Personal Review of ZZ Top Live at the Aladdin Resort & Casino - Las Vegas Nevada May 11, 2002
By : Greg Deeter / Houston Texas / May 12, 2002
Yesterday, May 11th 2002, was the second time I have seen ZZ Top live. My first live experience was in the Astrodome in my hometown of Houston on Feb 21, 2002. And less than 90 days later I find myself traveling out of state just to see them live again. I guess that's appreciation of thier talent for ya!
To get this review off to a nice good start here is the Las Vegas set list that was played last night in the Aladdin Resort & Casino's completely renovated 7,000 seat Theatre For The Performing Arts:
Tickets stated show time as being 8 Pm. At 8:43 PM the lights dimmed quickly as the Theatre appeared to be full and the standard Ross Mitchel
booming greeting came on, "Showtime... It's a stunning and persuasive pleasure to present to you, national and international renown, that lil ol band from Texas, the Z Z Tops!"
Set List May 11, 2002
#1 - Tube Snake Boogie
In Between : Billy "We gonna have a good time in here tonight!"
#2 - I Thank You
In Between : Billy "Uh huh... That girlfriend of mine has stuck me like a pin cushion!
#3 - Pin Cushion
In Between : Billy "Yeah! Stuck me like a pin cushion doncha know it. Ha hah! That was off our record uh, called Antenae, ya know, the one that's got that little tower lookin oh so sharp. I should have know better than to play stuck me like a Pin Cushion my goodness gracious, Hah! But that's the way it goes and you know what? She's still got me under pressure.
#4 - Got Me Under Pressure.
In Between : (Crowd cheering and yelling)... Billy "Oh yeah! ... Yasay what? Wait a minute I gotta figure this out. Somebody says play some, play the old stuff , play the new stuff. How bout this, we gonna play the old stuff, play the new stuff and everything in between... Cause we gonna stay here all..night..long!" Here we go!
#5 - Waitin For The Bus
#6 - Jesus Just Left Chicago
In Between : Billy "Thank you! Are you havin a good time tonight? Allright! We gonna go back. We gonna go way way back. (Pointing to Dusty) He said now, some of ya'll might a not of heard us play this now in a long long time, he said, man he said, look he said, you go out there playing the blackjack table, standin up at that .. roulette wheel. You know people running by ya every two minutes, he said, lemme do my song. I said which one is that he said, I can tell the future. I said you sing it but you teach me how to do it cause theres a couple a girlfriends I wanna call up cause I gotta couple a questions ta ask them. Hehe So Dusty gonna sing Future Blues for ya, rite heah....
#7 - Future Blues
In Between : Billy "Oh yeah, this gonna be a blusy night I know that. It's gonna be. Yeah we will try, yeah. We comin in earlier tonight, we found the back, ya know, that, we found the back door, an then, they said Oh we have to take you through the back door. I said yeah we gonna be all sneaky... Nobody will ever recognize us walking through here.. We got just about to the back door and a pretty little girl came up and started tapping me on the shoulder. Scuse me, scuse me.. I say yes mam she goes, are you one of those guys that plays in that band with the long beards? YES. Well, scuse me, scuse me.. Yes? Do you play in that band with the other guy with the long beard? YES. Why do you ask? She said cause he's a pretty man. And she said and you know that guy that sits behind the drums, I said well of course I know that man, what about him? He's a BAD BAD man. So if he's the pretty man and he's the bad man, you nationwide!"
#8 - I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide
In Between : Billy "Oww we! Yeah nationwide, you know that all right. You know we got some, we down here on the wrong side of the road, we came down and we saw this that ya got this big stand of cold beer, I'll tell you what. Saw a girl pretty girl walkin up there she had two big beers in each hand and came back down the side she had four beers in each hand and shes having a good .... and smokin that stuff too. So let's do a little beer drinkin and hell raisin!
(Editors Note, the entire Aladdin Theatre was reeking of pot smoke with a quite visable layer of smoke in this non-smoking venue. )
#9 - Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers
In Between : Billy "Oh yeah. We gonna get on the down low witch ya one time on this one. I mean the real down low with it."
