Alison Krauss & Robert Plant Concert

Who : Alison Krauss and Robert Plant

Where : Dodge Theater

When : 01 July 2008

Rating : B+

- VENUE -

Dodge Theater is in downtown Phoenix. It is relatively new; part of the urban revitalization program. The acoustics are so-so; better than American West Arena or any outdoor venue, but nothing compared to Grady Gammage Auditorium and/or Celebrity Theater. You were allowed to take pics, but no flash photography. We complied, and our pics came out sucky, so I had to scrounge the internet for photos from their earlier concerts. Rating : B-

- PRICES -

$80 a ticket got us in the first row of the 2nd-floor balcony. That's about 30 rows back from the stage. There were two additional balconies above us.

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$4.50 got you a regular-sized bottle of water. I cringe to think how much a bottle of beer cost. T-Shirts and other concert paraphrenalia were going at the usual prices - $30 for a regular shirt, etc. Rating : C

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- CROWD -

The crowd, not unexpectedly, ranged from old hippies to country & western fans, and everything in between. No metalheads or goths to speak of. For the most part, the mood was mannerly. Some standing ovations, but not many. Very little dancing in the aisles.

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About 3/4 of the way through the concert, one woman felt compelled to declare her love for Mr. Plant from the front row. She was cordially escorted out.

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About 15 minutes later, some clown felt compelled to pledge his love to Ms. Krauss. He even managed to crawl onstage, before Robert signaled for Security, who carried the nitwit away in a most uncordial fashion. Plant never even missed a note in his singing. One gets the feeling this happens on a regular basis. Rating : C+

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- OPENING ACT -

Sharon Little is a Melissa Etheridge wannabee who, at the beginning of 2008, was working as a waitress in Philadelphia to make ends meet. Since then, she has signed a record contract and put out an album. She was thrilled-to-goodness to be opening for Alison and Robert.

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She and her band did about 6 numbers from their CD. Her songwriter plays rhythm guitar and gets equal time in the spotlight. He is weird. One sees some personnel changes in this band before the next album comes out. Sharon was okay, but Krauss and Plant don't have to worry about being upstaged. Rating : C

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- MAIN ACT -

Sharon finished at 8:15; apparently Krauss and Plant had no intention of starting before 9:00. Gotta sing a few more songs, Sharon. To be fair, we then got two hours of good music from the headliners.

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In addition to doing most of their numbers from the Raising Sand album, they did a bunch of Krauss' bluegrass stuff. The back-up musicians were awesome, highlighted by one T-Bone Burnett who, uncoincidentally, produced Raising Sand.

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My main beef with the album is that it's just a bunch of nice duets. Charming, but nothing to get excited about. The concert renditions were quite different - lots of showing off by Alison and the band. I'd go as far to say that if the second Krauss/Plant CD turns out to be a "Live in Concert" issue, it will be much better than the studio effort.

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Krauss got to show off her bluegrass fiddle skills, which are superb. Alas, that left Plant as the "weak link" - a middle-aged rock-&-roll geezer trying to be relevant among some gifted bluegrass musicians, and whose only contribution is singing. They did allow him to do one Led Zepplin number - Battle of Evermore, but the basic structure of that song is well-suited for a bluegrass treatment. It should be mentioned that the chemistry between Krauss and Plant seemed quite weak. She seemed much more comfortable interacting with T-Bone and the rest of the backing band.

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In the end, the strengths of Alison Krauss and (more importantly) the session musicians more than made up for Robert Plant. Go to this show if you like Raising Sand or if you like Bluegrass. The only reason to skip it is if you are uneasy about over-the-hill rock stars not knowing when to quit. Rating : A-.