With a silhouette of John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham gazing at the crowd from the kick drum, Jason Bonham paid tribute to his late father with a powerful performance at The Fillmore Detroit on Saturday, November 23, 2024.
“I started this journey 14 years ago when I said I’ll do one tour,” Bonham told the crowd.
“One tour, one 14-year long tour because I soon realized it wasn’t about me, my stories about Dad, it was about love, it was about your love of Led Zeppelin which has kept this show going.”
Bonham added: “It really is an honour and privilege to represent my family name. We are all fans up on stage. We are glad to celebrate the music and the life of John Henry ‘Bonzo’ Bonham and Led Zeppelin.”
Bonham and his bandmates provided a treat for the Detroit crowd, sharing stories and performing some Zeppelin classics, which Bonham said are not typically in their sets.
“When I was 13-years-old I didn’t have the chance to tell my Dad how great I thought he was,” he told the audience.
“He was the guy that brought more drunken people home at the end of the evening. I mean, I didn’t know they were Beatles. We pay homage to him, to thank him for teaching me how to play the drums when I was a kid. I never thought of it like a business, but I’m still playing and I’m almost fuckin’ 60-years-old.”
Bonham added: “I was fortunate to play with Robert (Plant), Jimmy (Paige) and John Paul (Jones). It was a very special night. One of those songs, and we didn’t do it, it was called that, but as I said we’re going to try and change things up tonight, we’re going to do a different set. We opened already with what they were going to open with in 1980. Here is one we don’t regularly do, it’s time to have a celebration” before the JBLZE band performed ‘Celebration Day’ from the 1970 album Led Zeppelin III.
“Sexy groove by Mr. John Henry ‘Bonzo’ Bonham,” he said.
“It was about having a fineness, he had such a powerful pocket and the groove. Something you can’t teach. A big part of John Bonham’s playing was him, the heartbeat. The feel. His sexy mother fucking groove. There will never be another.”
One of the first treats for the fans on Saturday was a performance of the 10-minute plus epic tune ‘Achilles Last Stand’ from the 1976 album Presence, along with a story Bonham recalled from the recording of the record.
“He was very, very quiet at home,” Bonham said.
“He wasn’t that crazy guy that you all read about. You know Bonzo, I knew, Dad. I only read the stories later in my life. With that said, I remember going to Germany. I remember my Dad was recording there. I remember waking up in a studio and seeing Robert Plant was singing all the vocals in a wheelchair. Robert had a very bad car accident and almost lost his wife and his daughter. So he was singing the whole of this album, Presence, in a fucking wheel chair in a small studio in Germany. I remember going there and seeing Dad.”
Bonham added: “There is one song in particular that is something I’ve always avoided to play, because it scares me. It’s a monster. My buddy went ‘you haven’t the balls to play it’. Well, we’re going to try anyway.”
After performing the song, Bonham smiled and laughed, sharing a sense of relief with the Michigan audience.
“That is a brain melter,” he said.
“Seriously, I’ve got to say, without a shadow of a doubt the drum performance on ‘Achilles Last Stand’ on Presence is probably the best John Bonham performance. When I’m playing, as soon as I start thinking about it, I’m already fucking it up. But I love it and I’m glad that we’re doing it. It’s such a fabulous album, underrated.”
Bonham and his JBLZE mates immediately kept the changups coming during the set.
“I promised we would do many different things on this show,” he said.
“I got comfortable and we started to do the same songs over and over again. You get comfortable, you know?”
Bonham added the band realized they needed to start changing it up and “get a little uncomfortable.
“And this is us getting very uncomfortable, this is us getting very dazed and confused” before playing a dynamic performance of ‘Dazed and Confused’ from 1969’s Led Zeppelin I.
Here are SWOMP’s photos from the performance:
Keeping with the father-son theme for the evening, Bonham took some time out of the show to provide an announcement for his son, Jager Henry.
“I promised my son I would mention something. Jager Henry, he just released, and I’m so proud of him, his first ever EP. He said, “Dad, I know I’m not going to be doing the Detroit show, but is there any chance, because I’ve got to pay my rent, that you could sell some of my merch? Your audience they’re older, they will know what vinyl and CDs are.’ I’m very proud of it, it might be a little heavy for some of you, but if you want one go to the front,” Bonham told the crowd.
SWOMP had the opportunity to meet and interview Jager a couple of months ago, after the young rockers performance at Louder Than Life in Louisville, Kentucky.
Listen to our interview, below:
Bonham thanked the Detroit audience throughout the evening, sharing with them that he intends to keep the JBLZE show going for as long as possible and will strive to keep introducing more Zeppelin tunes into the mix.
“This is the best time of my life,” he said.
“Thank-you so much for growing older with us. This has been a regular thing that we celebrate in the holiday seasons together. It’s the only way I can get the cold weather back and remind me of home. When you live down in Florida you get used to wearing flip flops and shorts, so I have to come here to remind myself of home. It makes the people warmer, you know that? And you can’t get much warmer than Detroit.”
Here is the full setlist from Saturday night:
1. In the Evening
2. Good Times Bad Times
3. Celebration Day
4. Ramble On
5. What Is and What Should Never Be
6. Heartbreaker
7. When the Levee Breaks
8. Achilles Last Stand
9. Dazed and Confused
10. Friends
11. Over the Hills and Far Away
12. The Ocean
13. Misty Mountain Hop
14. Black Mountain Side
15. Kashmir
16. Stairway to Heaven
17. Whole Lotta Love (With a snippet of John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’)
18. Rock and Roll
JBLZE has a number of shows scheduled to fill out the year.
More details are available at https://www.jasonbonham.net/.