Gonzaga '68

Gonzaga '68 is a bootleg recording of the English rock group Led Zeppelin's performance at the Gonzaga University gymnasium, John F. Kennedy Pavilion in Spokane, Washington, on 30 December 1968.

Overview
The recording was first released in the early 1990s and has since been repackaged with other shows and released on various CDs. Widely considered the first Led Zeppelin concert ever captured on audience tape, Led Zeppelin were performing songs from their eponymous début album Led Zeppelin, which had not been released yet. The album would not make a mark on the charts until February 1969. The band performed as support to Vanilla Fudge, in front of 1200 college students who received discounted tickets because the student government had a deal with promoter Concerts West. The band was mostly an unknown quantity, with their cause not helped by the concert being erroneously advertised for "Len Zefflin".

This bootleg features much between-song banter from lead singer Robert Plant. Spokane was experiencing a severe cold snap that week, with temperatures dropping to 10F below freezing, when the band arrived. Apparently, the Kennedy Pavilion (Gonzaga's basketball gym) wasn't well-heated either, because Robert quipped to the quiet audience that "You won't believe this, but I don't think that either ourselves or our equipment is quite used to the temperature. It's taken about three hours of gas stoves under the equipment to get everything going". Gradually the audience responds to the band, with a warm ovation. Plant indicates how far away their first album is by introducing one of the songs: "This is off an album that comes out in about three weeks time on the Atlantic label. It's called Led Zeppelin. This is a tune ... called "Dazed and Confused". The recording stops during the end of "Pat's Delight".