#10 - Rough Boy
In Between : Billy "Oh yeah. Some love birds in here. Well, we're not too far from, well, we're not too far from anyplace right here. You can get here from anywhere. We a lil bit long way from home but thats allright. We can always get down to that Mexican border doncha know. My friend Lawrence Berry taught me that, and he said Hmmm Let's go find that Mexican Blackbird.
#11 - Mexican Blackbird (Insert "She sure knows know to find the ace of spades so don't go playin cards with her, let's go find her")
In Between : Billy "Is everybody havin a good time tonight? Well it's about that time again. Time to reach down in the bottom of your pocket and the bottom of your purse. Time to put em on. Them cheap sunglasses!"
#12 - Cheap Sunglasses
In Between : (Massive applause) Billy: "The pearly gates is with us again tonight, oh yeah I love this guitar, I love my hat. Ha hah! You remember, there was a there was always, there was this picture of this hat on our record, in Boston, of all places, Boston. Some, some, Mother, or Dad got the record and they thought it was a plant.... And I don't have to explain what kind of a plant they thought this hat was.... And so we had to tell them yeah I love this hat and I love this guitar and I'm gonna play the sides off it for ya rite now!
#13 - Just Got Paid Today
In Between : Billy "That felt pretty good, I'm gonna keep this thing around here right now. Come on with us back here into blues night here I'm gonna change with dusting my broom.
#14 - Dustin My Broom
In Between : Billy "So you liken them blues tonight. Well, we love em too. I see a lot of familiar faces and some new ones out here tonight. Everybody likes them blues, I'll tell you what everybody taken every single seat in this place has got a special place with us be cause we love you we want you to know that. Now are you willing to go way back down in the alley for them blues with us tonight.
#15 - I Loved A Woman
In Between : Billy "Heres one that everybody asks us to play every single night we just love it cause everybody likes to sing along with it. Going back to uh, a record, a couple records back with a new record. It's time to bang bang and shang alang.
#16 - Bang Bang And Shang Alang
In Between : Billy "Hey now we gotta give, it's time we gotta give that drummer just a little bit."
#17 - Gimme All Your Lovin
#18 - Sharp Dressed Man
#19 - Legs
In Between: The band leaves the stage. Crowd remains on it's feet with a standing ovation for about 4 minutes, then starts to chant Z Z Top!
Encore
Band returns to the stage and the crowd goes wild.
#20 - La Grange
#21 - Tush
The Aladdin Resort & Hotel is a pretty massive and impressive place to visit on Las Vegas Blvd just south of Tropicana (Where New York New York and the MGM are). Since I was in a rental car I parked in the South Parking. Since one of the intents for the weekend was for my brother and I to treat our older parents meeting us from California to Mothers Day and Dad's Birthday with a weekend in Vegas, the concert was an excellent way to end our weekend. My Dad turning 60 the day after, actually enjoyed it. I had him primed by mailing him a video of the Brooks & Dunn ZZ tribute recorded last month in Nashville and broadcast on CMT. Since he's an old tyme Gospal (Johnny Cash) and country fan I think he was a little blown away by how loud the boyzz were, but he was impressed. He said that they are some "very talented artists". My Mom enjoyed it quite a bit as well and she was smiling and laughing through the concert out of amusement. She had never been to a "rock" concert before. My brother loved it as well, since he has been tormented by having to listen to all of my ZZ cd's at the house and in the car all the time. Being familiar with most of the songs they played, he was real impressed with how they sound live.
