ZZ Top: To see or not to see ?

[psychojohn]

ZZ Top: As a teenager I wore out my 8 track ZZ Top "Tres Hombres" tape in my blue Chevy Impala sedan. Swore I'd see them. Haven't. Put them on my bucket list.

Traveling for work. Can get an orchestra seat (somewhere in the middle; not front or back) for between $100 and $150. Thought I'd go and started watching live video's of recent and past concerts. Discovered that they only average between one hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half on stage, and for some of the shows the sound sounded crappy. Now I am rethinking as other options are available (with an artist I saw two times last year) for a twenty dollar ticket, but will it be about a $100 round trip taxi ride (James McMurtry) with about $15 needed for ZZ Top taxi fare.

If you've seen ZZ top, did you feel they were worth the price of admission or the price of the tickets I am considering ? Any input or thoughts will be helpful.

Thanks !

John

[rokdog49]

Oh boy, this is not gonna' be pretty.
First off I will preface my opinion by telling you my wife and I are huge ZZ Top fans. We finally had the opportunity to see them last year at a great venue that seated only about 1500-2000 warm bodies. The place has excellent acoustics and the sound is always phenominal.
Let me try to say this as nicely and politely as I can. I can sum their performance up in one word...robotic.
Oh sure they played all the hits but the guitar work was sloppy and if I didn't know how good Billy Gibbons WAS I would have thought he was a poor substitute for the real guy dressed up to look like Billy Gibbons.
They used back up tracks for many songs and it was obvious they were performing in a perfunctory and obligatory manner. I think they're ready for Vegas.
On the other hand, Blackberry Smoke, who opened, was well worth the price of the entire ticket. Those guys kicked it. They were tight, real and had a huge following in the room. If I didn't know better, I would have thought they were whom everyone came to see.
My wife agreed ZZ Top was a big letdown.
Anyway, that's my opinion and I hope it was just a bad night or an aberration. Don't let one bad review sway your decision.

[bil]

I'll start this with an admission: I'm 60. I saw ZZ Top the first time in the early 70's, before the beards. They were great and blew me away. Fast forward to a couple of years ago. My wife and I saw them in West Palm Beach. To be terse, they phoned it in. The opening act was The Albert Castiglia Blues Band. They absolutely owned the night.

My take: Bands need to be hungry to be great live. Almost without fail, every "established" old guy act I've ever seen has not lived up to their hype. OTOH, the hungry openers nailed it.

I'm through with "geezer rock". Don't waste your money on ZZ Top tickets. Their time has passed.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by bil

I'll start this with an admission: I'm 60. I saw ZZ Top the first time in the early 70's, before the beards. They were great and blew me away. Fast forward to a couple of years ago. My wife and I saw them in West Palm Beach. To be terse, they phoned it in. The opening act was The Albert Castiglia Blues Band. They absolutely owned the night.

My take: Bands need to be hungry to be great live. Almost without fail, every "established" old guy act I've ever seen has not lived up to their hype. OTOH, the hungry openers nailed it.

I'm through with "geezer rock". Don't waste your money on ZZ Top tickets. Their time has passed.

Rock really doesn't age well. It is by and for, youth, and always has been. I have often thought it rather embarrassing to see guys in the 60s and 70s prancing around on the stage pretending to still have that young "raging hormones" thing going on. Unfortunately, the style just doesn't age gracefully like the music that came from the generations before it.

Tony

[fazool]

So my buddy is a huge ZZ Top fan and just saw them and raved about how good BG is and how amazing they sounded and gushed "he's still got it"


Maybe he is just more hit-or-miss now than before?

[psychojohn]

Most of the opinions offered here seem to reflect what I observed and the rumor mill. Rather than hit or miss, it seems lately I'd be better preparing myself for a miss. Still not sure who I'll see as between tickets and taxi fare it will be about the same to see McMurtry (who I've seen multiple times) and ZZ Top (never seen). Need to sleep on it.

