Fly By Night (Rush) and Black Dog RVA (Led Zeppelin)
Another Round Bar and Grill – Richmond, VA
Saturday evening in Richmond, VA and the tribute bands are showing their stuff. While most of what comes through Another Round is original music, sometimes you just need to relive the old days and get a dose of nostalgia. This was one of those nights with both a Led Zeppelin and Rush tribute. I was too young to be going to concerts when Led Zeppelin called it quits for touring and the last time I saw Rush live was 1987. Alas, I did not catch their final tour before Neil passed, so this was a treat for me. What a way to close out a week!
Black Dog RVA
Band Members:
- Jane Hardin – Vocals
- Adam Houck – Guitars
- Russ Gambrel – Keyboards
- Gordon Saunders – Bass
- Stephen Moegling – Drums
Setlist:
- What Is And What Should Never Be
- Good Times Bad Times
- Rock N Roll
- Celebration Day
- Black Dog
- Over The Hills And Far Away
- Ramble On
- Since I’ve Been Loving You
- Fool In The Rain
- All My Love
- Babe Im Gonna Leave You
- Whole Lotta Love
- Immigrant Song
- Heartbreaker
- Trampled Under Foot
- D’yer Mak’er
- The Ocean
- Misty Mountain Hop
- Kashmir
I did not get a chance to see Led Zeppelin live in their heyday, so a tribute band is the next best thing for me. Black Dog RVA (RVA added to show they are a Richmond, VA based band, not a national touring act) is a female fronted tribute band. Having heard Heart cover Zeppelin already, this was not going to bother me as I’m not a purist when it comes to tributes. I’ll always allow for a band to interpret the songs as they see fit, though I did appreciate how they stayed fairly close to the originals. I’ve heard good, bad, and weird covers of Led Zeppelin, including a Hardcore Metal version of Immigrant Song with growled vocals, so tonight’s relatively calm covers were exactly what I needed.
The guitars were not perfect Jimmy Page renditions. I’m happy about that because having heard live recordings of Jimmy, he didn’t do his own songs perfectly every time. There was interpretation in the lead work that was consistent and stayed very close to the originals on the riffs. The bass was very close to original form of what John Paul would play and the drums were about halfway in between those, pretty close, but allowed for some free form inputs. The keyboards were right where they should have been, in line with John Paul’s style.
Musically, they were quite good. There were a few odd mishaps, but with this being a 19 song set, I would have been surprised had there been no misses at all. The farthest off the original tunes was the vocals. Jane did not imitate Robert Page. She accurately sang the songs, but did not try to match his every tone. She has more of an influence from Pop and Rock singers, going for the P!nk version of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” than the Zeppelin or Great White versions. She has the chops to pull of the power of the songs, which is what was the most impressive part of her performance, especially since they played a festival show earlier in the day and were probably tired (not that they showed it).
The band interacted with the crowd and the fans loved every minute of it. One fan really wanted “Moby Dick” to be played. I hope he wasn’t too heartbroken when that didn’t happen. They also didn’t play “Stairway To Heaven,” but that is okay. Such an iconic song needs to be respected and live may not be the best way to do that unless you have the room and time to do it right. They nailed a few of the songs and did the rest very well. The two that hooked me the most, both technically and just as a fan were “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and “Kashmir.” I will always swoon over those two tracks and I got shivers hearing them live.
Black Dog RVA treats the music with the respect and dignity it deserves. I applaud them for that and hope that our paths may cross again at some time in the future!
Fly By Night
Band Members:
- Andy Symula – Vocals/Guitars
- Andy Penland – BassKeyboards/Backing Vocals
- Kevin Osborne – Drums
Setlist:
- Distant Early Warning
- Subdivisions
- Analog Kid
- Vital Signs
- Trees
- Xanadu
- Dreamline
- Bravado
- Red Barchetta
- Overture
- Temples Of Syrinx
- Passage To Bangkok
- Lakeside Park
- Fly By Night
- Bastille Day
- Limelight
- Camera Eye
- Time Stand Still
- Show Don’t tell
- Spirit Of Radio
- Freewill
- Closer To The Heart
- Tom Sawyer
Over two hours of Rush songs, a veritable feast of greatest hits, was on tap this night. Fly By Night is a three-piece band, just like the iconic band they honored. Here, the bassist did play keyboards, but the guitarist had more of the foot pedals and did the lead vocals, so the duties were spread a little more equitably than the way Alex and Geddy it. The drums were amazingly well done with plenty of technology to support Neil Peart’s genius. They had almost everything needed to cover these songs and do them the justice they deserve.
One of the most difficult things to do in a tribute band is to get close to the vocals. This is especially hard when trying to do Rush as Geddy Lee’s voice is both iconic and unique. They did a pretty good job with Andy having to spend a lot of time in a more falsetto voice for him to get the tones as close to right as possible, but anyone who knows Rush knows perfect imitation is never going to happen. Geddy is a singularity. Much like trying to do a perfect Neil is next to impossible, mostly because the man was such a genius and his kit was one of a kind.
With 23 songs in the set and a running time of almost two and half hours, these guys went for the marathon show. They did most of my favorites and stuck pretty much to the earlier works, though they did add in some of the 90s music. The only song from the modern era I would have added to their set is “Nobody’s Hero,” a song I truly love, but not one of the ones that immediately comes to mind, even from Rush fans. I was a little sad not to hear “Working Man,” but was so happy to hear “Passage To Bangkok” that I can get over that quickly.
Fly By night stayed pretty close to the original tracks. There were a couple of vocal misses and some guitar transitions that were not as sharp as they could have been, but there is also no such thing as a perfect show. I’ve heard those songs so many times that I can hear these things. The drumming was not perfect, nor were the bass/keyboards. What there was, though, was some great music played by really good musicians that hit me right in the feels. There was a lot of nostalgia in the air. The fans sang along and had a great time. It wasn’t about perfection, it was about having a great time, and that we did.
Both bands did an excellent job and brought back some of my fondest memories of growing up with some of the greatest songs ever recorded. The audience cheered, sang, danced, and snatched up a lot of t-shirts from the merch booth. I got two myself. No one left unhappy. Overall, it was a great night of great music, performed with love and affection for the bands they were paying tribute to.
