No Trick. No additional electricity wanted.
They said they had to drop by because they were running “about a quart low on hot sauce”. (Any excuse to avoid saying they missed us.)
When the boys opened for the Rolling Stones, we all thought, “Hey, local guys done good.” Rolling Stone’s, Keith Richards, then opened for them at their Rock and Roll of Fame induction ceremony some 15 years ago.
Storms may make the blues but they don’t stop rock or ZZ Top’s 50th Anniversary Texas Bash.
Drive over an hour under severe weather alerts? (Welcome to my normal life)
What’s a little lightning? Baseball sized hail? Tornados moving in this general direction?
Not enough to deter.
I know. You are thinking sum ole country boys
Actually Billy Gibbons and his local psychedelic band, The Moving Sidewalks, toured and opened for Jimi Hendrix Experience,
Dang, we thought at the time. Local boy dun good.
And he still is.
Rolling Stone may have ranked Gibbons at # 32 on their 2011 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, but to us he’ll always be Little Billy Gibbons who lived down the block in his mom’s garage apartment between tour dates.
His lovely mom used to go around handing out bumper stickers. I credited those for the lack of vandalism to my car for years.
Billy always took care of his mom. Probably to thank her and his older sister for taking him, a five year old, to see Elvis perform.
When Billy was around 7, his dad, an entertainer, conductor, and classical pianist who worked with MGM studios, took him along to a B.B. King recording session. That chord struck.
Not just a one note player, William Frederick Gibbons, (aka The Reverend Billy F. Gibbons) takes the stage with many other musicians and is on TV shows including his recurring role as an over protective dad in Bones and as Frank Hill’s cousin in King of the Road.
- And here’s the deal about the sunglasses: Video “Cheap Sunglasses“
- You probably know one of their songs – it was used in a commercial for those stockings sold in egg containers. Video of original song “She’s got legs.” In this video you can also see Billy has always been a bit of a gearhead and likes vintage cars which are featured on album covers, concerts, videos, and t shirts.
- They tour with multiple, often unique, guitars. One of the favorites, two white fake fur covered ones did make an appearance at the concert. (See those guitars in “Legs” video above.)
As this is getting long, I won’t ramble on at length about the opening acts as we arrived fashionably late.
First because due to weather and major lane closures on the beltway from 3 lanes down to 1 lane
Second: slipping quietly into an undercover parking space (in an undisclosed location we’d like to keep secret for future availability)
And totally unexpected: running into a Sr Prom event (Seriously? So many paid professional photographers posing kids everywhere…regardless of traffic or drizzle…..Also, we really need to do something about teenage obesity – That’s not mean – that’s worry about what their future health will be.)
So we missed Cheap Trick’s opening act. Not our fault..entirely. The venue, worried about severe storms, tornado threat, and lightning kept moving the start time up earlier and earlier.
Actually, realizing the set status, we opted to sit by the riverwalk and enjoy some chicken quesadillas during their last 3 songs before going through the gates.
Hey, It was right next door. We could hear just fine.
But we did get in and seated in time for Bad Company’s set. It was impressive.
They are waaaay better than I remembered.
Would have more pictures, except there was this big guy wearing a black t-shirt with “DEATH” in big letters all across the back always managing to get dead center in the frame. Not exactly the image focus point desired.
Anyway, great performances. Great crowd that enjoyed the show without getting annoyingly drunk or rowdy.
Here’s a well written concert review (with all the groups’ play list) so no point in duplicating any of that. It’s a good read.
Ending on that note,
Phil, the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge
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Why you old party rocker! What did you wear? Something crazy? Also, knowing secret parking spots is the best. We have one location that we know a secret for getting in and out in the same decade.
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Not the glitzy crowd of the last concert.( It may have been the weather threat and everyone dressed for wading home? Or just both the performers and the audience know who they are and are comfortable with that?)
You would have loved it though. While going in we were lined behind a slender, athletic woman, well tanned, short short jean shorts, armload of rock and roll bracelets and necklaces, short dark hair with highlights – potential groupie territory? Then she turned around and she had to be at least 75 yrs. Her adult daughter wandered up with water bottles keeping a wary eye on her very excited preteen daughter who is obviously best friends with her coolest grandmother in the whole world. Rock on, Babe!
Thanks for tuning up a comment to leave
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Love that grandma!
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We all want to be Auntie Mame!
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ZZ Top makes my heart rock! Sharp Dressed Man, Rocked to them in college 46 years ago.
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Still rocking after all these years ( how can it possibly be that long?) Thanks for dancing along
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A lot of rocking going on in his post. Cheers to local kid that has done good. (That’s always special)
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Music to chase storms away! (Now we all need a road trip with the windows down and tunes turned up loud) Thanks for picking up this tune
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ZZ Top songs are programmed into my brain. I know the tunes and some of the lyrics. Whenever I see those guys I think of a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip in which Calvin tells his mother that he’s going to grow a beard like the ZZ Top guys. She says “ok” which baffles him because he thinks she’d be more upset about his idea.
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HaHa Calvin and Hobbs are so great – my dad had one of those books that was a collection of stops – that was one of the items I snagged after he died.
It was a great show – little chat (They know who they are and we know who we are) lots of solid music.
You gave me a smile. Thanks for humming along
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HOW COOL!!!! So glad you fought through the storms and lane closures to get to see them!
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Worth the drive. Oh, decisions decisions: with baseball size hail already sighted, do we take the old car or the newer one that can manage high water…and toss in a pair of wading shoes….Luckily the full weight of the storm lifted and went a bit north. It was a full house – looks like people would swim in if necessary HaHa. Thanks for rocking along
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There is no way I’d go within cooee of such a “concert”, I might be nearly deaf, thankfully, but the rest of the “show’ would send mr completely round the bend.
I did enjoy going to see Frank Sinatra live twice in Melbourne Victoria back in the late 1950’s, and I also went 150 km to see and hear (I wasn’t deaf then; Vladimir Ashkenazy ,in 1972, I’ve been to concerts at the Sydney Opera House and also the Lincoln Center (Yankee spelling) in New York, that was for the Independence Day concert 2008. I did follow and go to jazz (dixie) concerts in my youth so I’m not just a downer,
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There’s music and then there’s concerts HaHa. Outdoors is better for me if it’s loud. ( I do worry about these little toddlers and babies even if they have head/ear protectors on …not exactly kid oriented events – what will they have to look forward to if “been there and done that and yawn”?)
Luckily there’s an assortment of music types with something for each – music is very much a human thing – probably related to all the movement and rhythms of the human body… had a professor once that said if people didn’t have some sort of screen to all the sounds a body makes, we’d all probably go nuts from the noise…can you imagine being in a crowd with everyone’s noise…all talking is bad enough haha.
Thanks for taking aspen around this dance floor
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Sometimes I’m very happy that I can’t hear very well, to me noise doesn’t constitute music, and to my way of thinking todays stuff is not music
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Certainly not the tunes of yore (you saw the thing on how AI is writing music now…and we thought the “formula music” of researched proven pleasing notes by the assembled groups like Boy Band era was suspect…) Sometimes I wonder if the frequent redo’s of old songs isn’t a search trying to rediscover the magic…(Hint, it’s result of real life and experiences and emotions – not from being glued to assorted technological devices…try wind and start nights for a prompt? What do you think?)
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I think you may be right.
There must be a time, or limit,to what the young of today, have pushed, shoved at them, and they go in search of something with substance
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