It's been rather fun watching the recent career of the now 'elder statesman' Robert Plant move further and further away from his roots...don't get me wrong, I'm just like everyone else who would love to see another Led Zeppelin reunion, but with that possibility becoming more and more unlikely each year, Plant's constant move to reinvent himself is something of a revelation. Live At David Lynch's Festival Of Disruption was filmed at Los Angeles' Ace Hotel Theatre in October 2016, an event that raised funds for The David Lynch Foundation, and featured the legendary vocalist alongside his band The Sensational Space Shifters.
Blending some recent solo material with a handful of reworked Zeppelin classics, Plant and the band delivered a short but effective set that gave the excited audience musical flavors that included World music, rock, blues, bluegrass, and folk. The Sensational Space Shifters utilize all sorts of rock & world instruments, including the more traditional ones such as guitars, bass, keyboards, and drums alongside banjo, violin, kologo, djembre, and many others, giving the arrangements a very ethnic flair. The bluegrass inflected "Poor Howard", "Turn It Up", "Little Maggie", and the gorgeous medley of "The Enchanter/Rainbow" just soar, some great selections from Plant's 2014 gem Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar. Zep's classic "Black Dog" rocks, but with a world music twist, while the classic "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" takes on a lush, gorgeous folk life here, Plant toning his delivery down from the original but still quite effective. It's pretty obvious from what's on display here that the singer doesn't necessarily want to stop singing these Led Zeppelin staples, he just wants to sing them in his own way without the bombast that Page, Jones, and Bonham would bring to the table. The sets lone really hard rocking moments come during the blistering blues-rock medley "Hoochie Coochie Man / Whole Lotta Love / Mona", and the band send the crowd home happy with the lovely folk strains of "Going to California".
He's older, he's surely wiser, and he's still most definitely Robert Plant, a guy who always knew how to thrill a live audience, as he does here on this enjoyable live DVD. You'll only wish it was longer.
Track Listing
1) Poor Howard
2) Turn It Up
3) Black Dog
4) Medley: The Enchanter / Rainbow
5) Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You
6) Little Maggie
7) Medley: Hoochie Coochie Man / Whole Lotta Love / Mona
8) Going To California
Bonus Features include:
1) David Lynch on Creativity
2) David Lynch on Meditation
3) David Lynch on Music