Gotta love it when rock icons come to town. Not because they’re icons, but because they’re your icons. You grew up with them. They’re part of the soundtrack to your life. More than 50 years after ZZ Top released their first album, Billy Gibbons brought those memories home. “Classic Rock” wasn’t a marketing label for much of ZZ Top’s career. Their music was simply current, distinctive and blasting on your FM radio station of choice.
A full ZZ Top arena show remains an enjoyable spectacle of massive sound and towering staging. But Billy Gibbons in a small venue flashes back to how the man, and the band, made their way in the first place. Intimate, fun, bluesy, and rocking. Gibbons does not take himself too seriously, and that ease carries the night. At 76, he has nothing left to prove. Fans are fortunate he still wants to do this, and he does it so, so well.
Stories flowed between songs. Gibbons recalled opening for Jimi Hendrix in 1968 with his early band The Moving Sidewalks. He was told to play 40 minutes, but they only had 30 minutes prepared… “unless we play ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘Foxy Lady.'” Hendrix later added, “I like you. You got a lot of nerve,” the beginning of their friendship.
Gibbons also mentioned LSD on the beach with a beautiful “giraffe” of a girlfriend that he encouraged to model and thereby lost to the Ford agency, and changing an age inappropriate lyric to “Francine” after its release. Even the playful humor he slipped into the slow burn of “Blue Jean Blues” felt tailored for a room this size.
Everyone knows ZZ Top has a huge number of hits, and Gibbons and the BFGs played plenty of those. But, they also played a lot of the undercard, those vinyl deep cuts that fans appreciate because they listened to albums rather than chasing singles.
Visually, Gibbons remains committed to character. The stage was decorated with a Taco sign, skateboards, Mexican hats, and assorted curios, never mind the matching rhinestone adorned western Nudie suits. And other than the placement of drummer Chris “Whipper” Layton to the side, the performance felt familiar with Gibbons and bassist Mike “The Drifter” Flanigin struck poses echoing classic ZZ Top swagger.
But the real treat was the sound. Gibbons remains in great voice and nimble in every way that counts, with fuzz laden licks and his signature “less is more” phrasing with perfectly bent notes. Which is a good way to sum the night. On a Billy Gibbons & the BFG Band show, you don’t get less. You get more.
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