Music

ZZ Top

O2 Academy, Glasgow

Jonathan Geddes

three stars

AT ONE point in this gig Billy Gibbons noted that ZZ Top have had the same line-up for over 50 years. He then drily added they’ve been using the same three chords in that time too, a good quip but fairly accurate too. In other words, you don’t expect surprises at a ZZ Top show.

This was the sort of evening where one of the biggest cheers came when Gibbons flipped his guitar over to reveal that beer was written on the other side, and where both the singer and drummer Frank Beard puffed away on cigarettes, smoking ban be damned. There was also an amusing contrast between the head down no frills boogie that fuelled the music, and the nods to pop convention, with the shuffling dance moves of Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill earning roars of approval.

The setlist followed a well worn path entertainingly, with the radio-friendly hits from their 80s heyday being unleashed early on and at the set’s climax. Cocksure opener Got Me Under Pressure and a resounding Sharp Dressed Man fared best, even if Legs did feature the band getting their sheepskin guitars out.

There was also a thumping Pincushion, and a rollicking one-two punch in the encore’s La Grange and Tush. Yet you could tell the band are comfortably into the touring cycle, as they rolled through the night in somewhat rigid fashion, whether the dance moves, between-song banter or the songs themselves.

A stodgy middle that overdosed on covers, from Foxy Lady through Catfish Blues and Sixteen Tons, didn’t help, and when the night concluded with Jailhouse Rock the group were straight off stage with nary a look back. Job done, no more, no less.