When Led Zepplica first toured India, they were publicized in national publications like the Times of India and The Hindu with The Indian Express noting: “Led Zepplica, a tribute band, mesmerized the audience at Ahmedabad’s annual fest Chaos 2011 by taking them back to the sixties and seventies when Led Zeppelin ruled the music scene in the West.”
Led Zepplica’s guitarist Lenny Mann recalled 10,000 people showed up at one arena show.
“India was phenomenal,” Mann said. “They all knew the lyrics. It was like we were Led Zeppelin. I have never signed so many autographs in my life. We did a show in Moscow, and the reception there wasn’t as crazy, but it was very memorable.”
Led Zepplica will pay tribute to the legendary British rock band Sept. 6 at da Playground Maui.
Performing with the band for a couple of decades, Mann said the love for Zeppelin’s music prevails because it is timeless.
“The music is so well written and crafted,” he said. “I’ve been doing it now for over 20 years, and the music is just as vibrant as it was back when it was first recorded.”
Led Zeppelin just claimed a top debut on the iTunes Top Songs chart with the new release of the nine-minute “Kashmir (Live from Knebworth 1979).” It’s the first release from an upcoming, four-track “Live EP.”
Led Zepplica features Mann invoking the guitar style of Jimmy Page, Joe Retta as vocalist Robert Plant, Mark Ludmer on bass and Jeffrey Martin on drums.
“Joe Retta has performed with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Dios Disciples and the band The Sweet,” he said. “Our John Paul Jones is Mark Ludmer. He’s been doing Zeppelin tributes for many and is an accomplished musician who can play anything. On drums, Jeffrey Martin has been playing (Jason) Bonham for many years. An awesome drummer, he did a couple albums with the Michael Schenker Group.”
A fan of Jimmy Page, Mann said he likes to play “the challenging stuff like ‘Achilles Last Stand’ and some of the live versions where Page took liberties, as they say, into his massive soloing. I’ve studied him so much that, when I improvise, I tend to improvise in Jimmy style, so that’s what I love about it. What we try to do is simulate a mid-70s Zeppelin concert, so I have all he used on stage, the bow, the theremin, the Les Pauls, the double-neck guitars.”
One wonders if they have ever heard from their idols?
“We were doing a national Canadian tour, and one of the main radio stations got Robert Plant on the phone,” Mann recalled. “They were supposed to get our singer on the line, but he was crashed out and missed the call. So Robert Plant was very aware of what we were doing.”
With a repertoire that digs in the Zeppelin catalogue, for their Maui show the audience can expect to hear the greatest hits. “Generally, when we play arena shows and festivals, we do more of the concert versions. But when we play smaller venues, we tend to do more what people grew up listening to on the radio. So we’re going to be doing a lot of their hits, not necessarily the 10-or-15 minute versions of some of the songs, although we’re doing a couple of those. We’re going to be playing a lot of the songs that people grew up to and love.”
And one imagines they must include “Stairway” in their sets.
“I remember the first time we played the Pipeline in Honolulu, we kind of got carried away and did long versions of songs. And at the very end, they cut us off because we were going over time,” Mann said. “We had just started ‘Stairway,’ and people rioted. It was insane. People went so crazy that they cut that song off. So we make it a point to not wait to the very end.”
Led Zepplica will perform at da Playground Maui at 8 p.m. Sept. 6. The Pete Sebastian Trio will open. Standing room tickets are $30, communal table seating tickets are $42, and VIP lounge access is $102.
