Today we have a post from Clay G., a long time ZZ fan who has seen the band over 75 times. Number 77 will occur later this month when he catches the Outlawz tour. Clay has been most kind in providing some insight on his memories. If you like what you read then I urge you to comment - Clay might return the favor by sharing more memories.
-
ZZ memories – here’s a couple for you.
First show – 1977 March Boston Garden. Worldwide Texas tour. I was a freshman in college sitting around the dorm on the afternoon of the show. The boys show up at the local Rock Radio Station and do a quick interview, give out some real Texas bbq sauce and play some tunes from their new album – Tejas. Never really heard of them but all sounds very intriguing and they say there are tickets remaining. So, why not, we take metro into Boston and go up to the box office. Well the tickets they had were behind the stage but we went for them anyway. We get in the arena and Santana is the opening band. They are sounding good so we wander over to some choice seats in the front. Plan is to stay there until someone kicks us out. As fate would have it nobody showed up during Santana and ZZ is about to hit the stage – still no one. To this day I consider it an act of faith. The WWTT is well documented but for a Northern boy the impact of seeing two huge Texas steers rising up on either side of the stage, the smell of the farm you can just imagine. I couldn’t believe they would go to such extreme measures for the show to big these animals around the country for a 30 second appearance at the start of the show. Needless to say I was hooked.
Favorite opening – Afterburner. The big reveal with the Sphinx snorting up the drum cover and Billy and Dusty up on the risers with Frank. Each step they took down together to the main stage the crowd noise just keeps audibly rising until they were on stage. Seeing Dusty peer around the corner to find Billy is just priceless.
Favorite song – performance category – Hands down – Sleeping Bag. The two step they did at the first solo blows me away every time.
Favorite song in concert – tube snake boogie – old style when Billy and Dusty played around with Frank on the intro with the shakers suspended from the ceiling before hitting the guitar parts.
Recent Memory – taking my 2 early teen nephews to the Beacon Theater in NY for their first rock concert and watching them watch the show in amazement.
Best shows nobody saw – The Antenna tour. The album has always been underrated and it was kind of sad to see ½ full stadiums. Last of the really big shows.
Best seats – front row at the Oakdale in CT. Got the tickets thru the old fan club and was front and center with my wife ( who btw loves Dusty and is now a veteran of 15 or more shows). My wife is an art teacher so she makes a sign for the show which we reveal during Tush. The sign says “Billy, may I please have a pic?”. Well Dusty sees it first and motions to Billy. He comes over and drops the pick he was using into my hands and finishes the song with just his thumb. WOW!! – Today pick resides in a frame with the ticket stubs and a signed picture I got from Billy during his book tour on the wall in my study.
Wow, Clay, that's a lot of shows! Please recount some more of your memories.
ReplyDeleteThat old Garden was a tough place to see a concert, especially during the summer.
My favorite memory was when "Zeke" fell from the lighting, chair and all, on the Eliminator tour.