Bell bottoms and floral patterns were the theme at Saturday’s Greta Van Fleet concert at CHI Health Center. After opening sets from The Velveteers and The Rival Sons,
the concert began with a
voice-over from Josh stating, “The only fun to be had is too much… enjoy all of it always and remember that all you have is special…” The curtain dropped, the audience screamed, and the band played the first notes of “Built By Nations,” setting the audience up for one hell of a show.
Greta Van Fleet band members include twins Josh (vocals) and Jake Kiszka (guitar), brother Sam (bass/keyboard), and Danny Wagner (drums). They grew up listening to the same music I did. They shop at record stores. They are the bejeweled jumpsuit-wearing, long-haired rock and roll boy band girls go crazy for.
Greta Van Fleet is so interactive with their audience, it’s no wonder fans line up hours in advance to get a barricade spot. Band members wore sunglasses the audience had thrown on stage, Jake moved to address onlookers on both sides as he shredded the guitar, and Josh took a fireball shot with someone on the front row, took pictures of the audience with a disposable camera, flashed a nipple, threw white flowers into the audience, and encouraged everyone to “Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em!”
Some of the songs included in the set included “Black Smoke Rising,” “Light My Love,” “Heat Above,” “Safari Song,” featuring a drum solo from Danny, and “The Weight of Dreams,” including Jake’s guitar solo. After a quick break, the band returned to the stage and gave an encore performance of “Age of Man,” “Highway Tune,” covers of “I Got Mine” and “That’s All Right,” and ended the night with “My Way, Soon.” I was surprised the band didn’t play one of my favorite songs, “Age of Machine,” although it appears that they have not included the covers at their other stops.
As someone who grew up listening to classic rock titans, wishing I had been around to attend concerts during their formative years, this Greta Van Fleet concert let me live out my Almost Famous dreams. Their music is the perfect mix of modern influence and classic rock style. Even the great Robert Plant compared the band to Led Zeppelin I and called Josh “A beautiful little singer… I hate him.” (https://youtu.be/ePIAaQwYMaM) The Battle at Garden’s Gate is only the band’s second studio album, and with this much of a following already I can’t wait to see where they go from here.