Anyway, enough of the family stuff. Walking into the Aladdin was sort of impressive as when you are coming through the south entrance to get to the Theatre For The Performing arts which is in the center of the complex, you have to walk through the "Mall". The Mall has an artificial sky which at first looks very real and you think you just walked outside. Since we parked and walked in at about 6pm, it was a bit disorienting as the light of the sky in the mall was just a bit darker than it had just been outside. It took us several minutes to realize that we were inside and the sky was not real. It took about 15 minutes to walk through the Mall. Entering the turnstyle gates, I could not help but notice a very massive amount of security. The Aladdin had about 20 security people dressed in Purple coats standing in a half circle which reminded me of the party in Eyes Wide Shut. There was no one in line at 6:15 and we passed right through with my pad of (4) $85 tickets I picked up from Ticketmaster back in early April, best seats still available. Security walked us to our seats, on the lower level, row YY right behind row Z. Ironically, this was the last row of fixed seats, and the row behind us, row "ZZ" was for all wheelchairs and handycapped people. There were a good dozen people in wheelchairs sitting behind us. We were about 200 feet from the stage. Now with all of my family being very tall and over six feet, I was not impressed with the seats at all! The seats to be honest absolutely suck big time. I believe it was back in 1998 when the original Aladdin was imploded. It was sort of controversial and some people may remember seeing it on the news when they blew up the old structure and rebuilt it new. Well, while the venue was comfortable and quite fancy, dark burgundy and always dim, I can see right now that part of the rebuilding plan was to get as many people as possible in the Theatre area by placing the seats as close together as possible. It was totally impossible to let someone pass by you to their seat without having to stand up and go to the isle. This was of concern to me, for reasons that you will read in my next paragraph. Besides the security outside at the turnstyles, there were tons and tons of security inside the venue. Armed Police, and about 150 Aladdin personel wearing the Purple, Blue and Gold long dress coats. There were also plain clothed with radios and about 3-4 black suited security or management. When we sat down there were only about 20 other people there. After we were seated, my brother and I went out to try to find the "Lamp" bar so that I could meet some of the ZZ Top mailing list fans like Mike Crane and others. Much to my dismay we could never find the damn place!!!!!!! That is exactly why I wanted to go so early was to have a drink with these other fans I have only met by email (and happened to be sitting by in Houston by pure irony). That was a major let down that I could not find these people to meet in person. So we decided to just go back in and sit with our parents until the show started. Apparently we were so early that all of the security was not even there yet, as when we went back in there were twice as many security and now a lot of Police had arrived. There were no personal searches of people, no x-ray machines, and no x-ray wands. I was glad to see that Americans can still go out and party their asses off post 9-11 without being treated like a suspect. We had already dealt with so much mis-trust and personal intrusion at the airports that I did not want the experience, and plus I had something with me that was not allowed according to the tickets. A recording device!!!!!!!! YEAH BUDDY!!!!!!!!!
Let me go back a little bit here so you can get a better understanding of my personal experience with this concert. Let me go way, way back briefly. Back when MTV first started, one of the first music videos I ever saw was TV Dinners by ZZ Top. I think it was one of the first videos MTV ever played, along with that weird one by Devo with the guys wear flower pots on their heads, what was that, Whip It? Anyway, I instantly liked ZZ Top. I wondered about them a little bit, you know, with those beards and all they sorta looked like some bad men. Boy was I right! Haha! And then in my high school days ZZ Top became a household name. Only people living very sheltered lives have never heard a ZZ Top song before. Legs was an instantly attractive song to me, it gave me those good music goosebumps. I think every music fan knows what I'm talkin about there. If you ever hear a song that taps your soul and your senses enough to give you a physical reaction like those goosebumps, that ranks right up there just below sex in my opinion when it comes to carnal pleasure. Now these days I am getting into ZZ's old stuff and the blues and I love it all. ZZ Top has never produced any bad music. Just BAD music!!!!!
