Jimmy Page, It's time to call your lawyers?

When Zep came along they were perhaps trying to be as great as the Jeff Beck Group who had recently set the bar for live four piece Brit rock and roll bands (other than the Beatles of course), but Beck's band fell apart when they couldn't figure out how to write material (according to Beck) so Zep got that ball and ran with it. Van Fleet are very capable young dudes who somehow found an itch that needed scratching and with that singer can't help sounding Zeppy. They look great, are humble nice guys, and have been hugely successful even before their full size album was released, so hey...they're having fun. Sort of unstoppable at this point.

Watch the Youtube video of the Van Fleetsters playing live on some radio show where the bass player plays piano...kind of amazingly well. Regardless of the opinions of non fans, they do a kick ass live show and yes, they can actually play their instruments. 

I've never cared all that much for Zep albums for serious listening as, especially in the 70s, I was more into The Band, Little Feat (seemingly Zep's and every UK band's fave, and considered by many as the best live band of the 70s), Joni, Steely Dan, Jimi, blah blah (especially blah blah)...personal taste, although I get the musicianship factor. This said, the impression Zep had on me the first time I or anyone else I knew had seen them (second part of what was essentially their first US tour blitz when my band opened for them in May '69) was that they had a GREAT live act...this dissipated somewhat when I saw 'em again later, but still worth mentioning as at that time most bands seemed to be simply loitering on stage...later in '69 Jethro Tull also seemed like they were from another planet as their live show was also astonishing for its time. So the Fleetsters, regardless of their not inventing anything, get props from me for at least live gusto, which relative to the Shoe Gaze or "Americana" or hipster bands I think mostly suck from pretentious faux seriousness ("We wrote this so it must be good!"), I can say You Go Greta, although I won't be listening to any of their albums either.

It will be interesting to see the Gretsters on SNL this weekend and it's my guess they'll tear the place up (in a somewhat derivative manner of course).

Greta et all, although generally not writing songs that are particularly interesting to me, are already the next "big thing" in spite of curmudgeonly critics like those around here. The drummer isn't Bonham, the singer is sort of hilariously weirdly dressed, the songs are "meh," but the delivery is sincere and high energy and they seem to be having fun, as any 20 year old kid should when selling out shows all over the world. Note the bass player on a B3 playing bass pedals with his feet...yeah man...

The only thing Zep-ish about the Van Fleets is the singer's voice...the dynamics pretty much lack with Fleet and most modern bands, which hasn't hurt their career I suppose. Zep's early performances were very dynamic, and utilized all the smart tricks of the trade from their attitude and utterly organized relentless showmanship and musical chops, which in Van Fleet's case means the guitar and bass player jump around a lot. They can get better, but based of their sudden success they might not have to. The Bass-keyboard kid has some serious talent so maybe he can think up some good material.

As mentioned previously, this band is very successful already...very...so I somehow doubt they give a rat's patootie about entertaining suggestions about getting better at anything as what they do seems to be  working out OK. I think one reason I like them at all comes from watching some Youtube interviews where they display an above average intelligence and gracious attitude...seem like nice kids, and regardless of reasonable criticism I predict they'll be the biggest band in the world in maybe a year. I still won't listen to them except accidentally, but so what? 

A #1 album on the Billboard charts and 4 Grammy nominations is, by definition, "making it." Their current world tour doesn't include any 1000 seat clubs as far as I can tell, but if it did they'd likely sell those out in about 30 seconds. I agree, they "may" do well.