The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 2, 1976 Page: 5 of 16
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ZZ Top performance falls to deliver It all
by Jim Fowler
Like last year, I spent my
Thanksgiving Day at the ZZ
Top concert along with a few
thousand other young people
who welcomed Billy, Frank,
and Dusty home with the
hospitality Texans are known
for. And like last Thanks-
giving, this one also got
started about an hour late with
an unannounced appearance
by Rory Gallagher and band.
Rory played a respectable
blues-rock set, covering the
traditional topics from mean
women to mean Fords.
"Moonchild" struck me as the
most memorable number of his
set, and the ones whose titles I
did not catch was no fault of
mine. The guy was pretty
hyper, spitting his words out
in a slur of syllables, and
playing his guitar in a
similar way. He did not get an
encore, though, because the
crowd had come to hear ZZ Top
and so were saving their
enthusiasm.
Intermission, unduly long,
saw the emergence of a rather
new Summit concert craze.
The idea is for the TV cameras
to pan the audience in search
of those females who don't
mind sharing their endow-
ments with the largely sexist
audience. That's right, it was
up with the T-shirts and onto
the Summit screens. There
were actually some who got
the attention of the camera-
men just so they could perform
these impromptu screen tests.
The real women there had too
much class for this sort of
thing.
When the lights finally went
down and the cigarette
lighters went up, the crowd
gave ZZ a very hearty
welcome, which heightened as
a longhorn steer and buffalo
appeared on either side of the
stage. Each was elevated for a
guest appearance in special
contraptions to add to the
atmosphere. The spotlights
had not come up yet, but one
could see the three band
members in a cascade of photo
flashes from up front in the
audience. A few fireworks and
coyote wails added to the
festive ^nood, and then the
spotlights hit and ZZ sailed
into "Thunderbird."
But then the Top commited
what I think is a concert
blunder. They played every-
body's favorite numbers pretty
much the way they are on the
albums, with little or no
improvising. "Nasty Dogs and
Funky Kings," "Balinese,"
and those other short songs
came across strong and well-
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played, but if I want to hear a
string of three minute tunes I
could have stayed home and*
listened to side two of
Fandango. It just seemed
that they were up there to play
as many songs as they could
fit in their set and leave.
Of course ZZ did present a
few cuts off their upcoming
album like "It's Only Love"
and "PanAm Blues," and they
did mention "Houston, Texas"
enough times to get several
encouraging cheers from the
fans, but not until near the end
did Billy Gibbons cut loose and
play "something you won't
hear on the record, just for
Houston," as he put it. He said
this during "Blue Jean Blues,"
as if in answer to my thoughts
that it was about time.
It may have been that they
were saving their energy for
the second show, although this
is no reason to slight their
afternoon fans. If only ZZ Top,
that little ole band from
Texas—that people's band as
they are touted—had left out
the fancy suits and simulated
backdrop and gotten into some
foot-stomping Texas rock,
their encore applause would
have been more than an
expected reaction from a
crowd, because it was more
automatic than enthusiastic.
The music was loud, it was
tight, and it showed the band
capable of transferring their
music from plastic to the stage.
But there is more involved in a
concert than reproducing
sound on stage; namely,
feeling out the mood of the
audience and stimulating it
with a show of creative and
intense performance. ZZ Top
played their numbers and
appeared right at home
although the concert as a
whole leaned more towards
adequate than towards good.
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the rice thresher, december 2, 1976, page — 5
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McFarland, Carla. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 2, 1976, newspaper, December 2, 1976; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245314/m1/5/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.