Likewise.
Interesting to read all the feedback on live Zeppelin. Most people here seem to have had disappointing experiences.
I can't speak from personal experience (I was born the week LZII came out) but I have read and heard a fair amount on the subject, and most seems to agree that Zep's early gigs were really phenomenal. That was in fact how they built much of their following in the first years. In 1969 they had three separate tours of North America alone. It was important that they do well given that the music press had given them the brush-off, and that no one seemed much interested in another Yardbirds spinoff band. So they began opening for Vanilla Fudge, only to blow them off the stage (VF finally refused to go onstage after Zep had wrung the crowd for a few hours). It no doubt helped as well that Jimmy wasn't strung out on heroin yet.
In the later years - 1972 onward - they did only big arena tours. Far fewer gigs, albeit to more bodies. As a result they were less practiced (and probably a little less hungry as well). And growing off-stage distractions were cutting into their performance, which became more and more uneven as a result. Bonzo was, of course, the one exception. Always able to play with perfect timing no matter how wasted he was.
Most people who saw them at all saw them in the latter days. And that's probably why Zep gets a not entirely deserved reputation for ragged live performances.
I haven't viewed the DVD's yet, but you can bet I'm burning to do so. My fifteen year old bootlegs just aren't cutting it any more.
And performed at a converted little place in Schenectady called the Aerodrome (either an old bowling alley or indoor skating rink). Page was totally wasted and needed assistance getting on stage. We sat at little tables being served beer w/ phony drivers licenses. It was obvious our elders were smoking dope.