Dazed & Confused

According to Billboard, rumors of an inevitable upcoming LedZep summer tour/reunion have been greatly exaggerated. Recent band activity, including the now legendary December 10th one-off performance in London and the release of a career-spanning two-disc compilation (Mothership), has led to speculation that the band would finally come out of hibernation. Not so fast, according to Jimmy Page, who yesterday denied rumors of an upcoming tour. Keeping things ambiguous as usual, Page mentioned that band chemistry was present, but that singer Robert Plant has other priorities in the pipeline -- including a world tour to support his recent critically-acclaimed Allison Krauss project, Raising Sand. Taking this bit of information into account, sources believe that if a full-fledged reunion is to happen, fans will have to wait until September for any possibility.

I still don't know what to think of a LedZep world tour. Every time I pop in the live album of the '99 Jimmy Page/Black Crowes tour, I think of how incredible it would be to have formerly-gangly frontman Robert Plant at the helm instead of a presently-gangly Chris Robinson. Seeing clips of the December reunion show have only fueled these sentiments. But the more I think of it, the more I can't shake how much it bothers me to have a once-legendary band tour without original key band members. Sure, the music might be there, but it is also there when I hear tribute bands play very good renditions of Zeppelin tunes. Bottom line, to me Led Zeppelin is NOT Led Zeppelin without Jason Bonham. The Who was not The Who after Keith Moon died, and they CERTAINLY weren't The Who after John Entwhistle pathetically died of an overdose on tour a few years back. Hell, I've even lost sleep over the constant Oasis shakeups. And DON'T get me started with the Smashing Pumpkins...

But then again, it would be kinda cool to hear "Heartbreaker" live.


Sure, you can see Robert Plant at the Garden -- the catch is that he'll be sitting courtside at Knicks games.