Okay, now let's jump up a decade and a half or so to January of 2002. With the horrible events of 9-11 in everyones thoughts, (myself in particular, being a lover of skyscrapers and architechure and having spent a few weeks living at the World Trade Center a few years back) I think a lot of Americans realized that life is too short. While it didn't take Sep 11 to make me decide to start to enjoy the things I like, it is more likely middle age (I'm 33), I had been in the mode that it's time to go out and do what you always wanted, and if something makes you happy, just go for it! So, while driving around in my favorite sports car one day (a vette vert) I was listening to this somewhat new radio station in Houston, 106.9 The Point. It plays 80's music. And they said that ZZ Top was going to be playing in the Astrodome, then they played Legs one of my favorite songs to drive to, real fast. Haha! It took me about 10 seconds to decide that I was going to that, no two ways about it. Time to see that funky lil ol band from Texas that I have always liked since I first heard them. All the cards fell into place like poetry. Someone I met on eBay that bought something for their camera from me told me that he had 4 tickets to the show and I snatched them up. Sold two of them on eBay for like $150 or something like. At the last minute my flaky 18 year old Mexican girlfriend backed out on me, so I was sitting there two days before the concert not sure who to go with. My brother had to work. Then the phone rang. Some guy named John in Houston said that he saw my ZZ Top tickets on eBay and asked me if he could have one, or maybe go with me. Well, that sounded a little odd so I told him I would consider it. I mean, to have someone call you and offer to go to a concert with you, who you don't know from Adam is a little strange. Plus he told me that his hobby was taping concerts and that he wanted to record it or something like that. That seemed even more strange. Some of the time in life, some of the coolest things you can experience happen just at random with no amount of planning. This John guy seemed like a real music fan and who am I to waste a ticket. So I called him back the next day and told him, let's go for it. I was a little nervous as the tickets said "No cameras. No Recording Devices." So I told John that if he got caught taking a recorder in there I didn't have anything to do with it. Then at the last minute I decided what the hell and I took my digital camera with me too. Since Houston is building a new stadium right next to the Astrodome to house our new Houston Texans, there is very little parking. Since the dome seats 90,000 most people had to take the Metro Park & Ride bus shuttles. So we did it, ran through the pouring rain showed up dripping wet and John got his recorder in, and I got my camera in, as there was no security. They just let everyone run inside since it was raining. John taped the whole concert and gave me a CD the next day and I was just totally blown away beyond belief. Even though he told me that he was using some high end professional stuff, not just a pocket cassette recorder, I had no idea that you could make an excellent digital stereo recording of a concert like that. So with that event, I picked up a new hobby interest. Digital concert stealth recording, and the people who enjoy doing it are called DATHEADS. That's named after what you use, a DAT (Digital Audio Tape). So I guess John turned me into a Dathead. By the way, Datheads are not pirates and they do not sell concerts on cd or tape, they just trade between each other just the same way that fans of tv shows trade tapes. It's not illegal. The only thing that may be in violation when taping a concert is the user agreement with the ticket agent. In this case in Houston, and in Las Vegas, the legalized ticket scalping monopoly was Ticketmaster, who I have little respect for. Without competetion they can set prices however they want to and force me to pay it if I want a seat. So screw their "rules" on the ticket. The way I see it, taping a concert is preserving for your own enjoyment, something you were at, just like taking a picture. I listened to the cd of the Astrodome concert many many times, and just loved being able to hear it again. Since the band does not sell cd's of each of their concerts, unless someone records it, it and all of it's intriquite uniqueness is forever lost when it's over. Well in this day and age of technology, forever lost or just commited to memory is a thing of the past in my humble opinion.
Now let's jump to April 2002. I called my parents just to talk and mentioned that I was going to see ZZ Top in Las Vegas and was going to try to talk my brother into going with me. My Mom mentioned that that was Mothers Day weekend and the day before my Dad's 60's birthday so they suggested that we all meet there. Sounded like a great plan so we booked everything.
