I have been to a LOT of concerts over the years ... hundreds and hundreds, in fact ... but in all that time, I have never had the pleasure of seeing ZZ TOP, probably the premier boogie band of all time.
Well, all of that changed Saturday Night (November 2nd) when we caught That Little Ol' Band From Texas at The Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, IL, for a sold out show. (Special thanks to Bob Merlis and Amy Treco-Block for making that happen ... they even came up with backstage passes so we could get a photo with the band.)
(L-R: Dusty Hill, Frannie Kotal, Frank Beard, Kent Kotal, Billy Gibbons)
The audience was on its feet the moment the guys took the stage ... and remained there until well after the final note of the night had been played ... literally a 90 minute standing ovation.
Having never seen them before, I had no prior experience or expectations to compare this to ... but this was full tilt, non-stop boogie from start to finish ... almost a 90 minute segue from song to song with very little patter between tunes. (They did clown around a bit from time to time ... but for most of the night, they just let the music do the talking ... and the crowd ate it up.)
ZZ Top placed a dozen songs in our Top 3333 Most Essential Classic Rock Songs of All Time Countdown ... and they did most of them Saturday Night. Especially good response was rendered for "I Thank You," "I'm Bad - I'm Nationwide," "Gimme All Your Lovin'," and their incredible four song set closer, "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs" followed by the obvious encore of "La Grange" and "Tush."
Watching these guys perform was quite enlightening ... just THREE GUYS up there on stage, doing it all. (They had a stack of amps on either side of the stage unlike anything I've seen since the late '60's and early '70's ... and my first impression was that they were going to let the volume make up for any thinness that only three pieces might provide ... but this was not the case at all. They boogied on straight thru the night, sounding just as full as they do on the records, offering up nothing but a fast-paced, high energy set of favorites.)
This marks the band's 50th Anniversary, which is how the tour is being billed. At one point during the show, Billy Gibbons remarked how amazing it was that these same three guys ... playing these same three chords ... have lasted as long as they have ... but there's a certain magic in the way they play those chords and their fan base is huge and very loyal. As such, guitarist Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard (ironically, the guy WITHOUT a beard!) have become household names ... and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame legends. (kk)
While they primarily stuck to their own playlist, one nice surprise was when they jumped back to 1955 and played the old Tennessee Ernie Ford #1 Hit "Sixteen Tons," a song they said they first performed on stage in England with Jeff Beck joining them on guitar (because Jeff wanted to do "a country song.")
I love it when today's popular artists pay tribute to their own roots ... "Sixteen Tons" also topped the pop charts for a run of eight weeks back in late 1955 / early 1956 ... and it's one of those songs that all of us kids growing up during that era knew by heart either from our parents playing it around the house when we were kids or seeing The Pea Picker himself perform it on television when he hosted his own TV shows for several years. (They also did a cover of Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock.")
Great show, guys ... we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience!
Special props to opening act Marquise Knox, who got things rolling early and won over the crowd immediately ... so much so that after his set, they completely sold out of CD's at the merchandise table! There were literally HUNDREDS of brand new fans standing in line in the queue waiting to pick up an autographed copy. While Marquise may be well known in blues circles, he appealed to a much larger audience Saturday night ... and even Frannie waited in line to pick up a copy of his latest CD. Well worth checking out, either with ZZ Top or on his own.
