Not long after the Duran Duran concert, I had a Greta Van Fleet show coming up in that same venue. As a byproduct of the changing times, there are few young bands that can embody that feel of 1970's "arena rock". WBCN changed its programming a brand back in 2009, and WAAF closed down eleven years later. Bands like Muse and Jet never maintained the traction to stay relevant enough in the American broadcast market to have stateside tours more often. Older acts from the 70's and 80's are grandfathered in by their residual relevance. If you hear that Extreme, Metallica, or Judas Priest are touring the US, they'll probably fill a venue. It would take a band with brand recognition on such a level to fill an arena that usually hosts NBA and NHL games. That decreasing exposure in the American broadcast market is a big reason why I support the Thundermothers, Halestorms, and a Doughtrys of the world building recognition and fanbases around the world. Now, Greta Van Fleet was coming to TD Garden. This was like an unleveled modern version of seeing of seeing Zeppelin, Aerosmith, or Queen in the old Boston Garden back when Steven Tyler was in his 20's. Not only is production quality better now, but the musicians are also (generally) in a better mindset. The occurrences of substance abuse in the music industry has notably gone down, mental health is a more respected priority, and LGBTQ artists (at least cisgender ones) are far less pressured to stay in the closet. It wasn't until 1998 that Judas Priest's Rob Halford felt comfortable enough to come out as gay in an interview on MTV. Whitney Houston had been dead for eight years before the world found out that the music industry forced the bisexual singer back into the closet. Where the LGBTQ community has been makes me all the more appreciative that Greta Van Fleet's Josh Kiszka was able to publicly come out at the age of 27. Through a combination of happenstance and my becoming more honest about being trans, I increasingly started seeing more performers from "the community".
I first heard of Greta Van Fleet when the Fine Brothers' YouTube channel was testing baby boomers' on their ability to discern between songs by Led Zeppelin's and Greta Van Fleet's. Granted that many of these test subjects may not have listened to full Led Zeppelin albums since either of the Bush administrations. Getting into the zone for this post, I myself took a blind series through a Pandora station. Lying back with a pink satin sleep mask over my eyes, I immersed myself in the music. I'd recognize Chris Cornell's singing a cut from Audioslave, Malcolm Young playing his band into "Hard as a Rock", or single from Jet's "Get Born" which saw a lot more success on VH1 than on Top 40 radio or MTV. Like most Pandora stations, the programming focuses on one particular music act or specific song while including similar recommendations. That right there lined me up for the perfect opportunity to compare Greta Van Fleet to Led Zeppelin. There are many similarities between Josh Kiszka's singing and Robert Plant's (and I'm not sure where Josh's accent picked up a British flavour. Going off of studio recordings, the biggest is that Josh sings from his head voice (in terms of pitch) much more often than Robert, and projects his voice in a similar way to what you'd hear in "Ramble On" and "Livin' Lovin' Maid". My decision on the "Kiszka/Plant comparison" is That Josh can sound a lot like Plant at times, but his vowels are phonetically hit differently. The biggest difference for me is in the guitar playing by Jake Kiszka (Josh's twin brother) and Danny Wagner's work on the drums. There's a lot of blues at the core of Jake's playing, but it's distinguishable from Jimmy Page's work. Comparing Danny Wagner to John Bonham is harder to put into words without having a drummer with me to better articulate my words into drum jargon. Nonetheless, Wagner and the Kiszka brothers (including bassist/organist Sam) have the potential trajectory to become some of rock's best. They might not make many top 100 or top 10 lists, but such oversights are often based on the subjectivity of editors and when a musician may be performing. It's like how Peter Frampton often gets overlooked when such lists are compiled.
So, let's focus on the Boston stop of Greta Van Fleet's "Starcatcher" tour. It was a stadium rock show on a warm Saturday night, so I was out and proud with my high-waisted flare legged jeans, a black leather crossbag, a black leather belt, matching boots, and my C-cup inserts under a lustrous Batwoman t-shirt. I got into the arena as Surf Curse was starting as the opening act for the night. Looking around, I was noticing that a lot of the young Gen Z fans were quite visibly LGBTQ or at least "allies". I wasn't sure if Greta Van Fleet had experienced a big boom in queer fans with Josh's coming out, his flamboyant costumes, or the music and band all together. I made my way to my seat, and found that it was one of the furthest back seats. It was the last row (concrete to my back, and the rest of the arena before me). I was maybe one section over from where I saw Celine Dion. A woman in a group sitting next to me called over, complimenting my shirt. First letting me know that she loved the shirt, "Is that a Batgirl t-shirt?" she asked. I told her that it was for Batwoman. She told me "Sorry, I like Robin." This could have various meanings based on who says that, but gathering the context, I found it affirming. She dug how I was dressed, but just was attracted to men. Meeting someone (you know, "meeting someone") at a concert is a possibility that I'm open to, but if a well-intentioned person politely declines without my even needing to ask, that's just a cool little exchange that I take in stride. It would've been great to share that concert's experience with that group as one shared row, but we found out that they had the wrong seats. My new neighbors weren't as engaging with other fans (concerts draw all kinds), but these new people fortunately didn't come off as transphobes (something that I've gotten used to since concerts draw all kinds).
