Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Concert Review 6/10/08

Warning to anyone buying "Box Seats" at The Theater at Madison Square Garden:

It's another way of saying "Balcony". Yes, I was very high. In more ways than one, which shall be explained at the end...

Box Seats mean you will have to endure staring at a huge speaker resembling something out of the "Transformers" movie that will additionally obscure the portion of the stage that isn't already blocked by the fact that you're so far left. And did the woman two boxes in front of me HAVE to lean over the edge blocking my view? Her husband didn't like the fact that I asked her to stay still. Too bad.

Once I adjusted to these visual annoyances--compounded by the multitude of cameraphone flashes going off contstantly--I was able to settle in for a superb performance by two drastically different artists (I don't use that term loosely) who, on paper, should never have worked, but indeed, they do, in part thanks to producer T-Bone Burnett, who was also on stage and got to do 2 solo numbers of his own.

They covered 11 out of 13 tracks from "Raising Sand", and like that excellent CD, took turns duetting and then soloing and then duetting again. The third number was a cover of "Black Dog" arranged like the lead off track "Rich Woman" and it was clear this would be a night of sonic bliss! They did another Led Zeppelin track later that I didn't recognize, but the crowd certainly did.

I was surprised at how STRONG Krauss' voice could be; she naturally did not disappoint on the quieter numbers. No rock belting from her, though, and always on pitch. A joke about New Jersey drew boos, however.....

Plant seemed a bit subdued at times but his voice still had most of its Zep sheen, though there was not a lot of wailing in the show; nor should there have been. This was a show about SINGING and HARMONIES and the two delivered perfectly!

Sitting next to me was a 25 year old avid concert goer; upcoming shows for him included Tom Petty, Neil Diamond, and other "geezer" acts. What a nice young man! He even asked if I minded if he smoked. HUH? And then the theater filled with the aroma of marijuana. I politely declined his request to join him in a toke, but the contact high went nice with the high of the music by two excellent singers.