Robert Plant on stage with the Sensational Space Shifters in Auckland last night. Photo / Dean Purcell
Of the many rock'n'roll hall-of-famers to hit town in recent weeks, Robert Plant was always going to be the most intriguing.
After all, the"voice of Led Zeppelin", as he was heavily billed, has of late hit quite a purple patch with his adventurous solo albums, including his Americana-tinged set with
bluegrass star Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, which proved his most successful release since his days as the Golden God at the front of his pioneering band.
And intrigue he did in a show which deftly side-stepped the long shadow of his Led Zep past but also rebooted it with thrilling results.
Of the 14 songs delivered, nine were Zeppelin numbers, the balance from his solo output (none from Raising Sand) and vintage blues tunes which had turned his head as a youngster - like Howlin' Wolf/ Willie Dixon's Spoonful and Bukka White's Fixin' to Die, the latter of which came delivered in more of a trademark Led Zep style than the band songs on either side of them.
Elsewhere, Plant and his guitar-powered band restructured Led Zep songs with unpredictable dynamics and arrangements, throwing in everything from swirling synthesizers to the traditional instruments played by Gambian musician Juldeh Camara, who helped drag many of those blues-derived riffs back to the sub-Sahara.
