These rock chicks are the real deal

WHEN Steph Paynes decided to start playing Led Zeppelin’s music, she didn’t realise she’d be lumped in the same category as other tribute acts.

The New York-based musician is the founder and lead guitarist in Lez Zeppelin, an all-female group bringing the British rock band’s music to a new generation.

“I though it would be challenging and just really fun to get a band together to just have a go at this music, mostly just for musicianship reasons,” she says.

“I didn’t even know what a tribute band was. I know that sounds naive, but I really didn’t know about this world of tributes. I’d never been in a cover band. I’d only done original music – jazz, rock, whatever.

“Once we started getting out there, a guy from another Led Zeppelin band in LA wrote to us and said you should check out the tribute band page. I went over to it and looked at it and I was horrified.

“Lots of people call it a tribute band, but the difference is that a tribute band – in my mind – is a band that’s into impersonation. They want to make it feel like you’re seeing that band. The intention is to get as close as you can. I never had that intention. First of all we’re all girls (laughs). We just bring our own self to it. It’s a reinterpretation, a she-incarnation of the band.”

The four-piece arrives on our shores next month for its first ever Australian tour. Importantly, the band has the blessing of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, who praised their musicianship after attending a show.

“The power of this band is something people don’t expect,” Paynes says.

“When we start to play I would say 97.5 per cent of the time you can see it in the front row that people are shocked. Their jaws drop because they don’t expect something Zeppelin-y that’s not an impersonation but feels mystical and sexy like Zeppelin.

“Sometimes we look out into the audience and there are these guys who are 17 with long hair shaking their heads and I’m thinking ‘What year is this?’. We get a lot of young people mixed in with the die-hard fans who saw them 10 times.”

So why Led Zeppelin, out of all the great rock bands?

“I don’t think I could spend 14 years playing any other kind of music and not get deeply bored,” she says.

“Their catalogue is so rich in so many ways... and it’s challenging. In terms of the genre of hard rock, this music stands out.”

Lez Zeppelin plays The Coolangatta Hotel on March 23, The Triffid in Brisbane on March 24 and Brothers Leagues Club in Cairns on March 31.