Zepparella returns to Red Fox on Sunday

Four women, one Led Zeppelin tribute band

Humboldt Sentinel staff
9/5/09

Four women intent on bringing the passion, the beauty and the aggression of Led Zeppelin alive will rock all night long at the Red Fox Tavern this Sunday night.

Zepparella is no costumed, wigged-up tribute band. You’ll hear no backing tracks or misguided attempts at note for note replication. Instead, Zepparella offers four seriously talented musicians who have loved and studied this music long enough to make it a part of themselves.

“It is a celebration of some of the greatest music ever written, by women who love it as musicians and as fans,” boasts Eric Kinnally of Passion Presents.

Zepparella delivers an explosive, emotional musical journey at every event. They take on the challenge of balancing their devotion to playing the songs as close to the original as possible, while taking advantage of their own musical communication and carrying the audience away on the ride.

Anna Kristina, the popular Bay Area stage actress, vocalist, songwriter and solo artist, brings her seductive style and powerful range to front the band with consistently transcendent performances. Her soulful delivery is mesmerizing.

Gretchen Menn applies her dazzling and emotive guitar playing to the leads. After her stint as Agnes Young in the top-grossing Bay Area band AC/DShe for three years, and then touring as the second guitarist in the national metal band Bottom, she now takes on the Page lines with an arresting ability that can’t be missed.

Nila Minnerock’s seminal bass playing, dark, beautiful, aggressive, melodic, fills out the bottom end of the band. Her joined-at-the-hip connection with Clementine began eleven years ago in Bottom, and close to 20 trips around the US, Canada and Europe and three records have created the remarkably intuitive rhythm section that Zeppelin deserves.

Clementine tackles the best rock drumming ever written with her own powerfully passionate style, bringing the Motown influence of the Bonham groove to the forefront. As Phyllis Rudd in AC/DShe and throughout the run of Bottom, she developed a heavy-hitting sound suited to attempt Zeppelin. The musical connection established with Gretchen in AC/DShe and the lifelong rhythmic conversation with Nila creates the bond required to do this great music justice.

To get a preview of what’s in store, visit their MySpace page (myspace.com/zepparella) or their website (zepparella.com) and, as always with a Passion Presents show, fans can find out how to pre-order tickets at passionpresents.com. The show starts at 10:30 p.m. at the Red Fox Tavern, located at 415 Fifth Street in Downtown Eureka. Tickets are $15 at the door, but only for patrons 21 and over.