Festejaremos

We will party.....

As a fan of every stage of ZZ's career I often find myself analyzing the similarites, and differences, that 5, 10, 15 years can bring. While the music has always kicked ass, the live presentation would often change, sometimes year to year, other times album to album. The question is, has the band's presentation of the music ever overshadowed the music itself. To me the answer is, yes.

Looking back at the early '70's, ZZ Top was a group of three relatively unknown musicans (Jimi Hendrix knew who Billy Gibbons was, so in that case who cares if anybody else really knows who you are). There was little money, and the group played on subpar equipment in very small venues, sometimes to a crowd of one. The music kicked ass though.

Then, after the success of "Tres Hombres" and "Fandango" the group embarked on possibly the greatest tour concept ever: the delivery to the audiences of not only the sounds, but the sights and smells of ZZ Top's musical, cultural and lyrical influences. "World Wide Texas Tour" was created to bring the "Texas landscape" to the fans, per Mr. Gibbons. A tremendous endeavor involving extensive livestock, birds and snakes, all positioned and poised on a 33 ton stage in the shape of a mini-replica Texas. Arguably the greatest tour of the Top's to date, fans to this day recall the event as being incredibly exciting and unique. And the music, above all, still managed to outshine all the possible distractions, forcing the recepient to acknowledge that ZZ Top kicked ass.

Tours in support of "Deguello" and "El Loco" in the early '80's were much less of a spectacle. The group, having been in hibernation for three years, perhaps wished to reestablish themselves prior to pulling out all the stops again. "El Loco" would also prove not to be a particularly big success, and perhaps this played into the group's reluctance to create any theatrics. Maybe the group purposely wanted to focus on the music. The "El Loco" shows in particular feature some of Billy's best guitar playing, with unique and complex solo variations from night to night. The energy and confidence exuded on stage from all three members is most exciting to listen to even today. The presentation definitely did not overshadow the music here.

"Eliminator" was released in March of 1983, but momentum was initially slow to build. The group would initiate a U.S. tour in June of that year, and then over to Europe in October. While the U.S. tour is relatively light on recordings there are extensive tapes of the Europe concerts. And what they reveal is, despite a rapidly ascending popularity by Autumn, the group did not overly focus on pushing the album live, perhaps unsure if the "new" ZZ Top sound would appeal to their fans. This is evident in that "Legs", likely the most well known track on the album today, was not even debuted live until 1985. The group continued to focus on variation and bringing a well-balanced set list with songs from each album. While not to the extent of the "El Loco" tour the band would from time to time insert unique or one-off performances of songs, and Billy's playing was again aggressive and fluent, with differing solos from night to night. There was no particular exhibition or theatrics onstage, the music in all it's glory was enough.

This would change when the "Afterburner" show came to town....