The Last Bass Outpost

That's sobering. 

I saw them in 2017 with Status Quo as openers at an open air. The difference was day and night: Everyone laughs about Quo, but  their music is the epitome of live excitement, warts and all as well as taking the piss out of themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=louOWbSA4aI&list=PLOaOZamj9YJVGz7LZ1jZGxJ7EKVTL1SJr

ZZ Top were very collected, safe and lifeless in comparison.

Funny thing about Alice Cooper having a boa on stage is that they are wonderful creatures.  I've had one.  It was probably just thrilled to have warmth.

Like all snakes it was also deaf (they have an inner ear that senses vibrations, but doesn't really "hear") - that no doubt helped!  It wasn't even his snake and saw retirement to a snake farm eventually. It must have liked the warmth from the stage lights, but keeping it cozy warm during transport must have been a task. And then Alice's alcohol breath ...

Funny thing about Alice Cooper having a boa on stage is that they are wonderful creatures.  I've had one.  It was probably just thrilled to have warmth.

ZZ Top were road heroes long before they became a household name and an MTV icon with Eliminator. Even in the 70ies there were (mainly Southern and Midwest) States where their gigs outsold, say, someone like Aerosmith. Some of their songs like La Grange were already then FM staples, Tush was a Top Twenty hit in the US. Billy Gibbons was a musicians’ guitarist of sorts, his sparse style with quirky tones/notes was appreciated by many as both rootsy and original.

In Germany they broke around Degüello (their first album after changing from London Records to Warner Bros. whose marketing and distribution clout gave them an international boost) with one single TV live appearance broadcast Europe-wide in 1980 (they had never played in Germany or Europe for that matter before, but had this reputation as a great live act from their circuit in the States).



No sequencers, electronic drums, extra guitar tracks or scantily dressed women back then. Just real drums, two guys swapping lead vocals, one guitar and a Telecaster bass with a broken pup that distorted. I don’t think they ever bettered that. I was aghast when I first heard Eliminator and what they had done to the three-piece. Frank Beard had always defied convention as a drummer and there they go and largely replace him with a drum machine programmed to the most mundane factory settings.

I like ZZ TOp, including most of their newer stuff. They simply are what they are, and have been for years.