Review by Shawn Perry
Photos by Ron Lyon
The 2010 concert season at Orange County’s Pacific Amphitheatre ended with a bang (plus a little hell raisin’ and beer drinkin’) when ZZ Top, the “same three guys,” that little ol’ band from Texas, rode into town for a night of barbecued blues served on a mesquite spit.
Legendary DJ Uncle Joe Benson hit the stage at a little after 8:00 and said a few words, including, “Get ready for ZZ Top…” Whenever I hear those words, I think of Fandango: “God Damn it!!! Get ready!!!” Ten minutes later, the house music stopped, the lights lowered, a lone wolf cried and the Top came spinning out with “You Got Me Under Pressure.” As the equally legendary DJ Jim Ladd likes to say: “Lord, have mercy!”
Indeed, a simple stage of tumbling speaker cabinets and a skull-themed drum kit invites all sorts of speculation. But the Top went deep, dropping a smooth delivery of “Waitin’ For The Bus” before turning on the blues with “Jesus Just Left For Chicago.” More blues would come, but a slight diversion over to “Pin Cushion,” from 1994’s vastly underrated Antenna, set the groove on boogie.
Even as the song chugged along and the enticing video lifted the vibe, the crowd sat down and chilled out. It was just in time for Billy Gibbons, an African fez resembling a shower cap on his head, to play a few slow blues licks. To mesh it up even more, Gibbons laid down a heavy rap and a couple of rules to follow: “No drinking during the gospel songs. And number two…No gospel songs…”
At that point, the guitarist exclaimed a desire to make a change and two young ladies came out and gave him a “blues” hat. Then it was back to the blues as “Future Blues” and “Rock Me Baby” were boiled up and laid out to dry. A left turn over to “Cheap Sunglasses,” followed by a few random notes of “My Head’s In Mississippi,” a tribute to Jimi Hendrix with a sweet take on “Hey Joe,” and “Brown Sugar” (their own tune from their first album, not the Stones’ song) for an unexpected twist — the Top brought it on and then some.
A little “Party On The Patio” and “Just Got Paid” got the crowd squirming before the Eliminator trifecta — “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs” — lifted them from their seats, begging for more. The videos projected on the screen didn’t take away from the fact that this three-headed beast avoids the loop n’ tape machinations to give the music muscle. Yeah, the 80s made them MTV stars, but they haven’t surrendered their playability to trends or technology. The Top’s purity is assured.
An encore of “La Grange” and “Tush” left thousands gasping for more. Little do they know that ZZ Top is geared for the short and sweet, the old in and out, the let’s get it done kind of attitude. That didn’t stop them from laying down a 10-minute jam that defied any and all assumptions regarding what ZZ Top is all about. As the ancient Albanian saying goes, “Never assume a young animal has been deserted.” Regarding ZZ Top, this old animal only seems to be getting better with age.
