Led Zeppelin - 1975 - Deus Ex Machina

Led Zeppelin
March 21, 1975
Seattle Center Coliseum

Seattle, WA

Deus Ex Machina - Empress Valley Supreme Disk

EVSD-1019/1020/1021/1022 (2017)

01. Introduction
02. Rock and Roll
03. Sick Again
04. Over the Hills and Far Away
05. In My Time of Dying
06. The Song Remains the Same
07. The Rain Song
08. Kashmir
09. No Quarter
10. Since I've Been Loving You
11. Trampled Underfoot
12. Moby Dick
13. Dazed and Confused
14. Stairway to Heaven
15. Whole Lotta Love
16. Black Dog
17. Communication Breakdown

18. Heartbreaker

Well it’s finally here, Empress Valley’s “Soundboard Revolution” delivers the incredible second night in Seattle on Led Zeppelin’s 1975 American tour in amazing soundboard quality. After months of anticipation and more than a few delays we can finally put the concert on our players and listen to what for many, including myself, thought they would never hear. For me the second night in Seattle is a must have recording, it is a cornerstone to ones collection and just as important as the Fillmore West April 1969, Blueberry Hill September 1970, Vienna March 1973, or the LA Forum June 21 and 23, 1977 recordings, it’s just that damn good. We all know the story, the rocky start to the 1975 tour found the band not in the best of shape, but there were always inspired moments in even the most average of shows. The more they played the better they got, so much that by the time the band hit the West Coast they were starting to fire on all cylinders. The concerts were very long, incredible heavy and full of self indulgent posturing from the entire band, for me this is what I love about the tour.

In typical EV fashion, the concert was released in three formats, I chose the one that made most financial sense, The Standard Edition features both soundboard and audience recordings of the gig on 8 CDs packed in a box similar to the recent History Lesson DVD package, the set also includes a 24 page booklet filled with live shots, certainly a package worthy of historic concert. Like many, I have several versions of this concert on CD, EV’s Dinosaur In Motion and Tarantura’s Blow Jobs are both housed on my shelves and this concert does make its way into my player at least a couple times each year. Enough rambling, let’s dig in and get this thing playing…

…First off, push play and turn this sucker up. This is strictly a soundboard recording, it is virtually complete, only thing missing is the introduction and someone found that there is a cut at 12:50 in Moby Dick where 12 seconds is lost, other than that it’s all here. The sound is perfectly balanced, many of the 75 boards have over powering bass frequencies, not this one, in my opinion this is the best sounding 75 board since Flying Circus. My only real complaint of the sound is that the cymbals are a bit strong during the first couple songs. Soundboard recordings can be good and bad, you get clear and detailed sound but without the ambience of the audience and hall reverberation, it tends to show more warts, this is certainly true here. Typical with EV is the way they overlap segues into the next disc, they do so on this title, it doesn’t bother me but I do not usually put this on any devices where it would play continually.

Rock and Roll is very powerful, Page is fluent from the start, no BS you feel the band is on from the moment he breaks into the riff, even Plant sounds good and that’s saying a lot as his vocals took a song or two to get warmed up. For 1975, this is as good as it gets! The transition into Sick Again is fluent, no hiccups and the band nail the song as well.

Over The Hills And Far Away gets a nice ovation, even through the crowd is low in the mix you sense that they are very lively, in fact this gives a quite different perspective from the audience source where you have the distance. Great version of Over The Hills, John Paul Jones’ bass provides a nice fat backbone, his timing is perfect with Bonham’s drumming, they are one as well. Page’s solo, while not the best from the tour, is very good. There are a couple times you expect him to get caught up in the strings, yet he keeps going and going. Only thing I am left wondering is who Samantha was.

In My Time Of Dying is one of the best of the American tour, to listen to the detailed sounds of Page’s slide wanderings with Jones’ intricate bass playing and Bonham’s punctuating drumming and many times he is pushing Page to quicken the pace, just really superb playing from the band.

The Song Remains The Same and The Rain Song, the former is a really strong version crackling with energy and the band hammer down, great Page solo. Rain Song is good, but I find the heavy “I felt the coldness of my winter” section to be under whelming, Page seems to be having trouble and leaves it flat.

