The one
and only time I’ve seen ZZ Top (I use the word ‘seen’ loosely),
was on my first visit to the Moondance Jam rock festival in
2004. They headlined the first night, following Lynyrd Skynyrd,
and though I did actually manage to catch a couple of songs at
the beginning of the set, I was unfortunately, as they often say
about celebrities, ‘tried and emotional’ at that point. Meaning
of course I was jet lagged and had drunk too much alcohol. This
was a shame really as I had the three man combo down on my list
of bands to see before it was too late. Circumstances have meant
that I’ve had to wait another 5 years to fulfil my quest.
London 28th
November and the show begins with Gibbons, Hill and Beard
blasting straight into ‘Got Me Under Pressure’ and ‘Waitin’ For
The Bus’, and you can tell we’re in for a great night. The stage
seems so large for just a three man outfit, no elaborate sets or
light show on this part of the tour, just the band and three
strip shaped screens behind them.
There’s
not much interaction with the crowd in between songs, until you
get the Rev Willie G telling his famous ’Dollar store’ story
which of course leads into ‘Cheap Sunglasses’. The next little
intervention is when Gibbons asks the crowd if they ‘wanna hear
some blues?’, of course the answer is yes, and he then asks for
his technicians to bring out his blues playing hat. The
technicians we find are two lovely long legged ladies. Well we
are watching ZZ Top after all!
Final
three songs of the set are ‘Gimme All Your Lovin’, ‘Sharp
Dressed Man’ and finally ‘Legs’, and here we get the
introduction of the famous white furry guitars.
We didn’t
have to wait to long before the band re-appeared for the encores
of ‘Tube Snake Boogie’, the wonderful ‘La Grange’ and ‘Tush’.
The one thing I was surprised at was after the final song, the
band simply bowed and walked off stage. No milking the audience
adulation, just yes we’ve done a great show, thank you very
much, goodbye.
And so it
ended, a great night of music, with just a couple of
disappointments. I would loved to have heard ‘Viva Las Vegas’,
as I love that song, but you can’t have everything. Then there
was the crowd on the floor level. They didn’t seem to get into
the show until late on in the set. Maybe they were just in awe
of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers from Texas.
Oh and
finally a special thanks to my good friend AJ for keeping me
right with the set list. Note to self, print it off in a bigger
font next time!
