Led Zeppelin Performs, World Doesn't End

I got up early this morning just to make sure. Yep, there's the sun, right up there where it's supposed to be. The Earth appears to still be spinning on its axis. There are no news reports of Hell having frozen over.

Given the hype .. er, I mean, the high expectations preceding the Led Zeppelin concert in London last night, I was prepared for most anything on the morning after. They came, they played, the crowd loved it. So euphoric was the crowd of 18,000 lucky lottery winners, the band probably could have just stood on stage and scratched their armpits for two hours and gotten the same reaction.

But play they did, and a full set at that. Jason Bonham had barely hit puberty the last time they did that, back when his father was still alive and going bonzo with his drum kit. By all accounts, "young" Bonham, having been officially deputized to take his father's place, filled the role nicely.

Sure, their pants weren't as tight as they used to be, and Robert Plant sometimes has a little trouble hitting the highest of the high notes, but, hey. Considering that Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are all near or over 60, and that they hadn't done this for 27 years, the mere fact that they were performing was enough to set the Bic™ lighters and camera phones waving in the darkness.

Such was the magnitude of the event that was this Zep reunion gig that artists of the stature of Pete Townshend, Bill Wyman, and Foreigner were relegated to "also appearing" status. They were there to pay tribute to their patron, the late Atlantic Records founder, Ahmet Ertegun. The crowd was there because they wanted to recapture some 30-year-old Led Zep magic.

Plant, whose solo career is going quite nicely, thank you, remains steadfast in his belief that guys over 60 are physically unable to repeatedly play two hour sets of Zep's brand of rock. Jones and Page talk like they're open to the possibility of more performances, or even recording new material.

If that happens, I'll be up early the next morning to see if there are any airborne pigs floating past my window.

^{Photo by Cate Gillon / Getty Images}