Well, it sure would seem so from the turnout last night in San Francisco. The Bill Graham Auditorium was filled with fans of all shapes and sizes, a welcomed sight considering the downward trend of Rock n’ Roll in popular music today.
Fans of all ages were in attendance yesterday. From middle-aged couples with knee-high toddlers to sign-carrying Greta Van Fleet maniacs. What a sight it was to witness this level of support for what in its core is a classic rock band. Looks like there is hope for us rockers after all!
Granted the band is young, and as most critics would agree, sound a lot like Led Zeppelin. The truth is they do Zeppelin really, really well. And why should that matter? This quartet from Michigan is introducing a genre of music that has pretty much gone extinct like the dinosaur, to a new generation of music lovers that weren’t around for the first iteration almost 50 years ago.
Dressed in a Freddy Mercury inspired sequence suit, singer Josh Kiszka came out swinging with “When The Curtain Falls,” which opened the show. The smoke-filled stage set the perfect frame for the epic rock performance that would unfold.
GVF quickly jumped into “Highway Tune,” which shined a perfect spotlight on the band’s more upbeat material. The charisma and stage presence of this smiling foursome is so ahead of their time that it’s shocking to think they’re barely in their 20s.
In between songs the curly-haired frontman’s life anecdotes were delivered with such confidence that you’d never know this band has only been around for a few years. And judging from the crowd’s response they’ll surely be sticking around for many more.
Whether or not this band is the messiah we’ve all been waiting for to give rock music the swift kick in the arse that it so desperately needs has yet to be proven. But one thing’s for certain, Greta Van Fleet is one band that has the most potential to do it.
Photo by Louis Raphael