Kashmir, great version, I prefer the 75 versions with Page playing the Les Paul that provides a thicker sound, he also plucks a bit of White Summer as Plant is chatting away, a prelude towards the future!

No Quarter, John Paul Jones is the star on this song, his fills on the piano are very impressive to hear, he is in a jazzy mood and if I closed my eyes at times it sounds like I was hearing some free form jazz improvisation by the Grateful Dead, just listen to what the band is doing starting at the 18:30 mark, it’s out there! Page is playing well and his solo is fluent but he never gets into the killer zone and seems content to let Jones’ star shine. Certainly one of the more unique versions.

Since I’ve Been Loving You, second of three versions from 75 is really good with Plant’s somewhat rough vocalization lending to the “blues” atmosphere created by the band. The song is part of their DNA, while not as intense as let’s say 1971 or as blistering as the 73 versions, the song retains a powerful musical force.

Trampled Underfoot, are there bad versions from 75? Me thinks not. This is one song that smokes every night, the instrumental passages are the best. Page, Jones, and Bonham lock and deliver some of the best fast paced boogie you’ll ever hear.

Moby Dick, John Henry Bonham has never sounded better, the drums are crystal clear in this recording and he feels like he is right in front of you, John played well during 1975 and this is a testament to his prowess, 26 minutes of pure unadulterated Bonzo! As for the cut, if some crazed fan would have never dug into it, you would never know it was there, but when you know it and listen to it, you can hear the slight change in his pattern.

Dazed And Confused, dedicated to the balances of law and order, we now know that a fan had given Page a guitar at some point prior to the show, a guitar he took from his teacher who promptly wanted it back. This song has been the focal point of my love for this concert since I first heard it on vinyl years ago. Clocking in at 40 minutes, the song is certainly top on most lists for 1975. All the pre oriental riffs playing is just as I hoped it would be, it is wonderful to have it in this quality, Page does have some guitar issues and can be heard tuning his guitar during the Woodstock portion. The bow solo is mysterious and the fast section lives up to expectations, Jones’ bass is a bit prominent during the latter parts of the song, James’ playing still overshadows the mix and is out of this world…”Master Guitarist Jimmy Page!”

Stairway To Heaven, dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, whose name seems to inspire the band as they take this song to the next level, simply a stunning version of the classic. Jimmy’s guitar solo is stunning and propels the song to great heights, the instrumental fury of the rhythm section matches his playing in complete synchronicity.

Whole Lotta Love from 75 for me just don’t really do it for me, although the late March versions are the exceptions, the initiation of almost complete versions of The Crunge minimally fill the endless boogie jams of the past, that being said this WLL > Crunge is pretty good, not as good as the versions that would be played in a few days time in LA, Plant throws in a few lines from Lickin’ Stick for good measure just prior to the Theremin section.

The transition into Black Dog is great, Bonham does a drum fill that lead into the iconic riff, Plant pushes his vocals a bit with good results, the call and response with the audience gives you a feeling of the atmosphere of the event…electric! Communication Breakdown is furious! Raw and just a blistering version with Page in full domination mode, just fantastic! He drives the band straight into Heartbreaker, Jones and Bonham have his back, one would think John’s extremities would be the consistency of jelly but he just hammers his kit relentlessly, an incredible segment of encores to end a most magical evening.

The packaging is nice, two full color gatefold sleeves wonderfully adorned with live shots and OBI’s hold each of the recordings. The 24 page booklet is great, there is an aerial view of the Seattle Center Coliseum that is great to have as I enjoy that kind of stuff, only thing missing would have been a pic of a ticket stub. There is a separate leaflet asking us to not copy and distribute, something that stems from the fact that this title showed up a day or so before its release on a well known torrent site, this also again opens up the opinionated conversation about pricing and free trading and the likes. The fact that I bought this title shows that I do contribute to supporting the label in the Soundboard Revolution, if they make money we get more, and I would like to see more. We have a tease of the 9/28/71 show, who wouldn’t like to hear that? Nonetheless, the two gatefolds, booklet and leaflet are housed in a box with an OBI the same as many of their recent titles, in all typically nice packaging and fitting for a show of such importance. Took a while, I have neglected other titles I want to get waiting for this as it was not cheap, but in the end a very worthy investment.