Taking yet another left-turn, the recent release from Robert Plant, Saving Grace, saw the Golden God move further away from Heavy Rock icon into a deeper, more folky, earthier, character.  If anything, Saving Grace reminded us that Plant’s interest was always in the connection between musical textures and the power of the human voice; combining both to create otherworldly, spiritual, experiences. 

Led by the exceptional multi-instrumentalist Matt Worley, Plant’s collective tonight sparkle in a set reminiscent of mid 90’s MTV ‘Unplugged’ textures where acoustic sounds create space for rich, natural, vocals.  Standouts include covers of traditional folk songs (“The Cuckoo”), covers of classics (Moby Grapes “It’s a Beautiful Day Today”) and covers of Zeppelin classics (“Ramble On”) – each one combining fine musicality with a natural, accessible, vocals from Plant, Worley and vocalist Suzi Dian who’s trio builds into a spectacular collectives in places.

A few asides about the Mayfair, and a fast quip about ‘Noah’, demonstrate that while Plant is still very capable to be ‘the focal point’ of the evening his physical presence (spending a lot of tonight both ‘in front’ and ‘to the side’) demonstrates that the most important element tonight is the collective sound – rather than his individual stature. Fantastic.