There is something extremely satisfying about seeing a band when they start their career and watching them grow, musically and crowd size. It’s a bit like having a child do well, and well, we are very satisfied with what Greta Van Fleet have accomplished. After their first album and the following being labelled Led Zeppelin copycats, and after seeing this band at the Birmingham Institute 2, not the big hall, and on to Manchester Apollo, albeit a two-night stint, they have grown to a bona fide arena band, as witnessed by what looked like a sell-out AO Arena tonight. They are used to this back in the U.S.A, and I personally witnessed how comfortable they were as where we were stood waiting for the massive curtain to drop, I could see through a gap in said curtain, and saw the lads waiting and mucking about like they were still young teenagers, brilliant to see.

After the ‘Starcatcher’ overture, the title of their latest album, and the curtain drop they were not messing about and went straight for the juggler with a blistering pyrotechnic laced spectacle. With flamboyant costumes and vocalist Josh Kiszka changing three times, the crowd were absolutely loving this, as they were basically hammered with Greta’s sonic bombardment. Josh’s vocals were incredible, lord knows how he gets so high so easily, and with brother playing some blistering guitar solos, although quite long no one seemed to mind, all the band were on fire. With a set based on ‘Starcatcher’, obviously, but it’s been out long enough for the fans to know the tunes. Although there were a couple of surprises, namely, an acoustic version of ‘Unchained Melody’, and as an encore Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody In Blue’! I’m guessing that the old argument about being a Led Zep rip-off will continue but over time that will dissipate as they plough their own way and are being accepted as themselves, even by die hard Zep fans. And so they should because this band is not going away any time soon, thankfully. One word sum up, EPIC!

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe