There has to be a bootleg of the Forum concert...I'll have to find, listen and see if I agree...By that time I had already seen a lot of great guitarist live..and a shit ton of great concerts ...BB King, Alvin Lee, Larry Coryell, Duane Alman, Fripp, Steve Howe, Dave Gilmore it's a long ass list..
From Wiki
Guitarist Jimmy Page's ongoing heroin addiction also caused him to lose a noticeable amount of weight on this tour, and arguably began to hamper his performances. During a performance in Chicago on 9 April, Page fell ill and needed to sit in a chair to play "Ten Years Gone" before leaving the stage with severe stomach cramps. The show was concluded after only sixty-five minutes, with Page's illness later being attributed to a case of food poisoning; shortly thereafter, a makeup concert was scheduled for 3 August on the final leg of the tour.
It appears LA was the last stop of the 2nd leg of their massive tour and they played fricking 6 shows at the forum I am not sure which night but I know it was towards the end...All their asses had to be dragging. Overall the night we saw them it was still Zep and to be there hearing all those songs was awesome.....But Page was not on the top of his game by any means...Understand I was in a bad ass rock band with a really bad ass guitarist. Eddie and Randy were the other 2 unsigned but considered great guitarist in LA at the time..I'm serious when I tell you he was is on par with them and respected as such among the locals. I'll have to ask him now and see if he recalls it the same as I do but I remember him being disappointed and me thinking ( not giving credit to Jimmy's songwriting ability ) Damn Dave blows him away.. very biased / naïve perspective but truly how I felt.
Oh yeah...on the pissing match of this guy is better than that guy thing...of which I am totally guilty of more than I like to admit... A great musician friend once told me 'Music is not a competition"