Now up to last week. At the very last minute I decided that I was going to do what John did in Houston, and tape the concert for myself. The only problem was, I didn't have anything to do it with and we were flying in 4 days. So, I got my credit card out and got on the Internet after getting a list from John of what I would need. I had to have everything express mailed overnight because I waited too long before deciding that I was going to save this concert. I picked up a Sony PCM-M1 Dat recorder for about $500. Looks just like a walkman and will fit in a fanny pack. Plus I had to get a blank tape for it, long life batteries, a very expensive pair of stealth tiny studio microphones which are half the size of a dime (about $200) and what is called a bass roll off box so that the bass if too loud will not overpower the signal. This is the preferred perfect setup of dat concert tapers, or datheads. I had to teach myself to use all this stuff in 1 day, and used web tutorials from taper fan sites. With a little initial paranoia, after reading on some of the taper sites about people getting their recorders seized, getting kicked out of concerts, etc., I decided to do a little checking into things first. So I called the Aladdin and told them, "Hey my tickets say I can not take a camera in with me, but I am going to bring one anyway, is that a problem?" The girl said that no, they are not that strict, but everyone is subject to a search. I asked if I would be x-rayed and she said no. So with that knowledge I tossed all my new recording stuff in my carry on bag, picked up a fanny pack at Walmart and headed out. The weekend with the family was awesome, we did tons of stuff and did not get enough sleep but I guess thats the Las Vegas experience for you.
So now, with all my rambling, that brings us right up back to last nights concert. 7:30. Even with these security people standing right behind me, I pulled out all my stuff and hooked it up, even dropped the whole thing once and then dropped my cell phone that slid down a row under the seats and had to get it back. Talk about being nervous! Looking back now it was pretty funny, because with all the buildup I really wanted to get this concert on tape to save for myself and maybe give to some friends. John in particular since he was such a huge help teaching me how to do it.
8:00 - Well, that's what the ticket said on it, along with the billboards all over Vegas, ZZ Top's terribly outdated website, and the ad in the magazine in our hotel room at Fitzgeralds, which I kept. About 8:15 my Dad started complaining and saying that no band is so good that they should leave their fans waiting like that. I told him that the 8:00 on the ticket is only the suggested time to be there with no promise when they will start. He did not buy that story and I have to admit when being honest, ZZ Top needs to be a little more prompt and closer to their ticket time. If thats what it says and thats what you pay for, they need to come out and get it on. Myself I don't mind waiting, but there were a lot of pissed off people leaving. I saw at least 20 people in front of us get up and storm out yelling that they wanted their money back. This was about 8:40. The place was full by 8:30 as most of the crowd started to pour in right at 8.
FInally, at 8:43 all of the sudden the lights when down, and it was on. And the goosebumps shot through me. I looked down at my recorder and the sound was WAY WAY louder than I thought it would be. I had to turn my dial down to 5 out of 10 sensitivity so on my tape the first 3 seconds of Tube Snake Boogie is flatten by the bass, but the rest of the recording is excellent, all 1 hour and 43 minutes.
As the curtains drew back, there they were, with a purple strand backdrop, those large white speakers just like in Houston and they were dressed in the same black outfits as in Houston, the whole time, with Billy wearing that little monkey thing on the back of his guitar strap. They also had that cactus off to the left. A very sparse and somewhat plain stage, but an awesome sound from start to finish. These guys brought that place to the ground with some sound. It was extremely loud. The bass was shaking the ground and you could feel Franks drums licks blast right through your bones. Unlike in the Astrodome, they had the sound levels set just right and that's just one contribution to why this was the best live performance of anything I have ever seen.
While people were not supposed to be smoking, obviously a lot of people brought their weed with them. Even before the concert started you could see the place filling up with smoke and the sweet aroma of marijuana became overpowering by the third song.
When they busted out with Tube Snake Boogie, everyone instantly rose to their feet. Now, I am an avid believer that people should be able to stand up and dance their asses off, what was embarassing to me is that none of the people in wheelchairs behind us could see, so I felt bad about having to stand up. That right there is the Aladdin's fault. To put a whole row of people in wheel chairs right behind 28 rows of people who they should have known would be standing, was flat out stupid. They need to put the people in wheelchairs somewhere else because those people could not see shit.
