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January 22nd 2010, House Of Blues, West Hollywod CA: The first band to play tonight was a Sting/Police tribute band called Ghost In The Machine. I was not familiar with the music to be honest, so I can't really judge how good they were. They seemed to be doing a pretty good job at covering the songs though. Towards the end of their set, they started getting a pretty decent response from the crowd, which was still small in number, not surprisingly so at this point in the evening.

1. All This Time
2. King Of Pain
3. Synchronicity
4. If I Ever Lose My Faith
5. Magic
6. Ain't True Love
7. Roxanne
8. Every Breath
9. Don't Stand
10. Message In A Bottle

The next band were the ever-entertaining Fan Halen, tribute to the David Lee Roth era, the classic Van Halen. I had seen them a couple of times as a support band before, and this time as well they managed to get the crowd warmed up for the headline act to follow. I had never gotten so close to the stage for their shows before, and from what I saw I can definitely say that the Jack Daniels that they drink on stage, straight from the bottle, is the real thing and in the words of vocalist Brian Gellar, 'this ain't no Motley Crue tribute!' Its almost painful to watch them do it, specially the bassist who gulps it down for at least 10 seconds non-stop. Other than that, it was a good show from them overall. I loved their 'Hot For Teacher' cover and guitarist Derek Fuller did excellently well on the Eruption solo.

1. You Really Got Me
2. Atomic Punk
3. Running With The Devil
4. Sammy Hagar tease
5. Hot For Teacher
6. Eruption
7. Ain't Talkin' Bout Love
8. Bottoms Up/drum solo

At around 11.15, the wait was finally over when Jerry Greenberg, former president of Atlantic Records and a man who, as he told us, toured with Led Zeppelin and played congo with them at the Madison Square Garden back in the day, introduced Led Zepagain as the 'closest thing to the real deal'. I can't disagree with him on that one, that is for sure.

They kicked off their super-amazing set with 'Immigrant Song'. This was the first time in five that I got to see them play this as an opening song, and it was perfect. Such an exciting song, getting everyone pumped for the rest of the night. They followed it up with classic after classic from the wonderful Zeppelin catalog and it was a sheer privilege to be there witnessing the spectacle. Yet again, they kept things fresh for the regular Zepagain attendee, and made as many as seven changes from their most recent show at the Grove in Anaheim.

We were in for an even more special treat this time, in the form of Frankie Banali, ex Quiet Riot drummer and Sakurai-San, also known as 'Mr. Jimmy', guitarist for a Zeppelin tribute band of the same name in Tokyo, Japan. These guests jammed with the Zepagain guys on stage for the song 'Over The Hills And Far Away' and Sakurai stayed on for the next song 'Rock And Roll' as well. People say that Sakurai is the closest you can get to the living legend Jimmy Page, and I saw it with my own eyes why that was the case.

The band played 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Kashmir' after Sakurai's departure and closed out the night with the encore of Heartbreaker and Whole Lotta Love. I would like to thank them for giving us such a special treat and surprising us with a guest all the way from the far east. Zeppelin music is always like a trip to heaven, specially when played by these guys!