Lez Zeppelin

Live Music

Lez Zeppelin, Kate Nash, Oakley Hall + Constantines, Gil Scott-Heron, Dead Meadow, Jukebox the Ghost, Victor North and Absolute Zeros.

Lez Zeppelin

While there are hundreds of Led Zeppelin tribute bands roaming the land, few offer such a memorable, balls-out attack on that legendary English band’s sound and vision as all-female foursome Lez Zeppelin. Led Zep fans are typically a discriminating lot, but when these lovely ladies strap on their gear and get down to business, it’s clear they’ve got the licks down pat to please a crowd. Musically, Lez Zep are much like other Zeppelin cover acts in that they pretty much play it straight, but it’s fascinating and fun to witness them flipping the sexual script, particularly when frontwoman Sarah McLellan sings, “Squeeze me baby, till the juice runs down my leg.” (Michael Alan Goldberg)

Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron is the muse that fueled political hip-hop. Way before Public Enemy said “Fight the Power,” and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five brought you “The Message,” Heron warned the nation, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” Scott-Heron burst on the scene in the climax of the civil rights movement, and poured that frustration, unrest and anger into poetry, recited over a beat. His conscious artistry has paved the way for our greatest hip-hop stars. There would be no Common, Talib Kweli or Kanye if Scott-Heron hadn’t had the courage to speak up. Kanye’s gutsy statement on George Bush post-Katrina shocked everyone, as Heron’s critiques of Ronald Reagan did 20-plus years ago. History truly does repeat itself. (Shanique Jones)

Dead Meadow

Billy Crudup was great in Almost Famous, but the lads in Dead Meadow could’ve just as easily filled the role of fictional band Stillwater. With music that could be tagged as psych, stoner rock or ’70s metal and an aesthetic that embraces long hair and beards, Dead Meadow is missing only a Rolling Stone cover story to complete the analogy. With their melange of influences, the Los Angeles (by way of D.C.) band sounds equally comfortable conjuring a Neil Young-inspired rock tune as they do jamming on a Hendrix riff. Singer Jason Simon’s vocals sound anxious and hopeful as he quietly wails amid Zeppelin-sounding guitar solos and droning bass and drum lines. (Katherine Silkaitis)

Kate Nash

Twenty-year-old British songbird Kate Nash’s edgy, piano-centric pop music reminds me of that old F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” Nash—whose sweet-and-cynical, Cockney-pottymouth style will be compared to likeminded Brit (and early supporter) Lily Allen till the day she dies, and not unfairly so—fully understands that love hurts and boys are dickheads, yet she’ll never deny her heart’s romantic tug. Based on her excellent debut Made of Bricks, Nash seems able to function remarkably well. (M.A.G.)

Jukebox the Ghost

If piano pop fondly brings to mind Ben Folds, Billy Joel or Something Corporate, Jukebox the Ghost is not what you’re expecting. Singer and pianist Ben Thornewill’s keys drive the group, but he incorporates classical and jazz piano technique into rock tunes that embrace them—not fitting a watered-down piano sound into generic rock songs. The band’s tunes are undeniably catchy and cheerful, but a bit off-kilter: A variation on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera theme runs through the song “Static to the Heart,” culminating in an intense, almost creepy ending, while “Victoria” begins with a classic ragtime solo before launching into a vaudeville-cum-rock tune. (K.S.)

Oakley Hall + Constantines

Rock may be dead, but don’t tell these two bands. In their two distinct ways they’re still cranking the mythic stadium riffs and poses of the mid-’70s. Oakley Hall look to Neil Young for inspiration, wrapping their country-flavored dirges in multiple layers of guitar drone and fuzz, while the Constantines evoke Springsteen in a way that Arcade Fire can never hope to: sweaty, earnest, passionate and full of empathy for the working man. “Hard Feelings,” the first salvo from the Constantines’ Kensington Heights, pummels with drums and soars with hoarse, romance-damaged vocals. Straight-up rock doesn’t come any more powerful than this. (Jennifer Kelly)

Victor North

It’s a long way to Philadelphia from Alaska. But if you’re tenor saxophonist Victor North, a fan of Coltrane, Lee Morgan and other Philly jazz legends, you pack and move here and have a go of it. You study with piano master Kenny Barron and local sax great Larry McKenna and wind up staying for 20 years. You become such a presence at Chris’ that you’re inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame alongside Sonny Fortune and Charles Fambrough. And you build a rep as a fluid post-bopper, hosting a regular open session with associates Farid Barron on piano, Leon Boykins on bass and Wayne Smith Jr. on drums. (David R. Adler)

Absolute Zeros

If at first the Absolute Zeros sound like just another classic rock-influenced local band, listen again. That British accent you hear belongs to singer/guitarist Kelvin Cochrane, and those bongos belong to percussionist Sabu Rex, who was in the early ’70s Krautrock band Niagra and now lives in North Philly. Fill out the five-piece with three more hardy musicians, and that explains the Absolute Zeros’ rangy tunes, which blend modern rock moves with Hendrix-heavy guitar, bluesy digressions and James Brown-style funk. It’s a sweaty and dynamic combination, making the band’s one-off acoustic show at Tin Angel a bit mysterious. How will the songs translate without that boozy energy and volume? (Doug Wallen)