Robert Plant stunned fans in New Orleans, Louisiana on Monday night when he made a surprise appearance for a two hour performance with Guitar Lightnin’ Lee at a small club on Burgundy Street called BJ’s. Some fan videos have now emerged — and they’re nicely timed to get you warmed up for his show tonight in the Mahalia Jackson Theater.
As I previously reported, Robert Plant is currently on tour with Lil’ Band of Gold, hitting Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee. I may have been just a tad catty in that report, because some fans want more Led Zeppelin and less Fats Domino from the music legend.
Offbeat reminded us at the time that Robert Plant had a history in New Orleans of appearing in some intimate venues and being spotted in popular music hang-outs like Tipitina’s and the Maple Leaf. So I feel like I for one have no one to blame but myself that I forgot to go out and check around to see if I could bump into Robert Plant in the days running up to his official appearance.
Fortunately, BJ’s allowed fans to take cell phone videos of the Robert Plant New Orleans surprise performance. The top video from Scott Gold is a brief teaser, and the bottom one from Lisa Latter is a longer excerpt.
In his YouTube post, Gold wrote:
“On July 15th, 2013, Robert Plant played an unannounced set with Guitar Lightnin’ Lee and his Thunder Band for lucky New Orleanians at BJs Lounge in the Bywater. It was a two-hour blues jam that included 12-bar and shuffle versions of ‘Black Dog,’ ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You,’ and more. It was amazing — a small sample here.”
He’s sounding good, isn’t he? But even though he hates the question, Robert Plant must know that many fans still want that Led Zeppelin reunion.
[Robert Plant still photo Northfoto / Shutterstock.com ]