Bustle - No vocals needed.
Photo: J Nicholas Tolson

Led Zeppelin is a rite of passage for every rock fan and musician. For those of us born after the baby-boom generation, sometime around junior high we were introduced to the glory of Led Zeppelin, probably first Led Zeppelin IV and "Stairway to Heaven." Then gradually we worked our way through the rest of the catalog, even giving full attention to In Through the Out Door. For most of us, this fixation eventually subsided, but for four well-established and respected New York-area musicians, this common admiration has taken the form of a unique tribute band, Bustle in Your Hedgerow.

Formed on a lark in 2003, Bustle began as a trio (the Duo's Marco Benevento and Joe Russo, and Rana's Scott Metzger) after a friend requested the musical configuration to perform Led Zeppelin songs at a birthday party on a booze cruise around Manhattan. It was a seemingly one-off performance for the three, a chance to rehash their adolescence and extol the virtues of Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones.

"Joe and I met in seventh grade, and Led Zeppelin was the connector," says Benevento, speaking via phone from his New Jersey home. "We both loved Led Zeppelin and played Led Zeppelin. And here we are still playing Led Zeppelin when we're 30 years old.

"Initially, it was just the three of us," he continues. "I was going to take care of some bass lines on the Hammond and the vocal lines, and Scott the guitar, and Joe the drums. Scott actually said, and I remember getting this message from him, "Yeah, hey dudes, this is Scott, I guess we should get together and learn some Zeppelin tunes. I'm not all that familiar with Led Zeppelin.' Joe and I looked at each other like, "What!? You never went through a Led Zeppelin phase? What guitarist doesn't go through a Zeppelin phase?' It was just kind of this funny joke of ours, but Scott picked it up like he had gone through a Zeppelin phase."

The three musicians continued to perform random parties around New York City for a year or so and eventually received the name Bustle in Your Hedgerow (Benevento still doesn't know where the name originated). It was around then that Ween's Dave Dreiwitz approached the group to offer his services on bass.

Since then, Bustle has continued to perform in various cities throughout the country, flying in and out for single shows. As a pure instrumental tribute to Zeppelin, the band's popularity has spread through word of mouth. Earlier this year, it played a sold-out gig at the Independence in San Francisco where the fire marshal was called and nearly shut down the show after 600 people squeezed into a 300-person capacity club. All four musicians still maintain their obligations in their other bands, but Bustle has become a legitimate side project and channel for improvisation.

"It's a great outlet," Benevento adds, "not to mention Led Zeppelin is the greatest band of all time. It's not just a Led Zeppelin cover band; it's more of a Led Zeppelin tribute band where we're playing their tunes but we'll stretch on some. Like "Four Sticks' is a tune that we stretch on, meaning we'll improvise and take it to places Led Zeppelin wouldn't just because of our jazz roots. But what's also cool about it being instrumental, you can hear the people singing in the audience. You can hear the vocal lines so embedded in my head and everyone's head."