Concert Review: ZZ Top W Blackberry Smoke, Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN 10/3/2008

The Ryman was packed tonight for ZZ Top, and rightly so. This unique, blues-based rock power trio is a true American classic (as Billy Gibbons said, "Forty years, same three guys"); with so many hits, it's hard to count them all. So the pre-concert anticipation was evident in the lower and upper lobbies, with lots of buzz, brisk beverage sales, and the largest merchandise table I've seen at a concert in quite awhile (and some really cool stuff, too). And they weren't hurting for customers, even in this tough economy.

If that wasn't enough, I got a nice surprise a few days before the show when I found out Blackberry Smoke was going to open the show. This is one good Southern rock band. They came out rockin' and never let up. Everything you expect from a Southern rock band they have; great three-part vocals, tight rhythm section, synchronized, as well as dueling guitar breaks, and a little slide thrown in for good measure. They play Nashville a bit, so the crowd seemed excited to see them and received them well. For a little more detail on this band, see my review from May 14 when they opened for the Outlaws at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/767183/review_the_outlaws_with_kingbilly_and.html?cat=33. Loved them then, still loved them tonight. They set the mood well for the headliners.

After at least a thirty-minute break (which was good because the bathroom lines were exceptionally long) ZZ Top came out smokin' with "Under Pressure". From here on out it was just one great song after another, although they left out some of their bigger, more recognizable hits to delve into some tasty, older-but-not-forgotten material (more on the deletions later). So depending on your taste, this was fantastic or a little disappointing, but with the emphasis on little.

After the big hit opener, they proceeded to play an interesting selection of five songs that I wouldn't call monster hits, but very recognizable just the same (hey, it's ZZ Top!). They were "Waiting for the Bus", "Jesus Just Left Chicago", "Chevrolet" (noted as from 1972), "Pincushion", and "Future Blues". If you're a big Top fan and are thinking I'm nuts to not call these big hits, let me explain. The next song was the monster hit "Cheap Sunglasses" (which was one of two or three songs I did not think came off too well. A little muddled music/vocals issue here). But I think I made my point. A band like ZZ Top has tons of big hits, but a subset is going to be monster hits.

Around this time I started noting the technical aspects of the show. Overall, the sound quality was not quite up to par for a Ryman show. Gibbons' guitar was coming through pretty clear, but the band's volume as a whole may have been a bit too loud, to the point where Dusty Hill's bass was getting lost. Unfortunately, this happened to Hill's vocals a few times as well, and Gibbons' low, gravelly voice (which I'm sure is challenging for the sound tech anyway) was just not as clear as it should have been. Of course, you couldn't miss Frank Beard's drumming, which was in fine form, and the drum set looked cool too with a skull and lights motif going on. Visually, the band's style (clothing, attitude, moves, hand gestures, etc.) added a dimension to the performance that actually made up for some of the deficiencies. They're just too cool! So yeah, I'm whining a little, but not too loudly, because overall I was having a great time, and so was the crowd.

They played a good long show, so I'll just highlight the rest here. They played a strong version of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" (they like Jimi, having played "Foxy Lady" a lot on last year's tour). Another notable was Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", which I'm pretty sure they played just for The Ryman (lot's of bands go a little bit country here). Unfortunately, Hill's vocals were really muddled on this one, and what I was hearing actually sounded off key and just too half-hearted an effort. So what was designed to be special may have been the low point of the show. Preceding that one though, were monster hits "Gimme All Your Lovin", a bang-up "Sharp Dressed Man" (my favorite of the night), and "Legs". The encore featured three numbers; "Jailhouse Rock", "La Grange/Sloppy Drunk/Bar-B-Q Medley", and "Tush".

Sounds great, right? So what was all that talk about songs they didn't do? I'm sure you can think of plenty, but here are the monster hits I thought of. No "I'm Bad", "Tube Snake Boogie", "Pearl Necklace", "Rough Boy", and one of my personal favorites (that's why I started thinking of all of these), "My Head's In Mississippi". Not hearing that one was big for me. But hey, it was a great show, and with all the material these guys have had over forty years, how could they possibly have played them all?