Thanks again and I remain open to other feedback !

john

[hornrocker]

Originally Posted by psychojohn

Most of the opinions offered here seem to reflect what I observed and the rumor mill. Rather than hit or miss, it seems lately I'd be better preparing myself for a miss. Still not sure who I'll see as between tickets and taxi fare it will be about the same to see McMurtry (who I've seen multiple times) and ZZ Top (never seen). Need to sleep on it.

Thanks again and I remain open to other feedback !

john

Well, you say they have been on your bucket list.... this is your chance, don't blow it. : )

I've seen them a number of times over the last few years, great each time, but that's just me.

At the very least, you'll get to see a legendary band, and be able to say you did.

[cattzap]

Not ZZ but I recently got to go see Skynrd twice. They were terrible. The first was outdoors, and even being outdoors it was so loud it was painful. The next time was indoors. They did the exact same thing. I would almost bet that they said the same exact words to the crowd. And if you think outdoors was too loud, indoors was beyond acceptably loud. We could only stay in that room for two songs and had to get out. Thankfully the second time the tickets were free, other wise we would have demanded a refund. And who I was with, (won't say who) we would have got it.

[psychojohn]

Originally Posted by hornrocker

Well, you say they have been on your bucket list.... this is your chance, don't blow it. : )

At the very least, you'll get to see a legendary band, and be able to say you did.

These are exactly 2 of the three reasons I'm still considering them. The third is I've seen James a total of three times, the last two being with his band. All were good but another show with his band at this point might be getting a little redundant/repetitive.

John

[psychojohn]

Originally Posted by cattzap

Not ZZ but I recently got to go see Skynrd twice. They were terrible. The first was outdoors, and even being outdoors it was so loud it was painful. The next time was indoors. They did the exact same thing. I would almost bet that they said the same exact words to the crowd. And if you think outdoors was too loud, indoors was beyond acceptably loud. We could only stay in that room for two songs and had to get out. Thankfully the second time the tickets were free, other wise we would have demanded a refund. And who I was with, (won't say who) we would have got it.

Your post highlights one issue: Different strokes for different folks. In the past 10 years I've seen Skinner twice (outdoors both shows) and thought they slayed it both times ie having never seen ZZ Top, I might still think they sound good.

Peace

John

[cattzap]

Don't mis-understand me, I'm fine with loud. I rock all the way home every day. This was so loud I cannot imagine what their audio racks look like. The power to do all that with clarity is something to behold. Indoors it was actually changing my heart beat and causing pain in my ears. It felt like they were using the same outdoor system indoors. Plenty of others stayed. I'm sure they were all fine with it.

I was also amazed with the venue, a casino. You walk out the doors and down the hall and you heard nothing. Another tribute some some great acoustics that I wouldn't mind getting to see with the lights on and nobody in there. Whoever designed that room sure had a handle on what they were doing. Just some of the odd things I notice that others with me usually doesn't.

[blue]

I have taken my son to see a couple of big acts from my past. Like Alice Cooper, Sabbath, Van Halen, Rush, etc. I always sit way at the back, center. Because they have amazing big screens these days, and sound reinforcement is amazing.

ZZ Top cannot go on for ever. Nobody does. If you don't go now, you may not get another chance. I saw Yes the tour before Chris Squire died... I'm very happy about that.

[RussL30]

I saw them back in 2015 and they had the best live sound I've ever heard in a non acoustic type set up. They put on a great show and produced a huge wall of quality sound.

[57gold]

When I try to rationalize an emotional decision.

Have seen ZZ twice in last 10 years, once at a private party in LV at the Hard Rock. Both times, we had a great time. Sound was great...though the 1980s synth stuff was never my favorite.

They now put on a show, versus a jam, they pick from tunes across their long history and string them together. At their age "looking' for some tush" is a bit ironic and sung with some irony.

Is Billy going to blow you away with licks never heard before? Nope. Is he going make his LP squeal? Yup.

Mc Murtry would probably be a more interesting performance...more emotion and believe he travels with great players.