Robert Plant at the Omni in Atlanta was my first concert experience. Here are the fragments that remain all these years later. My friend Rob was there as well. Little did I know at the time, but Rob would become a concert warrior in the years to come.
I would have been a Freshman in High School and not quite driving age yet. This would be a strong factor in securing a ride from Rob’s Dad. I am certain this involved a lot of negotiations over grades and cleaning rooms. His dad Fred hosted our weekly pizza nights at Curly’s in Dahlonega.
Both Rob and I were Zeppelin nuts and this was our opportunity to maybe hear some of that material live. We had both read Hammer of the Gods and were sold on Led Zeppelin’s rock star shenanigans and flirtations with the occult.
This was the first time I ever saw an arena. It seemed absolutely enormous at the time. The tickets cost around $22.50 for the balcony area. The opening act was Alannah Myles who had an MTV hit at the time with Black Velvet. Imagine Blue Velvet with country rock sauce. Well, maybe not… I don’t recall much of the rest of her set, but it was my first taste of the concept of opening acts, or an upcoming entertainer doing a short set before someone more established.
Plant was supporting his album Manic Nirvana which at the time was a return to a more rocking sound after some new wave-flavored albums in the eighties. I remember his set started with the final track on that album Watching You. The Led Zeppelin track Nobody’s Fault but mine was next. This was way before the internet spoiled touring setlist, so I was very excited to hear this track from Presence. I also recall seeing heavy clouds of odd-smelling skunky smoke going up during this song. That’s some kind of weird cigar I thought…
The middle of the show featured a mini acoustic set and more new tracks including Liar’s Dance and Tie Die on the Highway. Both of these were also featured in the recently televised Knebworth benefit concert. Another Zeppelin surprise came with No Quarter. This moody organ-centered track from Houses of the Holy always conjures up an eerie atmosphere.
The set closing Immigrant Song rocked exactly as you imagined it would. Robert’s rock voice was still in peak form during these years, so the arrangements are more true to form and rocking than later folkier interpretations of the Zeppelin catalog. I’m pretty sure I was too naive to even know what an encore was, so when Robert left and came back after much raucous applause it seemed like magic. We made him come back! I got to hear my all-time favorite Led Zeppelin deep cut Wearing and Tearing from CODA, and Tall Cool One had a transition into a Custard Pie tease. All these years later I am still grateful to Rob for being there at my first show ever, and to Fred for possibly sitting in the parking (or driving in circles around Atlanta) for 3 hours while we attended.
I found a video of this show on YouTube, but decided not to link it because my conflated memories of the past sit better than the actual footage. This was one year before Nirvana so big hair, leather pants, and shirtless vests are everywhere! Full setlists at setlist FM, are below.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/robert-plant/1990/the-omni-atlanta-ga-13d081ad.html