Admittedly, I had just been getting myself more familiar with Greta Van Fleet's songbook (as a whole) in the week or two leading up to the event. Like with the Darkness, I didn't have to listen to any whole Greta Van Fleet album in order to know that I enjoy their music and would authentically enjoy what they have to offer in concert. Josh's singing right away as something more comparable to Geddy Lee of Rush. It's in how often, he sings at the higher pitches. Like Geddy Lee and Robert Plant's singing from he heights of their careers, Josh Kiszka's voice is exceptionally powerful. That's a marvel on its own, but like Celine Dion's voice, it enables his personality to be vocally expressed to the furthest back seats. A powerful sound system can only do so much to extend the reach of a performer's music. With Celine, Josh, and several other performers of today, the talent of reaching the most remote audience members is skill in stagecraft that requires not just exceptional talents in music but also a personality that just shines. When Celine Dion appeared on the Tonight Show in 2016, she was not only bringing her sense of humor to Jimmy Fallon's game, but she also emanated with such enthusiasm and joy that it could be felt whether you're Jimmy Fallon sharing the stage with her, or you watching the recording in the here and now. Darren Criss had that combination of charm, talent, and unapologetic musical geekiness. I would just love to know what Darren Criss can do in an arena. Often, he performs in smaller theaters.
Jake Kiszka is one of the music industry's young guitarists quickly rising in prominence. Jake is a young guitar great and he may know it. Yes, "young" is a relative term. He's younger than Annie Clark (of St. Vincent) and Gary Clark, Jr., but he's older than Gabriella Quevedo and Sungha Jung. Jake provided the audience with several wonderfully executed guitar solos. A stadium rock show heavy with big guitar solos and spectacle isn't for everyone, but there is a market for that type of performance. For those who like to rock on that stratospheric level, let Greta Van Fleet indulge you. Seriously, I could feel the heat of the pyrotechnics all the way from my seat.
In the vein of John Bonham's musical legacy, Danny Wagner has a big drum solo. Unlike with the Zeppelin song "Moby Dick", Wagner's performance was independent from anyone else's musical contribution. It was a break in the set where he was just improvising and playing in the moment. In that way, I'd compare it to the Scorpions' setlist from the Rock Believer Tour's Connecticuit show. While Klaus Meine and the older Scorpions took a quick break before the rest of the set, Mikkey Dee (formerly of Motörhead) and Pawel Mąciwoda performed a drums & bass piece together.
This doubled as both an entertaining drum performance as well as a misdirection. Josh and Sam Kiszka quietly moved out past the AV techs' booth to a smaller stage that couldn't have been more than 12 x 12 ft. Standing up (leaning against the concrete) I had arguably the best view in the house. It was a smaller (and more intimate) set with Sam on the organ as the two covered the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody". Their bandmates join in for the next two songs and the crowd held their phones with flashlights on (traditionalism be damned, if those were lighters, it would have been crazy dangerous).
After all that, the guys returned to the main stage for more songs. I kid you not that I was so far back that my phone's camera couldn't focus on performers that far away. For the sake of r0ck bl0gster and photojournalism, I shot some additional photos of the screens that had been assembled as part of the staging. In the encore set, there was example of stylistic versatility when Sam led Danny and Jake into a cover of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". It's coincidental that I'm thinking back on this performance tonight. I just was watching an interview with Béla Fleck yesterday. Approaching his banjo with a technique similar to how one would play a piano, Béla created a banjo arrangement to salute the centennial anniversary of the jazz classic.
It was after the show that I got a little gender dysphoric. I was getting in line to purchase one of the band's tour tee shirts, and this older guy (probably some fan's dad) was referring to me as "that young man". I'm thinking that he couldn't have not seen my C-Cups. Once again, I reiterate that concerts draw all kinds of people. A major takeaway from the Greta Van Fleet concert experience is that I felt more accepted and comfortable being myself when surrounded by more members of the LGBTQ community. That's nothing against straight and cis allies, but when the show has a more concentrated queer appeal, it's less likely that you encounter the close-minded.
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