By Andrew Bansal
November 28th 2015, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: The Hi-Fi Academy is a Los Angeles-based group of seasoned musicians that can basically play anything rock or metal under the sun. They usually do so at places like Big Bear, but made a rare West Hollywood appearance at the Viper Room last Saturday November 28th 2015 to do a full Led Zeppelin tribute set, which they called ‘In Through Your Out Door’. I used to go to a whole lotta tribute shows until my concert schedule got insanely busy in the last couple of years, and it had been a long time since I experienced a Zeppelin tribute set. With high expectations from The Hi-Fi Academy, I decided to attend this one.
I arrived at the Viper Room a few minutes after doors opened at 8, as I always do, to check out the local talent in the hope of discovering good new bands. But I was bored to death over the next three hours as one mediocre local band followed another. My expectations from the Zeppelin tribute were raised even further, and I knew that if they failed to deliver, it would turn out to be a completely disastrous outing. They hit the stage at 11:45 in an attempt to rescue the evening for poor unsuspecting souls such as myself, and the onus was completely on them.
They started with ‘Immigrant Song’, during which the guitar was nearly inaudible, but thankfully the issue was fixed, and from the next song onwards, the front-of-house mix fully justified the quality of The Hi-Fi Academy’s glorious 90-minute tribute to Zeppelin, which was by all means worth suffering through all the openers for. A good tribute set includes the classics and fan favorites as well as deep cuts, specially when it comes to Zeppelin, and this band certainly did so in this 15-song performance. The audience was a strange mix of casual Zeppelin fans and weekend walk-ins, and the singer’s quiz questions about the Zeppelin catalog were mostly met with silence, although I’d openly admit that I myself couldn’t come up with the answer on the spot to what the last song is on the ‘Houses Of The Holy’ album.
Every song was performed with utmost excellence and expertise, and these dudes showed that they aren’t by any means new kids on the block. ‘Dazed And Confused’ was one of the highlights of the set, and so was ‘Ramble On’, with singer Seth Romano hitting and holding one particular high note for an extraordinary length of time. Romano’s vocal delivery is by far the best I’ve witnessed in any Zepplin tribute performance, and I’ve attended many. He hit the perfect balance between going by the Zeppelin rulebook and showcasing his own voice, and seemed to do so with effortless ease, clearly proving himself to be an expert in breathing technique. His band mates were very much adept in their roles as well, Frankie Lindia (Legal Tender, ex Diamond Lane) holding his own in the shoes of Jimmy Page, and his Legal Tender band mate Sam Harman also making a guest appearance to play bass on ‘Misty Mountain Hop’. Meanwhile, drummer Zak St. John, who supposedly had a lot to do with putting this together, reveled as Bonzo.
Besides, The Hi-Fi Academy also switched out the bassist and/or drummer to bring on some guest musicians for some of the songs, most notably Roy Mayorga of Stone Sour fame taking the drums for two songs. Of course, besides the traditional rock instruments, the keyboard and the theremin are integral components of live Zeppelin. This band replicated those parts as well, with the keyboard player joining in whenever necessary, ‘No Quarter’ standing out in particular as the finesst keyboard-centric moment of the set, and interesingly, the theremin was being operated by whoever was behind the drum kit, unlike the original Zeppelin which relied on Jimmy Page for that role.
The Hi-Fi Academy did not dress like Zeppelin but without doubt sounded like them, and ended with ‘Whole Lotta Love’ wherein the bridge comprised a delightful medley of just about every prominent Zeppelin song they did not play fully in this set. The evening came to a close at 1:10 AM, and a majority of the crowd stayed till the end as they simply could not get enough of this band. In all honesty, I have no interest in bands or all-star groups playing sets of randomly compiled covers that do not follow any particular theme, but I’m all for a well-done tribute to one band, and The Hi-Fi Academy are clearly capable of pulling it off. If they ever do a Zeppelin tribute again, or a tribute to anyone else for that matter, attendance is strongly recommended.
Set List:
01. Immigrant Song
02. Out On The Tiles
03. Black Dog
04. Nobody’s Fault But Mine
05. Misty Mountain Hop
06. Since I’ve Been Loving You
07. Dazed And Confused
08. Custard Pie
09. What Is And Should Never Be
10. Communication Breakdown
11. No Quarter
12. The Ocean
13. Wanton Song
14. Ramble On
15. Whole Lotta Love / Medley
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