ROBERT PLANT & THE STRANGE SENSATION

Well if Plant had held up pretty well to the temptation of living on his Zep legacy (something we couldn't possibly say of Page), ever since accepting the Unledded- No Quarter project, he's actually let himself into it. If his first few post-Unledded studio albums resisted this (with the absolutely wonderful Dreamland, and the good Mighty Rearranger), his live shows actually started to depend of the Zep material a lot more, as shown by the present DVD. I'm not much a fan of the stage set-up and decorum, as it looks like some kind of TV-show stage, an impression which is further reinforced by the presence of numerous luscious babes on the sidelines and front row.

Outside the now-usual slightly world-ified Zep reworks, the main interest of the present disc is the excellent Enchanter track and the always-chilling rendition of Hey Joe, a correct Shine It, but little else. Even the No Quarter renditions don't serve well the legend. Plant's voice still has so good reserves, even if there is no way he could possibly match his 70's voice, nor is he trying to. I don't know if it's my copy, but I find that the bass is a bit undermixed. Sadly, because of the incessant and relentless Zep material reliance, this is not quite as interesting as the Unledded project, and at times, it might just seem like it's about some old glory that tries to linger on his fading past. Still a rather nice concert, if you're not too demanding?.

The usual bonus on such a DVD include a 95 Top Of Pop version of 29 Palms and an 83 insufferable Big Log version in the same show, where Plant goes through the motions with his hands in his pockets. Both are actually throwaways (but not completely unpleasant, as are two more videoclips are added included the excellent Morning Dew (I guess it was more than a decade since I'd given up on MTV stuff) and an acceptable 29 Palms. Nothing essential except for a few Dreamland/Rearranger tracks (and even then, if you own the albums?.), so you'll want to concentrate on other DVDs or albums