submitted by: Keith from NY
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
July 12, 2008
Mann Center for the Performing Arts
Philadelphia, PA
Robert Plant - vocals, maracas
Alison Krauss - vocals, fiddle
Stuart Duncan - banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, vocals
Buddy Miller- lead guitar, pedal steel, autoharp, vocals
T-Bone Burnett - rhythm guitar, vocals
Dennis Crouch - upright bass
Jay Bellerose - drums, percussion
Set List:
01 Rich Woman
02 Leave My Woman Alone
03 Black Dog
04 Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
05 Through the Morning, Through the Night
06 It's Goodbye and So Long to You
07 Fortune Teller
08 In the Mood > Matty Groves > In the Mood
09 Black Country Woman
10 Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler
11 Trampled Rose
12 Green Pastures
13 Down In the River to Pray
14 Nothin'
15 Battle of Evermore
16 Please Read the Letter
17 Gone Gone Gone (You Done Me Wrong)
[encore]
18 You Don't Knock
19 One Woman Man
20 Your Long Journey
I had already seen the “Raising Sand Revue" (as Plant calls the tour) about a month ago at the WaMu Theater beneath Madison Square Garden. The only seats I could get on presale for NYC were in the back right corner of that cavernous venue in the next to last row (WTF??), and a friend came up from NJ to see the show with me. We shared my binoculars, and unfortunately the sound totally sucked back there. But it was nonetheless a fabulous concert, and after doing a little research I decided to scalp some good seats (16th row near center) for their show at the Mann Center this past Saturday so I could enjoy them properly. I brought my oldest son Steve (a passionate Led Zep fan) and his girlfriend Amy (who's more into Patsy Cline) along, and after 3+ grueling hours of battling the weekend traffic we finally arrived in Philadelphia, bought some overpriced beers and took our seats. We were, as it turned out, sitting right behind the family of opener Sharon Little, who was born & raised in the Philadelphia area. We had a nice chat with Sharon's brother, sister, 8-year-old niece and grandmother before the show got under way. Sharon did a great set and dedicated a song to her little niece Kaitlyn, who was sitting directly in front of me. You've never seen a bigger smile! :) A little later she got to watch the headliners from backstage.
Raising Sand is a very cool album, but it doesn't really prepare you for the magic these two and the stellar band they assembled for this tour achieve on stage. They both turn in electrifying vocal performances on their featured songs, and the harmony on their duets is nothing short of magical. The show was just one great ride from beginning to end, and the musicianship was every bit as good as you could hope for to back these two stellar singers (Stuart Duncan in particular was amazing on every instrument he picked up, which were many). The highlights for me were the slow & sultry arrangement of Black Dog, the outrageously fun Fortune Teller, an absolutely spine-tingling a capella Down In the River to Pray (with Plant, Miller and Duncan harmonizing perfectly behind Alison’s pristine soprano), and a show-stopping Battle of Evermore. With the encore, the show went almost 2 hours. The only weak point was T-Bone's ersatz rendition of Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler. The guy is an amazing producer and it was his brilliant inspiration to bring this unlikely pair together in the first place (thank you, T-Bone!), but he just ain't much of a singer.
I'll have an opportunity to see them once more in September at the ACL Festival in Austin, where they're headlining this year. Can't wait!
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