Review - Greta Van Fleet @ City National Civic (9/18/18)
Written by:
Kevin Keating
September 19, 2018
Greta Van Fleet @ San Jose's City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating)
Greta Van Fleet exploded onto the scene last year with the release of not one, but two EPs entitled Black Smoke Rising and From the Fires(iTunes); each receiving critical acclaim and topping various Rock charts. After several festival appearances and continued rave reviews, the 4-piece band consisting of 3 Kiszka brothers from Michigan have finally hit the road on a proper headlining tour in advance of the October release of their full LP, Anthem of the Peaceful Army (iTunes).
They arrived in the Bay Area this past Monday with a sold out show at the Fox Theater in Oakland, followed by last night's show where I caught them at the City National Civic in San Jose. And tonight, they have another sold out show at the Masonic, where if it’s anything like last night's show, you should be prepared to be blown away.
Josh Kiszka & Sam Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet @ San Jose's City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating)
I’ve struggled with this review today not for a loss of words to describe the authentic bluesy classic rock that was on display last night, but for how I’ve been challenging myself to avoid the now synonymous comparison between Greta Van Fleet and Led Zeppelin — and even more specifically, lead vocalist Josh Kiszka’s uncanny likeness to Robert Plant’s own vocals. I’ve resigned myself to accept that there’s just simply no avoiding the comparison between the two bands and their respective front-men. Take a listen to "Highway Tune" below to hear for yourself.
The concert last night launched promptly at 8pm with another soulful blues rock performer Dorothy, who went through a 40 minute set and was incredibly impressive with her tone, delivery, and command of the stage. Backed by a full band, she easily won the crowd over with her set, and got the near capacity crowd moving and swinging their arms overhead. If I’m honest with myself, I generally have low expectations for the openers, especially when I’ve never heard of them, but Dorothy and her band could have easily been the headliner last night and I would have walked away feeling like I got my money’s worth with the price of admission. Whereas some would say (me included) that Greta Van Fleet channel Led Zeppelin, Dorothy could easily be compared to Janis Joplin, with slightly less raspy vocals. Be on the lookout for more of Dorothy in the future and don’t miss her the next time she’s back in the Bay Area!
As for Greta Van Fleet, it’s hard to fathom how good they sound considering how ‘new’ their band is; and I hate to use age as a factor here, but they’re all roughly around 20 years old… Watching them onstage, you’d think they’ve been touring for YEARS and they all looked, acted, and sounded like road-hardened rock stars who have been doing this for ages. Since I’ve already made the comparison, I’m going all-in now and can say that overwhelmingly, Greta Van Fleet, both live and on their albums, sound incredibly like Led Zeppelin. As I looked around the audience last night, it was interesting to see the diversity in ages… I’m probably over-generalizing here, but the audience was a pretty even split between middle-aged men and early twenty-somethings, and I couldn’t help but to think that us middle-aged rockers were either trying to relive or experience what an early Led Zeppelin show was like, whereas I wondered if the twenty-somethings were even familiar with Zeppelin’s greatest hits. That said, let me be clear that Greta Van Fleet is *not* a Zeppelin cover band. They’ve got limited material, so last night’s 75 minute set only consisted of 9 songs — one of which was a cover of Chicago bluesman, Howlin’ Wolf’s “Evil” — but besides that one, the other 8 songs were all theirs, and largely embodied the sound of Led Zeppelin, with just a sprinkling of the Doors and maybe even YES on the start of “You’re the One”.
Sam Kiszka & Josh Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet @ San Jose's City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating)
I should also note, and this may be my one and only minor criticism of the night, is that it felt like they were stretching each song as long as they possibly could — I think it’s fair to say that most of the songs averaged about 10 minutes long. But besides that, and like I said earlier, they sounded great and like they’ve been doing this for years. Personal highlights included a roughly 5-minute organ solo at the end of “Flower Power.” I couldn’t help thinking about “Ramble On” during their version of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Evil”, and on “Watching Over” I heard a bit of Robbie Krieger of The Door’s guitar in the opening riff, while a 4-note bass line laid the foundation for 10 minutes before Josh’s Robert Plant screams blew the remainder of the song wide open. The evening closed with their current top hit, Safari Song, and ended with what felt like a 5-minute+ drum solo which reminded me of the late ’80’s hair metal bands where there was always time carved out for an obligatory drum solo. Overall though, this is a band destined for greatness if they can continue their momentum and the quality of their music. Let’s hope they’re able to overcome the notorious sophomore slump and one thing's for sure, I’m definitely catching them on their next trip to the Bay Area and will be buying their upcoming release on October 19th.
Jake Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet @ San Jose's City National Civic (Photo: Kevin Keating)
