Bustle In Your Hedgerow Reinvent Led Zeppelin at CMJ

What do you get when you combine a drummer who plays with Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, a bassist who is a member of Ween, a guitarist who has played with Gov't Mule and Steve Winwood, an organist who has a great talent for the jazzy side and have them play nothing but Led Zeppelin tunes?

You get Bustle in Your Hedgerow. And, they're not a cover band thank you very much -- they're a jam band. Think Phish or the Grateful Dead if they played only Led Zep tunes, and they opened up the Brooklyn Bowl shows at CMJ yesterday evening with rousing, energized versions of Zep classics that would have made John Bonham proud.

The band is centered around the stellar rhythm section of Ween bassist David Dreiwtiz and Furthur drummer Joe Russo, which helps to keep the songs firmly rooted in the familiar bluesy heavy metal stomp that fans are sure to recognize. That frees up hot young guitarist Scott "Boots" Metzger and jazz organist Marco Benevento to explore uncharted territory via spacey atmospheric expressionism on the organ and good old fashioned guitar solos and metal riffs.Reconstructing such revered and well known songs like 'The Ocean,' 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' and 'When the Levee Breaks' while conversely making your own mark on them holds a number of pitfalls, the most obvious one being how to deal with the high-pitched wailing vocals of Robert Plant. The boys in Bustle in Your Hedgerow approach it with aplomb, replacing the vocals with the organ and applying a "take no prisoners approach" to the playing. Surprisingly, it works. The results are a head-shaking, dance-inducing, heart-pounding rock 'n' roll funk stew that sounds eerily familiar yet explores new territory as well. And, audiences love it.

Bustle in Your Hedgerow makes it clear that there is room for reconnecting with the songs of our past with new eyes and ears. No one can ever replace a classic band like Led Zeppelin, but they can push their musical legacy into new areas. It doesn't get more rock 'n' roll gonzo than that.