone to so many tribute shows in my time. Tribute bands are fun because they usually end up having been together longer than the original band, and can perfectly replicate a show because they’ve spent decades learning all of the intricacies about the music and band members they’re playing…meaning that with a few drinks you can even convince yourself that you’re seeing the real deal for a 10th of the price. ZOSO was one of the best tribute bands I’ve ever seen.
Every song they played was just like listening to the studio recording, and they emulated a live Zeppelin show almost down to a tee, save for their occasional spicing-it-up with their own additions. For two straight hours, the “Jimmy Page” guitar player did every iconic lick, solo, and wild trick that the original was known for, including playing with a violin bow, and pulling out a replica of the iconic double-neck for Stairway to Heaven. The “Robert Plant” lead singer not only sounded almost exactly like the original, doing all of the iconic “ah-ahs” and screams that make his singing so distinct, but he swung his hips, frolicked around the stage, and even acted out a theatrical stage-orgasm during the moaning bit in “The Lemon Song,” all things Plant famously did during live performances. The “John Bonham” drummer took a 10-minute drum solo for Moby Dick (probably the only inaccuracy–the real Bonham played for more than 17 minutes), and the “John Paul Jones,” as expected, carried the show with his keyboards, back up guitar, and all of his other unique instruments that he’d pull out.
The stage was always enshrouded in a sea of colorful lights and smoke, helping to further emulate the mystic-hippie feeling of their concerts. They played a lot of their most popular songs (such as “Black Dog” and “Whole Lotta Love”) and a few deep-cuts (such as “The Rover” and “Custard Pie”). As in original Zep performances, they rocked around the stage during the rock-heavy songs, but during their folk songs, “Going to California” and “That’s the Way,” the band sat on stools at the front of the stage while “Page” played acoustic guitar and “Plant” serenaded. After “Kashmir,” my roommate said, “That felt like sex. That whole song felt like sex.”
As expected, the audience was mostly older (45+ with just a few college students), but they knew how to party. By the first song, my roommate understood the Zep hype. I also found out that my family actually had tickets to see them before COVID, which is why they were familiar to me in the first place (which just means it was rock ‘n roll destiny that I went to this show). A huge highlight of the show was when I got into an energetic duet with a drunk lady in her mid-50s during Stairway, which was so much fun. “To be a rock and not to ROOLLLLLL.”