Led Zeppelin At The Silverdome – The 1977 Record-Breaking Show

The history of Led Zeppelin’s record breaking show at the Pontiac Silverdome

Led Zeppelin at the Silverdome shattered records with their April 30th, 1977 performance. Massive ticket sales prompted the Silverdome to be concerned with how the concert would run.  Especially in light of events just days before in Cincinnati.  A fan of Led Zeppelin had been pushed from the third level of the Cincinnati Coliseum and died when he was hit by traffic.

With crazy high record sales, the Silverdome prepared for the show by formulating a plan. A plan which included letting the fans in early and reserving over 14,000 seats. Even with the band being late, reports say the crowd was mostly chill. When there are 70,000+ people involved though, you know there were still some moments of insanity from Led Zeppelin at the Silverdome.

Record-Breaking Stats From Led Zeppelin’s Silverdome Show

Tickets sales broke records at the time topping $847,000 (with inflation, more than 4 million dollars) for one show. Tickets sold for $10.50 before the sellout. Some fans arrived earlier on Friday afternoon. While scalpers were out selling tickets for upwards of $70. The crowd also broke the attendance record with 76,200 there to see the show.

Entire documentaries have been dedicated to delving into the show’s events for Led Zeppelin at The Silverdome. Here’s the most recent one:

Led Zeppelin played for 3 hours with no break. Jimmy Page rocked the stage with his shirt open with his bandmates, Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones. During that three hours, they played seventeen songs, starting with “The Song Remains the Same” and ending with “Stairway to Heaven” and wrapped with two encore songs:  “Rock and Roll” and “Trampled Under Foot.”

The website LedZeppelin.com has an amazing resource of old clippings, photos and articles that cover so many of the band’s journey. It’s totally worth checking out. There is something magical about seeing all of these old tickets and photos saved and uploaded by the fans over the years.   In 1977, 16-year-old Elaine Alexander of Mt Clemens said “Words can’t even explain it. It was great!”

Led Zeppelin At The Silverdome: The Set List 4/30/77

Footage recently surfaced from this landmark show.  It was synced with audio.  While the quality isn’t perfection, it’s still by far, the best video/audio from the show that has come to light since 1977.  Here’s the video.

The complete setlist from the show is below along with as many audio clips as we could find on YouTube. The quality is not good, but it’s definitely from The Led Zeppelin Silverdome show.

1. The Song Remains the Same

Led Zeppelin opened their April 1977 show at Pontiac Silverdome with “The Song Remains the Same”

2. Sick Again

3. Nobody’s Fault but Mine

4. In My Time of Dying

5. Since I’ve Been Loving You

6. No Quarter

7. Ten Years Gone

8. The Battle of Evermore

9. Going to California

10. Black Country Woman

11. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp

12. White Summer/Black Mountain Side

13. Kashmir

14. Moby Dick

15. Guitar Solo

16. Achilles Last Stand

While we are lucky to have any recordings of this event, YouTube can be fickle and there is no video/audio listed for this song (from the Silverdome show). Here’s an alternate performance from L.A. on the same tour:

17. Stairway to Heaven

18. Rock and Roll

Again, YouTube seems to not want to work with this particular song, however you can watch/listen to it on YouTube. OR, check out this video and audio someone HOOKED up from MSG in 1973.

19. Trampled Underfoot