If summer’s end is approaching, it usually means that Lez Zeppelin is returning to the Stephen Talkhouse. And indeed they are: just as the powerhouse female quartet that performs the music of Led Zeppelin typically ushers the start of the season — they played here on June 13 — the perennial favorites at the Amagansett venue will put an exclamation point on the summer of 2026 on Sunday at 8 p.m.
Sunday’s show comes amid big news for the band and its founder, the guitarist Steph Paynes. Her new book, “Lez Zeppelin: Taking On the World’s Most Powerful Band,” a rock-and-roll memoir about the “she-incarnation” of Led Zeppelin, will be celebrated on Oct. 6 at the Cutting Room in Manhattan with an interview with the author, a book signing, and an appearance by the band.
Paynes likened the book’s creation to a recording session that inevitably morphs into something larger and more ambitious than initially intended. “I thought I was putting together a montage, a scrapbook,” she said from London, “but it got way more involved than that, and I ended up writing a lot more than I thought. I had to! Once it all lays out in front of you, it’s a long history of the band. A lot of stuff happened — a lot. But I felt I had to include some seminal events, and I had to give some background. It was a lot of work, but I am very happy with how it came out.”
Since its 2004 inception, Lez Zeppelin has had five essential lineups. “Each has had its own intensity, sound, and style,” Paynes said. “Although some of the individual elements changed, the modus operandi of each group always remained the same: Jump off the cliff, aim for Valhalla, play well with others.” She reflects on each lineup and their players. “Everyone is in it, and is celebrated,” she said. The first iteration “created such a stir,” she recalled. “So much happened so fast that by the time the second incarnation came around, it just exploded. The seeds were sown, and then the giant sunflowers began to pop up. That band enjoyed a lot of crazy stuff.”
None other than Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s founder, guitarist, and producer, took in a Lez Zeppelin performance in London more than a decade ago. The band played Led Zeppelin’s music “with an extraordinary sensuality and an energy and passion that highlighted their superb musicianship,” he observed.
“The whole point, in my opinion, and probably in Jimmy’s — I’ve heard him say this — is it’s really about the whole band,” Paynes said. “The chemistry, the band’s united feel, the way you play with each other, communicate with each other — if that unit of four can create that fifth element that’s undefinable, that’s what you’re really trying to get.”
And the present lineup, which includes Dana Athens on vocals, Joan Chew on bass and keyboards, and Hillary Blaze on drums, may be the finest, in her estimation. “They’re just in it completely,” Paynes said. “They love to play this music and it’s so obvious, people remark about it all the time. It might be the happiest band, for sure. It’s just a joy because everyone’s having such a good time, and the musicianship is of such high caliber.”
“It’s what I’ve always tried to get,” she said. “One is trying to somehow harness that magic, that thing that happens when amazing musicians come together and just explode with each other, a lot of it being improvised — you have to talk to each other — and it’s more like trying to become a band like Led Zeppelin were than about ‘we play this song perfectly.’ It’s a lot harder. You’re putting in all the frogs’ tongues, toads’ feet, frankincense, myrrh, bat wings, stirring it up, and some magical elixir arises and you’re transformed. Being that kind of band is what interests me as a musician.”
Also coming soon: following multiple recordings made over the last 20 years, some with the legendary producer and recording engineer Eddie Kramer, who worked with Led Zeppelin on several albums, the band recently recorded two more Zeppelin songs at a Brooklyn studio.
“They should be seeing the light of day soon,” Paynes said. Athens “is a blues singer,” and the latest recordings are “heavy-duty blues songs” from Led Zeppelin’s catalog.
This year, the band has been performing Led Zeppelin’s epic live album “The Song Remains the Same” in its entirety, and will continue doing so when their touring schedule resumes on Sept. 19 in Red Bank, N.J. But at the Talkhouse, “I think we’ll do a real hard-core, rev-’em-up party set,” Paynes said. This may include one or both of the recently recorded songs.
In 2027, the band will play “a completely different, ridiculous show,” she said, “ridiculous” presumably meaning musically challenging and strenuous in the extreme. “That’s the way we roll. What’s the hardest way to do this? We’ll figure it out.”
Tickets for Lez Zeppelin, Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Stephen Talkhouse, are $70 and available at stephentalkhouse.com and lezzeppelin.com.
