TRIBUTE BAND "FAKEFEST" - SUNSET STATION - JUNE 21, 2003

Excerpt from concert review article for "Moving Pictures, Led Zepagain and The Atomic Punks"

The support (middle) band, Led Zepagain, headliners in their own right, brought the entire Zeppelin experience to the crowd, many of whom had not previously seen this particular group's outstanding efforts. Rick Snider founded the group in the Ventura California area in the late 80's, as one of the first of the genre. He has the Plant screams and vocal nuances, as well as stage mannerisms down cold; close your eyes and you can envision Robert himself, a proving point of any group calling themselves a tribute band. Lenny Mann wears a black dragon flair-legged pantsuit and plays a sunburst Les Paul just like Jimmy, Darryl Johnson pounds the shit out of the drum set ala Bonzo, while Stan Taylor is the ultimate in cool playing both keys and bass in a white suit ala John Paul Jones. This is a terrific rhythm section folks, original or cover notwithstanding, and the whole band can crank out the complicated time signatures and intricate parts identified with the Zeppelin signature pieces with great teamwork and precision, as well as with passion. Due to the many mood changes, musical styles, and complications in the Zep repertory, Zeppelin should not be the first band someone should try to copy, unlike some musical groups whose whole 3 chord guitar line is a-c-d-c ! Or maybe, A/C-D/C? No band we could id, is that? I loved the play set, including the musical range of Rain Song, Ocean, Stairway, and Ramble On with other pieces highlighting individual band members, especially Moby Dick, wherein Darryl did a shortened version of the John Henry Bonham solo tour-de-force with stick twirls, cymbal crashes, drum rolls and great fills, and after tossing the sticks into the crowd, proceeded to play with his hands only. I later found out, when talking with Lenny, that this drum solo had to be shortened, as well as their entire scheduled play list, since first band run over, slow stage turnover, and production's request that the Headline act start within 15 minutes of their scheduled time had cut Zepagain's stage time to about 50 minutes! And since an extended version of Kashmir was their closing song (I personally haven't heard it done better except by the originators), Darryl cut about half the solo! This band is used to playing 2 to 3 hour concerts, with full versions that only die-hard fans know, so they didn't get a full showcase tonight. What I saw, however, was terrific ! Look for them to return to Vegas, or to another venue near you. To avoid confusion with another band claiming the same operational name (I won't go into those politics here, since I don't know the other side of the story), be sure to look up their specific web site for show dates and reviews, namely www.led-zepagain.com. Since Mann is a web master who also runs an entire tribute band promotional site, you'll find this one easy to navigate and very informative. Ron Sherman