Oct. 13, 2007
Lil' Ol' Band from Texas Still Packs a Punch
Thousands Jam Arena for Some ZZ Top
By Tony Seaton
Huntington News Network
ZZ Top made a triumphal return to Huntington Friday night, after a 16-year hiatus, wowing a crowd estimated at about 5,000. Some were there who'd seen ZZ Top play the former Civic Center even before they sported their now-trademark beards, and some youngsters were asleep in their parent's arms before the show began. A very orderly crowd it was too; when it came time to hoot and holler for an encore, nary a lighter was to be seen, and there was no bum-rushing the stage when the band came on, either. Most stayed in their assigned seats, or if they didn't, a nice lady from A-1 security was soon at their arm suggesting that they mosey along back to it.
ZZ started off the party with a rousing rendition of Got Me Under Pressure from their Eliminator album. That's the album that features a '32 Ford Roadster, seen, along with the fuzzy guitars, in all those mid-80s ZZ Top music videos. Other songs from that album, Sharp Dressed Man, Gimme All Your Lovin' and Legs had the crowd dancing in the aisles to the funky rhythms. But no extra electronics were needed to put out the sound that ZZ Top's unique three-man-and-that's-it lineup does. One of the few three-man rock acts ever, they cranked out a wall of sound that makes the listener swear there are more than three of them up there. Bassist Dusty Hill once explained how they do that."It's a thing of hitting bass chords and rhythm notes at the same time with my fretting fingers," he told Circus Magazine in 1975, explaining that he, not drummer Frank Beard, anchors the "bottom" of the ZZ sound.
The set of the Hollywood Blues Tour had a psychedelic feel, with banks of back-lighted screens flashing throbbing light shows and images, including that Roadster. Even the Crate amps had a video screen look to them, as the images from behind the band also played on the sound-pounding stacks. In keeping with that psychedelic feel, ZZ's excellent axe man Billy Gibbons paid homage to another guitar great, Jimi Hendrix, (who once told a Johnny Carson Tonight Show audience to keep their eye on Gibbons,) by playing a spot-on-perfect rendition of Foxey Lady. And as for the blues, Just Got Paid paid off handsomely as Gibbons nailed the slide guitar and then Jesus Just Left Chicago wailed into the night.
ZZ left 'em wanting more after an hour plus show, and after a few minutes of cheering, stomping and clapping, they came back and showed the crowd they'd saved some of the best of their many mega hits for last. First they cranked into Tube Snake Boogie, with the crowd shouting out the lyrics when the band fell silent for a beat to encourage the audience participation. That funky fave segued into their biggest pre-electronica-influenced, mid-80s-ZZ hits, 70s hard rocker, La Grange, from their Tres Hombres album. They stopped that one, too, for a little "should we?" theatrics by Hill and Gibbons off to the side of the stage, before they rolled back into it and then into the finale, Tush. Many wished for Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers but they had to be satisfied with the set selection that's powered this tour all summer and into the fall.
All in all, a very tight, spare show by a band that's one of the very few remaining of their era, and rarer still, one with all its original members. And though the boys have to be in their upper 50s, they didn't miss a lick, playing all their crowd pleasers as if it were the 50th, not the 5,000th time they'd rocked it.
[For an audio sampler of some of the songs ZZ played Friday, Click on the pic at the top]
Thousands Jam Arena for Some ZZ Top
   |
| Images by Seaton |
By Tony Seaton
Huntington News Network
ZZ Top made a triumphal return to Huntington Friday night, after a 16-year hiatus, wowing a crowd estimated at about 5,000. Some were there who'd seen ZZ Top play the former Civic Center even before they sported their now-trademark beards, and some youngsters were asleep in their parent's arms before the show began. A very orderly crowd it was too; when it came time to hoot and holler for an encore, nary a lighter was to be seen, and there was no bum-rushing the stage when the band came on, either. Most stayed in their assigned seats, or if they didn't, a nice lady from A-1 security was soon at their arm suggesting that they mosey along back to it.
ZZ started off the party with a rousing rendition of Got Me Under Pressure from their Eliminator album. That's the album that features a '32 Ford Roadster, seen, along with the fuzzy guitars, in all those mid-80s ZZ Top music videos. Other songs from that album, Sharp Dressed Man, Gimme All Your Lovin' and Legs had the crowd dancing in the aisles to the funky rhythms. But no extra electronics were needed to put out the sound that ZZ Top's unique three-man-and-that's-it lineup does. One of the few three-man rock acts ever, they cranked out a wall of sound that makes the listener swear there are more than three of them up there. Bassist Dusty Hill once explained how they do that."It's a thing of hitting bass chords and rhythm notes at the same time with my fretting fingers," he told Circus Magazine in 1975, explaining that he, not drummer Frank Beard, anchors the "bottom" of the ZZ sound.
The set of the Hollywood Blues Tour had a psychedelic feel, with banks of back-lighted screens flashing throbbing light shows and images, including that Roadster. Even the Crate amps had a video screen look to them, as the images from behind the band also played on the sound-pounding stacks. In keeping with that psychedelic feel, ZZ's excellent axe man Billy Gibbons paid homage to another guitar great, Jimi Hendrix, (who once told a Johnny Carson Tonight Show audience to keep their eye on Gibbons,) by playing a spot-on-perfect rendition of Foxey Lady. And as for the blues, Just Got Paid paid off handsomely as Gibbons nailed the slide guitar and then Jesus Just Left Chicago wailed into the night.
ZZ left 'em wanting more after an hour plus show, and after a few minutes of cheering, stomping and clapping, they came back and showed the crowd they'd saved some of the best of their many mega hits for last. First they cranked into Tube Snake Boogie, with the crowd shouting out the lyrics when the band fell silent for a beat to encourage the audience participation. That funky fave segued into their biggest pre-electronica-influenced, mid-80s-ZZ hits, 70s hard rocker, La Grange, from their Tres Hombres album. They stopped that one, too, for a little "should we?" theatrics by Hill and Gibbons off to the side of the stage, before they rolled back into it and then into the finale, Tush. Many wished for Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers but they had to be satisfied with the set selection that's powered this tour all summer and into the fall.
All in all, a very tight, spare show by a band that's one of the very few remaining of their era, and rarer still, one with all its original members. And though the boys have to be in their upper 50s, they didn't miss a lick, playing all their crowd pleasers as if it were the 50th, not the 5,000th time they'd rocked it.
