Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Toronto Star

Considering all the factors that are out of the organizers’ hands, it’s an amazing thing when a stadium or arena concert goes exactly right. When the sound is clear, when the nuances of the performances shine through despite the scale of the operation, when the audience sit down and shut up at the right times, you almost want to sink to your knees and give thanks to St. Bono, patron saint of huge venues.

Even the weather cooperated at last night’s Plant & Krauss show, bathing the Molson Amphitheatre in amber rays as the mostly middle-aged crowd lured in by the duo’s platinum-selling album, Raising Sand, filed into their seats. Miraculously, some of them even stopped talking as Great Lake Swimmers proceeded through a quiet set more suited to the churches and theatres where they usually ply their trade. Pleasant as Tony Dekker’s voice is, he seemed to retreat from the space instead of puffing out his chest and swelling his lungs to fill it. The five-piece’s songs nonetheless won over a fair chunk of the crowd, not least when they brought out Serena Ryder to sing backup vocals on “A Song For The Angels,” to murmurs of approval.

Lord knows Alison Krauss has her fans, but this was a Robert Plant crowd, and when he hit the stage they predictably erupted. Their roles were clear from the jump — she wore white, he wore black — and as they eased into the bluesy swagger of “Rich Woman” it was obvious which one of them was used to the more genteel new-grass circuit and which one was the reformed rock star. You knew Plant was eventually going to pick up the mike stand and lean down towards the screamers in the front rows; by the end of the night, those immediately recognizable yelps and shouts leapt from Plant’s throat like the satisfied cries of a construction worker draining his first beer after work.

That’s not to say he wasn’t visibly having the time of his life beforehand, though. After tweaking the crowd with a languid, banjo-driven version of “Black Dog,” he retreated to the back of the stage for Krauss’ solo mini-set, only occasionally dipping in on backup vocals. You could see why — on Raising Sand, Krauss’ singing on “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” is almost saccharine, but live her voice took on a richness and a depth that resonated to the rafters. The SUV set were ecstatic at an overly mannered a cappella rendition of “Down To The River To Pray” from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, but it was her soaring turns on “Through The Morning, Through The Night” and “Please Read The Letter” (an underrated Page & Plant original) that showed off her emotional range.

Plant’s solo outings were equally solid, and brought more heat from the uniformly solid players, led by the project’s svengali, T-Bone Burnett, than anything on the record. He didn’t even need the album version’s metallic, distorted guitar to bring Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’ ” to a boil, and by the time the duo were reunited for a faithful run through “Battle Of Evermore” (with Krauss taking the high harmonies) and their set-closing “Gone Gone Gone,” the group sounded like a bunch of teenagers riding high off a hot debut and eyeing whole careers ahead of them. Nobody wants to jinx the possibility of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour, but when money’s not an issue, it’s hard to begrudge a man his right to do exactly what he likes. Especially when it's this good.

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