I guess now if you are wondering what all went on, what they played, etc, refer back to my stage set above, as I have quoted every word they said in between songs and every song they played in the exact order they played them. A few final notes... There were a lot of really wasted people there. One guy in particular was a few rows in front of us on the isle. When he staggered in and yelled "Are ya'll ready?!" I knew he would not last. Sure enough, right around Leg's he tried to come back down the isle and ended up doing an "endo" (endover, flipping head over heals) down the stairs. They tossed him out. The security ended up sitting 2 seats to my right and filling out an incident report with a flashlight. There had been another couple there but I didn't realize that they were some of the people that left in anger due to the band coming out so late, and it was not until after the concert that my brother told me that that was a security lady sitting next to him on the isle, and she kept looking at me every time I would turn on the green lcd background on the dat recorder to check the sound levels and battery power. Holy moses. She must have known what I was doing. Glad I was not paying that much attention or I would have been even more paranoid! Hahah
During Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers is when the crowd finally started to just ignore all the bustling security running around trying to get people to sit down and stay out of the isle, dancing. People just went nuts and really enjoyed themselves. The crowd, while it did not seem quite as excited as in Houston, was singing along a lot and the crowd was very excited and rockin hard. The reason I say not quite as excited as in Houston was that Houston was just crazy and very vocal with cheers. On a scale of 1-10 as far as the crowd being excited, Houston was a 10 and these people in Vegas were an 8. That's still REAL partying so don't let me under-estimate it to you. People loved ZZ in Vegas.
During Legs I had a real scare as some security lady came up behind me, put a flashlight on me and grabbed my arm. I could not hear what she was saying, finally she yelled in my ear to sit down because the people in wheelchairs could not see. I nearly had a heart attack because I thought the worst that she was going to take my tape or something, and that would have been a horrible shame as much trouble and expense as I had gone to to preserve this concert. She did get the last three rows of people to sit down for about 5 minutes and then everyone just stood up again, along with some dude in row W that turned around and gave her the finger.
There was one incident that I noticed. During Sharp Dressed Men some dude ran down the isle and ripped his shirt off and jumped over about 20 people in a lower row and punched some guy. A fight did not break out as some people got him in his seat, then about 15 seconds later he jumped up and ran out with the Police chasing him.
I think my stage set above will give you as much detail as you need to know what this concert was like, along with my notes above decribing my personal experience with it. It was just plain killer. When they left the second time I knew that was it and looked down at my recorder, still going like the Energizer bunny and realized that chances were real good that I probably just got an awesome recording.
The crowd started to pour out all the front turnstyles, same place everyone came in, and my Dad being a non conformist looked over at all these exits to the left and said hey, let's just go out here, it SAYS exit! No one was using those 8-10 doors to leave. When we went to go out them, a really fat security dude in plain cloths with a radio yelled at us that that will put you out on the street. We said fine, that's were we want to go! Hahah. Well, the doors did not put us out on the street. Guess where they put us? Right out next to ZZ Top's large silver bus. It was surrounded by 6 Vegas black and white Police cars and a few cops standing around. We walked right up to it. The cops were looking at us and never said anything, they were just staring at us, as us 4 were the only fans out there. I guess they may have been wondering how we found it so fast, but we were not looking for it. Now this makes me wonder a lot. Does ZZ Top travel in that silver bus or do they fly? Because they are due in San Diego on the 12th? We considered waiting until Billy, Dusty and Frank came out the door right there next to the bus, but we were hungry and decided to take off and get something to eat instead. Heheh We finally found the car and in my excitement I could barely even hookup the headphones I had brought to get my first taste of the tape I HOPED I had just made. Told the family, bear with me here a second because I can not handle this anticipation. Rewound the little digital tape a bit, hit play and the grace of God shined down on me just then. Hahah! The tape came out just perfect, sounds exactly like what it sounded like to me, and I will always have it. A studio recording is one thing, and they are quite nice. I will always buy every cd ZZ comes out with, but I love the variations of a live performance. My major let down about the concert is that I wanted them to play Viva Las Vegas and they didn't. I think, even due to that, I will be able to continue my life as it was before. Hahah One interesting point that my Dad mentioned was that they left the stage without thanking the fans for coming to see them. Well, thats a yes and no really, because as my notes mention above in the stage set Billy did say that they love us, but I think an exit thanks would do wonders for those semi and passing music fans. To not say thanks for attending is in fact rude. Also, it was a real bummer not being able to find the other fans at the LAMP bar. The seats sucked for tall people and by not playing Viva Las Vegas in Las Vegas it left me feeling like the band treated us just like any other concert. Also, the joke about the pretty little girl wondering if they were in the band with the guys with the long beards, while funny, in Houston I thought it was true that that happened. When hearing it again, I thought, wait a second now, I have already heard that. I think the band, or Billy at least, needs to treat the fans a little more unique per venue, not using static text and just talk to the fans on the fly a bit. They don't have to be so static in what is said between songs and they should have at least played one new song off the new album due out in the next few months. He said they were going to play the new stuff, and they did NOT! They should have at least ended with Viva Las Vegas so everyone would be ready to go back out on the town, as a large majority of the crowd were people who just so happened to be in Las Vegas, so they stopped by, from what it looked like to me. Okay so there we go, those are my bitches. Overall, this concert was prime and beautiful. Best live performance I have ever seen, of anyone.
