The amps are plugged in. The sound check is complete. The fans are high-fiving and back slapping at the bar. But if the four women ready to rock the room as Zepparella go backstage, they’re going to need life preservers.
And they won’t be the only things rocking the San Francisco Bay Music Cruise.
The swells coming through the Golden Gate inject a whole new rhythm into the music mix. Gretchen Menn knows it well. Menn is the guitarist, “the Jimmy Page” of the all-woman Led Zeppelin interpretation. The waves add another dimension, she says.
“I don’t play anywhere near as drunk as Jimmy Page,” says Menn. “The unsettled footing really helps with that.”
Menn isn’t backstage. She’s hanging out by the back deck with everybody else. A nightclub on the water, the weekly Sunday cruise out of Sausalito is a more intimate experience than the average musical venue. At Zeparella’s early June show, the band and its loyal fans could not have been closer.
Anna, “just Anna,” is the vinyl-slacks-clad lead singer.
In her platform boots, she’s not so sure about the rolling decks, but she likes the up-close-and-personal contact on the cruise. “It’s like a living room,” she says. Even if it is a little early for Zepparella.
“We consider this a morning gig,” says the Robert Plant stand-in. “Anything that happens before 9 p.m. is clearly a morning gig.”
The fans don’t mind. Zepparella, four women who surrender nothing to the legendary British band, have a loyal following. They’re lining up on the dock when Capt. Brad Alvis directs them to “Raise your right hand and say ‘I’m going to have a goddamn good time!’”
Todd Arend is quick to take the oath. He’s more of a headbanger than an old salt, but he’s clearly excited about his first hard-rock cruise. “There’s no stage to keep us apart,” he proclaims.
That’s the kind of band loyalty that keeps the Sunday night cruises afloat, says Gerry Robertson, the owner of the charter company. Robertson has a long history in and around the music business.
“With the bands we get on board, most of the time they have a following,” Robertson says. That following can vary, a lot. The week before Zepparella, the band was the Mother Truckers. “We do everything,” Robertson says. “We do rock. We had the country guys on last week. Then we get these big band sounds.”
Robertson’s musical pedigree goes back to the early 1970s, when he was a roadie and ran the production company for Santana. Later, he participated in Journey’s germination, but the music business couldn’t compete with the sea.
“I bailed out and I went sailing,” the 56-year-old said. “I got on my sailboat and just took off.”
Last year he brought the two worlds back together. The Sunday music cruises started in the spring of 2006. Robertson likes it. Even if the dancing can be tricky. “It’s fun because you’re kind of moving around,” he says of his nightclub. “The boat’s doing its thing and everybody’s kind of doing their thing.”
Zepparella are clearly doing their own thing with Zeppelin’s rock ‘n’ roll as the Empress pulls away from the dock in the late afternoon. The deck is not crowded and the fans are mostly ensconced in the leather couches, but the fists are raised and pumping when Anna brandishes the mike for “Communication Breakdown.”
“Come on G!” she shouts to Menn as the guitarist fires up the frets on her Jimmy Page-authentic sunburst Les Paul.
It goes on like that. Zepparella is a high-energy show.
Towards the bow, four middle-aged women, the ones who brought a Ziploc of ear plugs, are bobbing with the boat and the bass beat. Paul Margarit, who boasts he has seen Zepparella “at least 50 times,” alternates between the air guitar and the air drums.
Steve Borne came in from Fresno for the show.
“This and shopping at Ikea,” he says.
Susan McCabe, a 54-year-old “lunch lady” from Martinez, never heard of the band but she’s enjoying the show. “Anything with a boat and water and I’m there,” McCabe declares. “A bar helps.”
It’s a typical response, the captain observes. People leave a lot behind when they leave the dock. “Bam! they get on a boat and all of a sudden they’re a celebrity.”
Whatever celebrity status Zepparella can claim – and among their “posse” it goes deep – it all dissolves when the volume comes down for dinner. They’re waiting in the line at the buffet with everybody else for the ravioli and chicken.
The boat brings the fans and the band together. “As the booze hits, more stuff is going to happen,” Anna declares, steadying herself on an overhead beam as Zepparella rips through “Livin’ Lovin’ Maid.”
The cruise goes on. They hit the high notes. The dance floor fills up for “D’yer Maker.” They ease up to the dock with “Whole Lotta’ Love” at full volume.
The band rocks.
The boat does too.
Source: by Rick Polito, Marin Independent Journal, Link to original article
