ZZ Top Tour/Mini Review

06-04-2003, 09:40 AM

Just a note for any Top fans looking in...

Caught the show in Albuquerque last night. All I can say is Wow! This was probably the best live sound I have ever heard. Fabulous.

The tone Billy Gibbons squeezes from his guitar is nothing short of breathtaking. Great set list, and a great show. He pulled out Pearly Gates (an absoluteley TO DIE FOR sunburst Les Paul) for "Just Got Paid" and his slide work and tone was spectacular, jaw droppping stuff. Anyone with any aspirations to play guitar will be awed.

The played a couple cuts from the new unreleased album Mescalaro. Not bad. Definitely Top. Pretty rare to hear new, unfamiliar music live and actually like it.

If you like Top, I would highly recommend seeing this tour.

As a side note, Ted Nugent and Kenny Wayne Shepard were the opening acts.

I have been a Ted fan since my youth. Beside the fact that Ted has morphed into Ted Limbaugh, it was vintage Ted. Pretty much all the tunes you would expect to hear, with a good dose of conservative politics (which I tend to agree with most of the time). If you had any liberal leanings, it may be tough to swallow though.

The dissapointment for me was KWS and Double Trouble. No doubt he has found the keys to SRV's tone closet, but the performance lacked the fire and intensity that SRV would bring to the party (and I have seen SRV live). I have seen KWS on TV before, and was always impressed, so I would have to assume it was just an off night, coupled with the fact that the opening act has no say on the sound system, which did not flatter the band. In the plus column, he did close with a cover of SRV's cover of Hendrix's Voodoo Chile, which was pretty cool.

BGL

Kevin C Brown · 06-05-2003, 01:55 AM

Question: I saw ZZ Top in the 70's. *Was* a big fan. Is this tour more the "synth pop" of Eliminator (i.e., IMO, garbage)? Or the real guitar blues/rock Top of Tres Hombres, Fandango, and Deguello?

06-05-2003, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Question: I saw ZZ Top in the 70's. *Was* a big fan. Is this tour more the "synth pop" of Eliminator (i.e., IMO, garbage)? Or the real guitar blues/rock Top of Tres Hombres, Fandango, and Deguello?

It is mostly the real deal.

They did three or four cuts from the MTV Eighties (Legs, Sharp Dressed Man, Rough Boy, and I don't recall the other), but everything else was solid vintage Top (plus two cuts from Mescalero).

Waitin' for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago, Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers, La Grange, Just Got Paid (as I may have said, a stunning display of slide work on Pearly Gates, my jaw just plain dropped), Manic Mechanic, I'm Bad I'm Nation Wide, Cheap Sun Glasses, to name a few.

Without putting too fine a point on it, anyone who likes Top should like this show. Anyone who occasionally straps on a Les Paul will have a major woody over the sound of the band, and the tone that Billy Gibbon's gets (that would be ME!).

I personally am no great fan of the 80's MTV stuff, but given the rest of the set list, I was one seriously happy camper.

If they come your way, and you like ZZ Top, its a no-brainer.

BGL

Kevin C Brown · 06-05-2003, 03:16 PM

Brian- I had heard rumblings that the last lp Rhymeen (?) was also a harkening back to their early sound? But I was hesitant to get it. Do you have it?

Hee, hee. I'm a proud owner of a '79 Cherry Sunburst Les Paul Custom...

06-05-2003, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Brian- I had heard rumblings that the last lp Rhymeen (?) was also a harkening back to their early sound? But I was hesitant to get it. Do you have it?

I do have it, but you know, I haven't listened to it for a while. Just ran downstairs and grabbed it. Its in my office player as we speak. The first cut certainly is classic ZZ Top, but I will have a full report after I listen to the whole thing and refresh my memory.

I started to answer your question based on Antenna, which I think came before Rythmeem. That is IMHO, also vintage style Top, in the same vain as Deguelos. They played Pincushion from that LP.

And as one LP owner to another (95 Classic, Honeyburst), cheers!

BGL

**HTF Ads**

06-05-2003, 04:15 PM

OK, I am 8 tracks into the total of 12.

BUY Rythmeen!

I had forgotten how good this album was (so many Cd's and DVD's and DVD-A's and SACD's, so little time).

I can't comment on the sonics just yet (my office system is a walkman piped into a Wave Radio (say a word, and I will beat your dog!).

Very reminicent of Deguelos, which I really like. Nothing at all like the 80's synth stuff.

BTW, do you have Antenna? Thats pretty good too. And having listenned to that recently on the big rig, I thought the bass and kick drum on that album was huge.

BGL

Kevin C Brown · 06-06-2003, 12:05 AM

Cool, I will have to pick up Rythmeen and Antenna then. So Eliminator, Afterburner, and Recycler are the ones to avoid.

Quote:

Here, there's just a steady, relentless beat (Frank Beard is still chained to the sequencer, as he has been for a decade), topped off by processed guitars turning out licks that fall short of being true riffs.

From Allmusic's review of Recycler. Thanks!

06-06-2003, 11:30 AM

Additional reading:

http://www.guitarworld.com/artistindex/9610.zztop.html

BGL

Kevin C Brown · 06-06-2003, 03:07 PM

I guess XXX isn't that great either... I have *heard* that Mescalero is supposed to be vintage Top too.

I'm still awaitin' for some more live stuff too...

06-07-2003, 08:28 AM

Off topic Kevin, but I just got around to reading your letter in Stereophile. I liked your comment about tube amps, but does that apply to ALL amplification in the Brown household?

I have three different tube amps (small bore Fender, Laney, and Mesa Boogie) and would not consider plugging my beloved LP or Strat into anything but!

For guitar amps, distortion is a GOOD thing, right?

BGL

Kevin C Brown · 06-08-2003, 02:51 AM

Brian- I sent in that letter last Nov. I have since been "enlightened" in terms of tube eqp, to the extent, that if I ever split out 2 ch listening from HT, I actually probably would go with a tube integrated amp.

The bottom line (I think!), is that tube gear overdrives more gracefully than ss gear.

I have 2 Lab Series L-5 (?) amps that I ran in "stereo" with an Alesis Quadraverb. But I think they are solid state...

Just won Antenna and Rhythmeen on ebay. I think I'm going after XXX next anyway. It does have 4 live tracks at the end!

Kind of nice to "rediscover" a band.