The Musical Box

zz top: dusty bill, billy gibbons and frank beard

There isn’t a lick about the Texas trio known as ZZ Top – from the chest-length whiskers of guitarist Billy Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill to the mix of blues, boogie and groove that percolates throughout their music – that comes as a surprise.

“Same three guys, same three chords,” remarked Gibbons half through the band’s set last night at Freedom Hall in Louisville, one of the final opening day rites of the Kentucky State Fair.

Come to think of it, Gibbons made the same remark when ZZ Top last played the State Fair in 2004. But there was comfort to be found in the band’s familiarity. When Gibbons and Hill sauntered down a runway during the show-opening Got Me Under Pressure, you were again struck by their animated, near-comic appearance. The two were dressed identically in black, right up to their head gear: backwards baseball caps held in place by goggles. Gibbons’ beard was a little shorter and greyer. Gibbons was a little taller. But that was about it as far as cosmetic differences went.

The duo has been decked out like matching gnomic hipsters onstage for the past 25 years. But that didn’t make seeing them that way again last night, side by side, seem any less fun.

Ditto for the music itself. There wasn’t a tune played that post-dated 1983. That meant the 75 minute set was split mostly between MTV-friendly tracks from ZZ Top’s career redefining Eliminator album – which still sounded static in spots, especially during Sharp Dressed Man and Legs because drummer Frank Beard was locked into a synthesized, metronomic groove – and more blues savvy fare from Tres Hombres and Fandango, which were released a decade earlier.

The latter selections served as the show’s biggest delights. While what you heard, again, was pretty standard stuff from the ZZ Top songbook – as in the still-feisty Tres Hombres medley of Waitin’ for the Bus and Jesus Just Left Chicago – Gibbons and Hill opened the performance up. They opened things way up, in fact, for 1972’s Just Got Paid where Gibbons let loose with a hearty intro and concluding jam on slide guitar that nicely unveiled the band’s rootsier profile.

The closest thing to a surprise  ZZ Top offered was a comparative obscurity from Eliminator, titled I Need You Tonight, that borrowed more from Gibbons’ blues might than the video-savvy grooves that drove the album’s bigger hits.

If there was a central novelty to the evening, it was the fact that ZZ Top was co-billed with the cosmopolitan country-pop duo Brooks & Dunn.

While the three ZZ members played scrunched together in the center of the show’s massive stage, Brooks & Dunn’s 70 minute set was an all out production with elaborate video projections (ZZ used a few, too, but they weren’t nearly as ornamental) and a firestorm of red, white and blue confetti that showered the crowd during – what else? – Only in America. Brooks & Dunn also came to town packing a seven member band and a trio of backup singers.

Beyond that, the duo stuck to familiar roles, as well. Ronnie Dunn handled the bulk of the vocal duties, underplaying the beachcombing repose of Neon Moon and hitting a more celebratory stride for the duo’s hit cover of B.W. Stevenson’s My Maria. Kix Brooks was primarily the cheerleader who stepped up for tunes (Mama Don’t Get Dressed Up for Nothin’ and She Likes to Get Out of Town) that tended to push the party mood a touch too severely.

Some of the material was simply an ill fit. Play Something Country, for instance, sounded like a rewrite of the ‘90s Little Texas hit God Bless Texas – and that wasn’t country at all. And what was up with the Pink Floyd-ian flourishes that kicked off the finale of Boot Scootin’ Boogie?

None of that seemed to bug the audience, though. While there was a healthy number of empty seats in the back and upper decks of Freedom Hall, those on hand seemed honestly thrilled by Dunn’s gospel-like delivery of Believe and the almost Poco-ish country-rock decorum of the show-opening Cowboy Town.

Rodney Atkins turned a tight half-hour opening set that offered crisp, efficient deliveries of the radio hits These are My People and If You’re Going Through Hell. Though it was hardly Atkins’ fault, having a third act on the bill made for a mighty long evening. When Brooks & Dunn joined ZZ Top for Tube Snake Boogie, roughly four hours after Atkins hit the stage, the clock had sailed past midnight.

It was a lot of bang for the concert buck, to be sure – maybe even too much. After Hill led ZZ through a finale of Jailhouse Rock, the house lights came up to reveal an arena that was already half vacated. Even the State Fair midway had closed for the evening.

Now, what was that old saying again about staying too long at the fair?