Greta Van Fleet Rocks, so Get Over It.

If you've heard of the band Greta Van Fleet then you've probably also heard criticism along the lines of "They're just a Led Zeppelin rip-off band." Although there are strong hints at times, nothing could be further from the truth. Are there similarities? Yes, of course, but it's almost impossible to find a hard rock band that hasn't taken a "Page" out of Zeppelin's book. 

Greta Van Fleet is mostly a family band. Singer Josh and guitarist Jake Kiszka are identical twins and their younger brother Sam plays bass and keyboard. This traditional rock quartet is rounded off by drummer Danny Wagner.

It is hard to ignore similarities between singer Josh's voice and Robert Plant's as they sit in the same sonic range. Josh  Kiszka claims he didn't know who Zeppelin was before high school and Plant has called Josh Kiszka "a beautiful little singer." At their Thursday night show at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, there were also hints of Perry Farrell and Queen, but the real comp was the epic '70s-style arena rock show complete with flamboyant, flashy costumes, extended guitar and drum solos, and even giant fireballs found more common at a heavy metal show. Greta Van Fleet understands one thing very well: their job. And that is to rock the shit out of the audience.

Indie rock vets Silversun Pickups opened the night with a solid set and warmed up the crowd nicely. When GVF hit the stage, a sold-out Dickies Arena went insane. Although the crowd up front mostly made up of teenage girls, the band brought a very wide variety of ages to the show.  Many of the girls wore stars and sequins to emulate the band's look as well as in honor of the tour and album's name, STARCATCHER. GVF played a heavy dose of STARCATCHER, and after an extended drum solo complete with pyro to accentuate the drum hits, the band emerged on a smaller stage at the back of the arena. They played three songs including the classic  song "Unchained Melody," made famous by the Righteous Brothers and Elvis Presley.

The band also did an acoustic tour premiere of their hit "Black Smoke Rising," a song from their Grammy Award-winning album FROM THE FIRES.

Whether you think Greta Van Fleet is derivative or not, they put on a fantastic, high-energy, old-fashioned rock and roll show. It's nice to see a new generation being able to experience that for themselves. And the last time we checked, Led Zeppelin isn't touring anytime soon, so, jump on the train because rock and roll will never die, and Greta Van Fleet ROCKS.