Cinnamon hit the relatively small Orange Café stage to the applause of a few dozen enthusiastic fans while Led Zeppelin-ish finger picking on an acoustic guitar was broadcast through the PA speakers. Their stage was adorned by Led Zeppelin logos, and the first song they cranked out was “Rock and Roll” by Led Zeppelin. It quickly became apparent that Cinnamon are, in fact, a Zeppelin tribute band. The crowd cheered enthusiastically at the end of every chorus, and for every classic rock and roll gesture the lead singer performed. The band themselves seemed dedicated to reproducing the original parts of their respective band members; even being faithful to the original falling out of perfect musical time signatures. Their bio states that they even use vintage Les Paul guitars and vintage amplifiers, to mimic the original sounds of the era. And, in that, they do do a faithful job. For the second track of their set, Cinnamon rocked out to “Black Dog”, and the audience even sang in call and response with the lead singer for the break down. The vocalist did his best to mimic Robert Plant’s classic movements to a T. During “Communication Breakdown” it started raining harder and harder, and the faithful crowd proved their fidelity to this tribute act – or to the original band itself – by letting themselves be pelted by the rain in order to listen to this music live. For “Good Times and Bad Times”, the drummer’s fills were fiercely faithful to John Bonham’s original feel. The bass sounded terribly authentic as well, and the player’s axe did resemble a vintage Fender; like John Paul Jones wielded before him. Mid-set, Cinnamon’s lead singer introduces his band as “Cinammon” and says they have been rocking out since the Showa era; which means at least thirty years. The true test of this band’s popularity came as the rain only poured down hard and harder, yet not one member of the audience chose to leave. If anything, the applause seemed to get more intense as the set drew on. When Cinnamon’s singer introduced a track from “Presence”, the crowd went wild. Rhetorically asking “You like that, don’t you” garnered another frenzied round of cheers. Forty minutes into their set, the rain started to die down, and Cinnamon rewarded the audience for their patience by rocking more fiercely than ever. Behind me as I typed, forty-two picnic tables under a tent at stage right were also packed with people attentively listening to the band. Forty-five minutes into their set, as their before-last song came to an end, the crowd cheered, and the lead singer asked them “Did you have fun?” before announcing that Jimmy had brought his double-necked guitar, and that this would be their last song. “Jimmy” began to pick the intro to “Stairway to Heaven” and the crowd went dead silent in rapt attention. Many smartphones were suddenly raised high above the spectators’ heads, in order to capture this spectacle. After “Robert” sang “Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgivings” the audience cheered. It’s almost as if this band had studied all manner of Led Zeppelin’s live footage, and had amalgamated its individual parts for songs from that research. As the lead singer sang the last line, he stopped right before “to heaven” and asked the crowd to sing along. Then, he thanked them as they cheered for the band one last time. The band left the stage as the audience clapped to a rhythm that is typical of Japanese audiences begging for an encore. Cinnamon then returned to given it to them, in the form of “Immigrant Song”; a perfect note-for-note rendition, and the crowd went wild. As the audience cheered enthusiastically at the end of the song, “Robert” named the names of the members of Led Zeppelin, then shouted “People of Japan, let’s meet again!”. The audience roared its approval, and then its members filed away back into the rainy evening.