Dive right in -
- Cadillac Black opened. These guys are hardcore. Long haired pencil necked blue collar sleeveless plaid wearin' 20' somethings. They were actually louder than ZZ. Just three guys....one on keyboards and bass pedals. But they rocked. Seriously rocked. My ears were bleeding but I assumed that was normal. Full of raw energy and very hungry, these guys are pure bred "don't give a damn don't tread on me" stock. Youtube and their albums don't seem to do them justice. Got to see them live....
- Skynyrd sucked. Van Zant's vocals were flat, he must have said Tennessee at least 20 times, patronizing crap. They know the formula and they work it hard. They did play two songs from the new album, which is more than I can say for ZZ. But again it was played out. They over dramatize and are struck in the '70's. ZZ looks like their from the 2000's, Skynyrd doesn't. And Rossington looks like Satan with white hair. D-
- ZZ. At this point the crowd had been drinking for almost three hours. Beer was everywhere. And with nobody checking your bags at the door there were liquor bottles, airplane bottles, and suspicious looking bottles everywhere. The crowd was young, probably a median age of 40 - half below and half above. The younger crowd were busy hot boxing cigarates and trying to suck each other's tongues out of their owners' mouth, in between screaming, pushing and yelling at each other of course. Personally the taste of cigraettes never did it for me, but hormones dull your taste buds I suppose. If you have asthma do not go to concerts in TN, you will pass out. Anyway the beer didn't stop, even though ZZ probably only had 75 minutes of playing to go. They seemed to sense the energy and kept it fired up, with little chit chat between tunes and exaggrated manerisms on stage. Dusty had a problem with his ponytail during "Bus", he walked over to a technician (not Pablo, I didn't see him once, saw Elwood of course) and had his hair did. He then walked back over to Billy, tapped him on the shoulder and shouted "I'm back", then they did some non-Paula Abdul chorographed dance moves. At this point some fans started to pass out, and you had to watch your step for fear of stepping in beer or messing up someone's mullet. Billy advised Elwood there would be no "Vincent Price Blues" - not for this crowd, they weren't in the mood.
- Billy actually plugged "La Futura", advising the crowd during the introduction to "Gotsta Get Paid". As soon as Billy started the chords the crowd cheered - they know this one and they like it. This is the new "Mississippi", this is the new "Pincushion". The first radio friendly rock friendly single they have had in 18 years. Saw La Futura debuted at number 7 on the Billboard charts this past week - the highest on the chart they have been since "Antenna", maybe even "Recycler".
- No "La Futura" shirts for sale. Dumb.
- Tube Snake, La Grange and Tush rounded it out. Based on how much people were struggling to walk up the stairs I decided to literally run to my car, take a right from the parking lot (instead of a left onto the interstate) and ride a TN 2 lane rural highway under the cover of a cloudy dark sky.....scanning the local radio stations I came upon "Sleeping Bag".....that don't happen every day....
Awesome refview. Agree about Skynyrd in 99 I bet it's gotten that much worse.
ReplyDeleteAlso loved the mullet comment. These are actuall my fav shows. The beer swilling "typical" zz fan. I saw them once in Evansville IN at the height of home meth labs and it was a wild scene man.