Monday night Greta Van Fleet finally was able to bring their Dreams in Gold Tour to The Peoria Civic Center Arena. This show was postponed a couple of times, the third time was a charm. I first photographed Greta Van Fleet in 2017 in a small club in suburbia Chicago. I was there to shoot The Struts and Greta Van Fleet were the openers. Honestly I don’t remember too much about their set then other than they were much better than I had expected. Over the years the Michigan band has definitely grown in popularity and exposure worldwide.
The discussion of them being a Led Zeppelin knock off band is ongoing and I have my own opinions about that. Seeing all the younger people filling the Civic Center to see a rock show was a great sight , for whatever band they were there for. Peoria is really starved for big rock shows. I was just a little guy in the late 60’s so I wouldn’t have seen the rock bands in that time but I can’t imagine there could have been any more silk shirts and velvet bellbottoms then than I saw Monday night. One other clothing article I saw enough times that night to make notice of was Led Zeppelin concert shirts. I still am not sure what that is exactly saying, but it was pretty humorous.
As mentioned before I saw them play in 2017 as the opener in a probably 500 seat venue, and this time was in a sold out arena of over 10,000. I was looking forward to seeing how they have grown as a band in a few short years. One of the first things I noticed was that their production and stage presence has changed quite a bit. It was obvious they weren’t just 3 young brothers and a friend from Michigan anymore. They hit the stage with an aggression i wasn’t really expecting. Some pyro, haze, huge light panels and loud guitar driven rock and it seemed to me they have made huge leaps in their craft.
Overall I was pretty impressed with them and their performance even though the Zeppelin-ish comparisons I think are pretty much spot on. As a younger person that has discovered them and maybe doesn’t know who Zeppelin is I can see how they would be very attracted to Greta van Fleet. These guys are very talented and put on a great show. Grab some bellbottoms, some tickets and hit one of their shows.
Greta Van Fleet Tour info Here !
