Has it really been twenty-five years since we first saw ZZ Top’s video “Legs” on MTV? Really? Hard to believe it, but it’s true…time sure does fly. So as I bellied up to the security railing in the pit at the House of Blues Anaheim on this musical night, I was ready – the decades of waiting were over – it was finally time for me to see ZZ Top live!

We were very lucky to get tickets to this unexpected show…you see, Gary and I, along with thousands of other fans, were supposed to close out our summer concert series with ZZ a few nights later as they opened for rock-greats Aerosmith at Irvine’s outdoor amphitheater. Sadly, however, a Steven Tyler dancing ‘mishap’ on a South Dakota stage weeks before our show quickly caused the remainder of that already-maimed mega-tour to be canceled and, suddenly, our special night disappeared before our very eyes.

Without hesitation, however, the three gentlemen of ZZ Top stepped up and came to the rescue.  Instead of disappointing their fans completely, the band decided to reschedule dates in as many of the same towns that were reeling from the ‘lost-show-blues’, quickly dubbing this the “Necessity Is a Mother Tour”. As an added bonus, the opposite of what one might expect them to do (the band is from Texas, after all, and I heard that everything is bigger in Texas), the trio scheduled these make-up dates in small, intimate venues such as our beloved House of Blues in Anaheim – despite the fact that they could have quite easily filled larger arenas on their own.  Three cheers for ZZ Top – the show must go on!

I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised that the band rescued their fans…the band is just that – a fan’s band. Always more about the music than the business, ZZ Top, whose members sound more like fictional characters than musicians, have stayed intact, making great music together since their formation four decades ago this year in Houston, Texas (probably about the same time that lead guitarist Billy Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill began growing their infamous immense beards - makes you wonder a little about what’s on the underside of such old filaments…). Gibbons, Hill, and drummer Frank Beard (who, contrary to his name, is the only member sans face fungus) all turn 60 by year-end, yet the music they produce, new albums arriving just about every other year since their start, stays true to their sound: Simple, driving, funk-laden southern rock and roll music that pleases their fans, remains a mainstay on any rock radio station playlist, and which got them inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 (Rolling Stone Keith Richards getting the honors of inducting the Texas trio).

The band’s fans, who were in several states of inebriation by the time the show started, cheered loudly when Gibbons began the evening by saying, “Tonight there are only two rules - Number One:  No drinking during the gospel songs;  Number Two: No gospel songs.” Yet, ironically, it appears the band favors soda more than libation, leaving the drinking up to the seasoned crowd of mostly forty- and fifty-somethings.

Alas, party or not, the music was the reason to be there. The nearly 95-minute set included ZZ spectaculars such as “Tube Snake Boogie”, “Gimme All Your Lovin’”, “Got Me Under Pressure”, “Cheap Sunglasses”, and “Tush”, as well as an excellent cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” – a real treat to hear them do.   

And when the band finally closed out their main set with the 1984 MTV classic song of video fame “Legs”, fuzzy guitars and choreographed minimalist moves and all, it was perfectly obvious why ZZ Top continues to stay, well, on top: This band’s got legs, and they know how to use them!