Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters at Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis (22 Feb 2018)

After over five decades, the tall cool one can still immediately sell out his show “in the land of the ice and snow”, carrying the fire of both new music and all-time classics—

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters brought fans to their feet at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis for most of their ninety-five minute set, playing songs from all eras of his long-storied musical career. 

UK multi-instrumentalist Seth Lakeman did double-duty for the evening, both as a member of the Space Shifters, and on his own, for a buoyant thirty-minute opening set that ended with a standing ovation from the already-filed in capacity crowd.   

The Mercury Music Prize-nominated musician, known more overseas and for collaborations with his brothers Sam and Sean, played mostly fiddle and tenor guitar, also telling the audience he finished the follow-up album to 2016’s Ballads of the Broken Few (Cooking Vinyl Records) last month, so look for new music later in 2018. 

Lakeman enchanted with his journeyman songs such as the sea shanty-like tale of ‘Solomon Brown’, ‘Silver Threads’ from most recent album, and the foreboding violin undercutting on ‘The Bold Knight’. ‘The Educated Man’ is a brand new song, dedicated to teachers and told from the point of view from a man named Tommy, and Lakeman ended things mightily with the title track from 2004’s ‘Kitty Jay’.

With the smell of incense in the air, and the taped intro from 1983’s ‘In the Mood’ cued up, Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters (Justin Adams – guitar; Liam “Skin” Tyson – guitar; John Baggott – keys; Billy Fuller – bass; Dave Smith – drums; Seth Lakeman – viola, fiddle) entered to start things off with ‘New World…’ from the latest album, Carry Fire (Nonesuch/Warner Bros Records). 

“Come on in!”, he invited everyone, going next into the percussion-propelled ‘Turn it Up’ from 2014, then returning to the new album for its opener, the hopefulness of ‘The May Queen’, dedicated to “the first princess of summer”, echoing a previous lyrical reference from Led Zeppelin’s classic ‘Stairway to Heaven’.

Guitarists Tyson and Adams played off each other well all night, the former of ‘90s UK band Cast (though near unrecognizable from those days, now in long grey beard) meticulous in his craft while Adams was slightly more rockbilly, cutting and slashing across songs with true flair.  Led Zeppelin’s ‘Going to California’ was re-christened ‘Going to Minnesota’ as Plant changed the location in the first verse, to rave shouts and applause. 

Bluegrass and Americana has become Plant’s more recent music of choice, as evidenced by a folk version of 2005’s ‘All the King’s Horses’ and ‘Please Read the Letter’, a song originally created during the Page/Plant years, but re-imagined into Grammy-winning goodness with Alison Krauss in 2007.

“Let’s go further East”, Plant teased as the solidly tight band brought Arabic rhythms to 1970’s ‘Friends’, the title track from the new album next revealed a screen backdrop with fire images and patterns, and a mesmerizing ‘Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You’ stretched out by Tyson’s nimble string work and done mid-set, was perhaps the whole show’s highlight. 

Plant and co. even dusted off a 1929 obscure blues number, adding some trippy back beats compliments of Baggott and Smith, pairing that with a 1940 Delta Blues cover that gave Adams a chance to show off his formidable guitar talents, before ending the main set with the Leadbelly version of ‘Gallows Pole’, a centuries-old song brought back to life in the ‘70s… by the greatest rock band ever.

As most Plant fans know, the song does not remain the same, as he prefers to avoid looking backward and finds musical satisfaction in re-inventing many of the older songs, with some now sung in a lower register as he approaches the age of seventy.  And that was the case with the encore, which began with ‘In the Mood’, done in a country/blues style that only slightly resembled the original, but fit it perfectly with his current sound. 

“Is there anybody out there?!” he said following, to the response of loud applause as things got much more familiar with a classic Jimmy Page guitar riff from ‘Bring It On Home’ introducing the night’s final medley, seguing that into the raw rock of ‘Whole Lotta Love’, throwing in part of a traditional sea shanty ‘Santianna’ (which spotlighted Lakeman’s fiddle) for good measure, before reprising back into the rock classic. 

“We’ll see you again soon, we’re coming back through in the summer… when it’s a little bit warmer” Plant promised, with he and the band taking well-deserved bows as the snowflakes and temperatures continued falling, just outside. 

Let’s hope Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters follow through with just that, still bringing the fire of yesterday’s classics in tandem with today’s forward-looking and still-vibrant newer music.