Zoso at Mill City Nights, Minneapolis (28 June 2014)
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07/04
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Last Saturday night Zoso, a Led Zeppelin tribute band, rocked out Mill City Nights. Not only does the band attempt to capture Zeppelin’s sound, but each member has embodied their characters down to the finest of details with Matt Jernigan playing Robert Plant, John McDaniel as Jimmy Page, Adam Sandling as John Paul Jones, and Greg Thompson as John Bonham.
For those of you that don’t know, Zoso is a symbol picked out by Page for their 4th, untitled album. In that album, each member picked out a symbol to represent themselves. Thus making Zoso apropos for a tribute band that tries to not only symbolize Led Zeppelin, but also the Rock ‘n Roll era which they came from.
Before attending their concert, I had no idea how big the “tribute band” business was. I met a couple of people that make it a priority to attend at least one Led Zeppelin tribute band concert a week! They could rattle off all the different bands and gave critiques of which was better in sound, appearance, and overall showmanship. Unfortunately, these “groupies” weren’t very coherent as they seemed to have pregamed the event very well.
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Matt Jernigan and John McDaniel
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Zoso opened up with “Rock and Roll” and the crowd went wild. Greg Thompson played John Bonham perfectly with that drum intro and Matt Jernigan took on Robert Plant with great confidence. They all had the clothes, hair, and demeanor of their alter egos.
They got loud with “Communication Breakdown,” mellowed out with “That’s The Way,” and showed off some of their individual skills with “The Song Remains the Same.” In between “The Song Remains the Same” and “Stairway To Heaven,” Adam Sandling wailed on the drums for a good 7 minutes. I couldn’t believe he had my attention for the whole solo. Sandling went from the traditional Rock ‘n Roll drums to bongos then smashed the massive gong behind him for an exclamation point.
After he was done the rest of the band members came back on stage. John McDaniel, along with the double guitar he started playing during “The Song Remains the Same,” belted out some more sweet riffs a la Jimmy Page.
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Zoso
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It was a great concert overall. Other than a little reverb coming above stage left, Mill City Nights worked as a decent venue. Jernigan (Plant) did a great job in connecting with the crowd by holding short conversations with them in between songs and McDaniel (Page) raised the crowd’s volume with his great technique and ability to improvise.
If you’re looking to relive the ‘70s or catch a glimpse of a time you were too young to live, go to a Zoso concert. They won’t let you down.
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Zoso at Mill City Nights, Minneapolis (28 June 2014) |
Thank you – I have corrected the error.
Greg Thompson plays Bonham, not Adam.