If You Listen Very Hard: Review of Stairway to Zeppelin Tribute Band Madlife, June 12, 2021

I had a hard time finding direction for this one, until I realized it was right in front of me. Enjoy.

 I have learned that not all that glitters is gold, and that with a word (“ticket”,) I do not always get what I came for. With some tribute bands, even if they nail the exact songs and look just like their tributee(s), I sometimes feel as though I have had an entire meal of some kind of cheap candy that I used to like when I was younger. With STZ, yes, there were a few fun-sized Snickers bars, but they were just coda to some real substance. 

STZ came out of the bullpen strong with The Immigrant Song and kept the energy going the entire evening with heavy drums, ripping guitar solos, and high energy vocals. Of course, the crowd went wild for the standards: Rock and Roll, Black Dog, Ramble On, etc. The musical highlight for me was a hypnotic version of Kashmir. 

Often, at tribute shows I notice that much of the crowd will be engaged when they hear the song exactly like they heard it on the radio 30 years ago. But it is fake engagement – if the average tribute band pulls out a non-standard, they disappear. I was impressed not only that STZ did not just play to the crowd’s expectations; They pulled out lesser-known tunes like The Ocean and Celebration Day. The crowd looked a little dazed and confused themselves sometimes, but they STAYED WITH THE BAND. What was different? Ooooh, it made me wonder. And here is what I came up with:

1.     First, the musicians caught the era, but did not try to look identical to the original musicians. In fact, it was a little disconcerting, because the bass player looked like Robert Plant, not JPJ. They dressed the part of mod, early 70’s rockers but were otherwise just themselves.

2.     Secondly, they played the songs but they did it their way.  The key to an emotional experience in music is tension and release throughout. We relate to this, because it’s who we are and how live: our heartbeats, our connections with each other, and the ebb and flow of life. LZ was great at creating this dynamic, but STZ actually intensified the tension: the lead guitarist held strings longer than in the original songs, the bassist played more intricate bass lines, and the singer held notes for impressively longer intervals. The result was greater release, and an audience that stayed in the rhythm pocket.

 3.     Thirdly, they involved the audience. There was a very humble thank you for a warm welcome, two or three songs in. They did not hype how great they were or where they had been or what they had accomplished. They just said thank you. The singer looked happy when the audience was singing along. My heart was truly touched when, in the band’s namesake song, the singer asked us if we could hear the laughter (echoing in the forest). It was like he really wanted us to feel the utopian dream. He smiled when we filled in the blank of “She’s buying the stairway to __________”. He told us we were a beautiful crowd. What a cool hippie dude, I thought to myself.

 4.     It seemed that all of them were not just playing a show but really cared about the message they were communicating. And that brings me to what the message was. Stay with me, please. Three is a special number. We live in three dimensions. Life is birth, living, and death. Stories are in threes – a beginning, action and climax, and resolution. Sometimes we are so lost in our own story, so desperate to ensure that we are the hero – at least in appearance - that we forget that there was a beginning, that there will be an end, and that there is love and laughter in between. In fact, that’s pretty much all that matters. We need a songbird to remind us, because some of our thoughts are misgiven. 

Likewise, Stairway-the-song is divided into three parts – a melancholy beginning echoing thoughts of a woman who thinks she is on the road to happiness. The middle begins about half-way where the tempo picks up as she begins to wonder if she is on the right path. Then there is a promise that if we listen to the whispering winds of our hearts that we can ALL be happy (the forests will echo with laughter).  

The tempo picks up again around half-way in as the idea takes hold and she listens to the humming in her head: “There’s still time to change the road you’re on” “The piper’s calling you to join him” .Then there is the moment of decision around ¾ of the way in - you know it – ba ba bom, ba ba bom, ba ba bom, bom….bom. Then my favorite part, as drums and guitar pick up speed in the final third of the song, and in the crescendo at about 2 minutes left as she makes the decision to follow the piper to truth and love and happiness.

 Note that the pronoun changes from “she” to “we” at this point to change the individual story of one woman to a universal call: ” And as we wind on down the road, our shadows stronger than our soul, there walks a lady we all know….” This lady has not only followed the piper but has joined the call to save the rest of the lost:  She “shines white light and wants to show”.

And then the shortest resolution in song history at 11 seconds left that leaves us with the question of which stairway we are on – the glittery one or the gold one?

This was the band’s signature song, executed to perfection, and what STZ as a band seemed to be all about: Realize the brevity of life and celebrate its lovely offerings from raw and earthy to beautiful and sublime. And, above all, choose the path of love and life.

The pipers called us to join them. And we did. And that, my friend, is real engagement.