One final note, after talking to other fans a bit since, it looks like it was not just my imagination that this concert was SUPER and I mean SUPER LOUD!!!!!! It was good yes, but I am wondering now if it was some sort of a mistake. The bass was so booming that I would not be surprised if it shook something loose in that theatre. I did not mind, but I wonder if there was some reason. If someone standing right next to you was screaming at the top of their lungs you could not hear them. Perhaps they were wanting people all the way out on the corners of Las Vegas Blvd and Tropicana to be hearing what they were missing, or perhaps they were testing what the fans could handle or wanted. Maybe it's something to do with their new album due out in a few months. Perhaps they are going with real strong bass, just as Rap and Hip Hop has done, just with the ZZ Sound. I really don't know, but I think it's a safe bet that this was the loudest that ZZ Top has ever played in history in public and the bass brought that place to the ground. It's okay with me. Glad I was there.. :) I mean I have been to concerts that were expected to be loud and were, like AC/DC, Def Leppard, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Greenday, The Tubes (last concert ever). KISS (last concert ever) etc., but good God almightly, what was ZZ doing, trying to cause an Earthquake in Las Vagas? Again, it's okay with me, it just leaves me wondering why or if there even was a point to it. I think there must have been. They had to know what they sounded like in there if they did any bit of practice at all.... I personally think that they may have been looking for feedback to see if the fans wanted them to play that loud in the future, since this was their largest stop in the 2002 Casino Tour, followed only by a venue of 1500 people in San Diego the next night. Could it be one of their last and they wanted to go out with a bang? Nah, maybe that's too speculative. Hehehe
It is rumor and at least we all can hope that they will be doing more shows in the Midwest this year. Perhaps they will play that "NEW" stuff Billy promised in Las Vegas, but never played. Hey I was all right with what they played but to not play anything new like Billy said that they would and to not even play Viva Las Vegas in Las Vegas, come on now!!!!! If they want fan input regarding how loud they were, personally I am fine with it. It would knock a pair of sunglasses right off your face. At several points in the show it was almost like a slow motion dream and I swear that some of those people in the wheelchairs behind us stood up and were dancing! I am not kidding! I saw them! But I wanna hear the NEW stuff now. Let's go!!!!!!!! Billy and band, pay more intimate attention to your fans and where you are. Not playing Viva Las Vegas in Las Vegas was a huge screw up!
Being in Houston I just wish they would let me come over and listen to them practice one of these days. haha!
I have already decided that I will be going to one of their next performances and hope to be able to meet some of the other fans from Peter's email list at www.lowpft.com then.
LONG LIVE Z Z TOP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE YOUR MUZIC BOYZZ!!!!!!! YUR BAD!!!!!
Greg Deeter / Houston
CLICK HERE for my TRADING SITE!
(Here's a little somethin I saved for ya off the Aladdin's website. Psst, don't tell anyone! Haha!)
Hourly Statistics by Ruby Lane