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The song has an almost century-old thread that weaves through the repertoires of Muddy Waters, R. OK, but is it blues? The band answered that question with a version of “Catfish Blues” segueing into “Two Trains Running” that reminded me of a version The Blues Project used to do in the ’60s.
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Then again, we do enjoy going about figuring how to replicate the exotic when contemporary tech is in the blend.”īottom line, Gibbons is way under-rated as a guitarist. There’s not much we’ve done in the studio that we haven’t been able to do on stage, and that’s quite intentional. In a pre-concert email interview, Billy Gibbons told me, “The studio is an adjunct to what we do and something of a tool shed for us. I expected their volume alone would checkmate whatever nuances I heard on their CDs. And the bi-play of those guitar runs with Dusty Hill’s bass and Frank Beard’s drumming were as overpowering on “Tush” as James Brown’s delivery on “Night Train” backed by a big band including horns and two drummers. Gibbons’ fretting on Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” was adroitly executed without ever soliciting feedback from the amps. Opening with “Have Mercy” and concluding their first of two encores with “Tush,” they executed an hour and a half of blues-inspired rock that was loud but crystal clear, besting their recent Live! Hits from Around The World CD (On Suretone, not Warner Brothers) with unbridled energy. The idea that a threesome can produce such perfection has to be experienced to be believed.įorget the Pro-tools and other digital magic.
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The band I saw on February 26 th at Proctors Theater in Schenectady was a trio joined at the heart, one organism so tight in its presentation that its sound is as perfect as a world-renowned orchestra and just as transfixing. So, who are these guys hiding their age behind a façade, and are they a manufactured flavor of the half century that can sell 30 million records to pop confectionary addicts? Sure, but they’re a hell of a lot more.
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They’re Rocky and Bullwinkle when it comes to turning rock culture into one huge fractured fairy tale and their Jimi Hendrix collision with a Minnie Pearl dress code breaks the rule of cool that most hot rocks cling to. These guys transport you into another galaxy. That concert damaged my hearing for life and left me bleeding from every orifice.īut it was worth it. Don’t get me wrong, I love their sound, a kind of Hill Country blues mind-warping drone with a Hollywood smirk and a Vegas neon blink, but I hadn’t seen them live for 35 years. Plus, the band’s image of hiding behind two-foot beards, cheap sunglasses and hats that look like an amoeba on steroids, and you gotta figure these guys are hittin’ it with a sneaker. That just led me to assume the corporate giant had been tweaking ZZ’s sound forever. Add to that ZZ Top’s almost half century with monolithic Warner Brothers Records – the company that helped create larger than life hard rock with acts like The Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, and Van Halen.
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In an age of Pro Tools and other technological wizardry, most producers can turn a good garage band into a slick rock machine. Ok, maybe it’s the cynicism of this grizzled old blues journalist, but I just never expected ZZ Top to be this good in concert.
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^ "CRR Interview - Sharp Dressed Men: Mick Fleetwood on the New Zz Top Tribute Album".^ "ZZ Top: A Tribute from Friends Charts"."Lauren Alaina's 69,000 sales mean a top-five debut". ^ Mansfield, Brian (October 19, 2011)."CD review: Various artists, 'ZZ Top: A Tribute From Friends' ". "ZZ Top, 'A Tribute From Friends' – Album Review". "Album Review: Daughtry, Mastodon, Nickelback, Grace Potter and Steven Tyler salute ZZ Top". "Various Artists: ZZ Top - A Tribute from Friends". ^ Gil de Rubio, Dave (October 18, 2011).
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