This was a rare concert of not just one but two bands I had never seen before. Cheap Trick had opened at one or two concerts I had been to but for some reason (most likely drinking in the parking lot) I had not actually seen them. Besides the fact that the concert was on a Wednesday, drinking did not even sound remotely appealing to Kyle or I since we were both still fried from a boys trip to Austin, Texas with 12 of our buddies the weekend before.
There was a bit of synchronicity going on this particular evening since some of our friends were across town watching the Smashing Pumpkins, which happened to the band I was watching at this very venue the only time I had been busted smoking a joint. I also thought it was pretty cool that some badasses from Texas were coming to me right after I had gone to Texas.
For me Cheap Trick was the equivalent of the appetizer for this concert. For the life of me (probably due to still being fried from the weekend before and eating scraps of gummies before coming in) the only songs I could recall knowing I liked were “I Want You to Want Me,” “The Flame” and “Surrender,” but besides their cover of “Don’t Be Cruel” I knew there was one more song I just could not think of. After playing a bunch of songs I did not know they finally rolled out a 1, 2, 3 punch of the aforementioned songs plus the one I was forgetting, “Dream Police” to end their set. Ironically “Dream Police” is my favorite song of theirs. Robin Zander sounded pretty fucking amazing (especially considering he’s 66 years old) and the whole crowd got a kick out of Rick Nielsen’s crazy guitars, especially his guitar with five necks. Not to be outdone, the bass player was creating out-of-this-world sounds with a 12 string bass which I did not even know existed.
If Cheap Trick was the appetizer then main entrée was ZZ Top. My first memories of ZZ Top are courtesy of MTV with the beards (before it was a cool hipster thing), the cool cars, the fuzzy guitars and of course the music. I did not realize that they were on their 50thanniversary tour until I bought the tickets. 50! As in five zero. Equally impressive is that the lineup of Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard (ironically the only member without a beard) never changed during 50 years.
They opened with my favorite song off of Eliminator “Got Me Under Pressure” and from then on kept the boogie going. Billy and Dusty came out playing a matching custom fender bass and telecaster with a wild paintjob that was blacklight friendly and were in sync not only musically, but with a movement that I can only describe as a strut. They slithered around the stage in unison as they reeled off some of their biggest hits and even busted out the fuzzy guitars for “Legs.” I thought the encore of “La Grange” and “Tush” replete with matching shiny jackets was a fitting end but for some reason they came back after leaving the stage for a double encore of Elvis’ “Jailhouse Rock.”
Even though I am certain they could have played for much longer if they wanted to these guys came out and took care of business for about an hour and 20 minutes and then they were out. This was ample time to give the crowd a taste of why ZZ Top has endured 50 years together and why Jimi Hendrix once cited Billy Gibbons as one of his favorite guitar players.
SETLIST: Got Me Under Pressure, I Thank You, Waitin’ for the Bus, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Gimme All Your Lovin’, Pearl Necklace, I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide, I Gotsta Get Paid, My Head’s in Mississippi, Sixteen Tons, Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers, Just Got Paid, Sharp Dressed Man, Legs, La Grange, Tush, Jailhouse Rock
