Las Vegas Weekly

March 1, 2013 · 9:17 AM

From over the hills and far away, Brody Dolyniuk is back with a flourish with Led Zeppelin USA

By John Katsilometes

"The Symphonic Rock Show," featuring Brody Dolyniuk, a band and 25 orchestral musicians, at Reynolds Hall in the Smith Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Aug. 24, 2012.

Photo: Erik Kabik/ErikKabik.com

On Tuesday, Brody Dolyniuk performed for 7,000 fans at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

But unless you were an agent in the RE/MAX real estate network attending the company’s conference in Vegas, you weren’t privy to the show. Dolyniuk and his backing band and a choir furnished by Vegas jazz great Michelle Johnson were hired guns for those conventioneers.

But if you want to catch Dolyniuk tonight, you’re in luck.

The founder of Yellow Brick Road is back, with his new rock cover band Zeppelin USA – ZUSA in short – at the Railhead at Boulder Station. Show time for this outfit’s first official show is 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door, and there are no advance sales being accepted.

The show is a three-pronged approach: Get there, pay, rock out.

Joining Dolyniuk onstage in this new project is former YBR bandmate Jonathan Gilcrest, former Led ZepAgain guitarist Steve Zukowsky and a drummer Dolyniuk met after moving to Southern California in 2011, Pat Leon. The band made its debut in January, also at Railhead, during the rip-roaring "Our Town for Newtown benefit show.

This is to play out as a strictly all-Led Zeppelin tribute, but Dolyniuk has been incorporating Led Zep songs in YBR shows for more than a decade. The music suits his vocal range.

Actually, any music that can be sung suits Dolyniuk’s vocal range, as he can sing just about anything, from Freddie Mercury to Robert Plant to Geddy Lee (righteous).

“This has been kind of a back-burner thing with some of the guys from YBR,” Dolyniuk said during a phone interview Thursday morning. “We moved off of it, but it’s a fun side project, one of about five side projects I have right now.”

The ZUSA appearance is a one-off. The band members' various schedules make booking shows a challenge. But Dolyniuk, who left YBR to move to Lake Forest, Calif., in the summer of 2011, is not finished with Vegas.

His “Symphonic Rock Show” is likely to return to Reynolds Hall this year, possibly twice. Dolyniuk is looking for two dates, including one in September, for an orchestral rock production that sold out the 2,050-seat venue in August. Dolyniuk recruited 26 orchestral musicians led by music director Lon Bronson and reassembled YBR for a show that blew out – really, with pyrotechnics – the Smith Center’s main music hall.

“We’re looking at a couple of dates, but we would love to be back at the Smith Center,” Dolyniuk said. “The difference would be that the show would be focused on one artist. That’s about all I can say right now.”

Fair enough. We’ll keep it tuned, right here, for more rock ’n’ roll.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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