Wednesday 13 July 2022
The Gov
(Lennard Promotions)
Review – Geoff Jenke
Photos – Geoff Jenke
No Quarter are becoming regular visitors to Australia, having played The Gov in 2018 and 2019. I am sure they would have been back sooner if not for the slight disruption over the last two years to overseas touring bands.
No Quarter take the sounds and the looks of Led Zeppelin and make it their own. The band feature Byran Christiansen on guitar (Jimmy Page), Michael Anderson on vocals (Robert Plant), Chad Murray on bass/keyboard (John Paul Jones) and Nathan Carroll on drums (John Bonham), all looking similar to their counterparts from Zeppelin. Michael has an outstanding vocal range that rivals Plant in his heyday.
There is no expectation that we will ever see Led Zeppelin play live again. Robert Plant has as much said so and has no interest in reforming the band, despite Page and Jones being keen to do it, so it is up to No Quarter to keep the spirit of Zeppelin music faithfully alive.
Kicking of with a thunderous Rock and Roll, quickly followed by Four Sticks both from the Led Zeppelin 4 album, the band quickly had the nice size crowd on its side, Nathan Carroll hitting the drums hard and often. A trip back to the second album with What Is and What Should Never Be gave us a taste of how powerful Michael Anderson’s voice is, with him nailing the quieter moments as well as the loud parts.
Chad Murray moved to keyboards and the opening chords signalled No Quarter, the song. The band play the songs as Zeppelin played them live, not as they appeared on the albums, which led to some tracks being fully extended versions. No Quarter was one fine example.
Set one ended with Dazed and Confused, with Byran pulling out all stops on the song including of course the violin bow. Remaining faithful to the Zeppelin live version, we got a bit of If You’re Going to San Francisco, Wear some Flowers in Your Hair as well. “That was Dazed and Confused” commented Michael “the short version”. While Zeppelin played it sometimes for up to an hour, at 20 minutes, it was long enough.
Set Two commenced with a powerful Immigrant Song followed up with a truly extended Heartbreaker.
The Ocean came with a surprise. Icehouse drummer Paul Wheeler was in the audience and took over the drums for the song. Apparently, he has filled in for the band before. Paul was obviously having a great time behind the drums, judging by the smile on his face.
As Byran donned a twin neck guitar, Michael told us “I guess you know what song is coming up next, after he tunes the 47 guitar strings”. Someone in the audience yelled out “Baa Baa Black Sheep?” bringing a chuckle from the band. But of course, it was Stairway to Heaven in its full glory, one of the greatest songs ever written in the history of rockNroll. They did it justice but I have heard them play it better. Not sure what was mislaid, but it was missing some of the finesse of their usual playing.
Did we really need Moby Dick? When announced there was a cheer, but also a flood of people heading to the bar and toilets. There is no doubting Nathan Carroll’s drumming. It was superb all night but a drum solo at over 6 minutes, plus the intro/outro, we could have had a couple more Zeppelin songs. I guess same could be said of Dazed and Confused.
Kashmir closed set two, Zeppelin’s most powerful song. The drums resounded around the Gov, being augmented with Chad Murray’s keyboard. As it was all-night, Bryan’s guitar work was simply stunning on the song.
There could only be one song for the encore, Whole Lotta Love which included some blues numbers as well, as what Zeppelin did when playing it live.
No Quarter do what they do well and as most Tribute bands, they play to the audience and don’t take many chances. No songs from Presence or In Through the Outdoor (or indeed Coda), despite these albums having some classic songs on them. With around two hours of music and only about 12 songs, one felt there was a bit of lost opportunity to show Zeppelin’s great output.
But in the end, the crowd enjoyed it, I enjoyed it and that is what counts.
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