Gigs

Gig Review: ZZ Top + Steel Panther

Hunting for seat D63 of the back wall’s balcony high above the stage, looking down on hundreds of balding heads is not my usual, or indeed ideal, pre-gig ritual. However, it’s not every band I see that has been rockin’ for over forty years and has a fan base made predominantly of men who were twice my age before I was born. Most of these biker-types will have given up their Harleys and settled down, but that doesn’t mean they won’t take the opportunity to get some good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll blues down their lug holes.

Steel Panther (4/6) have been awarded the mighty task of opening the night for the rock legends. Their love of sex, hairspray and all things metal has put these boys on the map with their latest album Feel The Steel. As they head out on stage, their confident and extravagant behaviour is met by a stony wall of confusion throughout their opener Turn Out The Lights. Their comical love ballad Thar’ She Blows fails to impress the bemused crowd, and is only fully appreciated by the handful of fans who are singing along. The show improves when lead singer Michael Starr (Ralph Saenz) takes to the mic and addresses the crowd. A string of crude, rude and downright awful jokes seems to make a larger proportion of the crowd understand what it is these guys do, and they’re not to be taken too seriously.

After announcing their mission statement to “bring heavy metal back!” their new release Community Property is met by a much warmer reception with audience members sharing a good laugh at some of the more amusing lyrical content. Satchel (Russ Parrish) takes over the show with a solo lasting at least 15 minutes, in which he manages to fit popular riffs from Smoke On The Water, Master Of Puppets, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Ironman amongst others, before heading into the very impressive Flight Of The Bumblebee and even accompanying himself on drums using one arm to drum and the other to carry on with the guitar. A bit lengthy but very well done; what’s the point in hair metal without a bit of showing off? They rounded off their set with Death To All But Metal and put everyone in a good mood for the rest of the show.

After a chest-pounding few seconds of drum and bass music, presumably to check for weak-hearted audience members, ZZ Top (6/6) hit the stage with Got Me Under Pressure. The trio’s experience is instantly apparent: the perfection of their chosen instrument along with a certain style and class that only comes with being in the industry as long as these guys. They are brilliant at what they do, and they know it. Billy Gibbons’ voice has matured nicely with age, and the vocals are as deservedly confident as ever. Even if someone had wandered into tonight’s gig by accident and had no clue who they were listening to, they would be hard pushed to not recognise that these were masters of their art.

The stream of perfectly-executed classics keeps on rolling with Jesus Just Left Chicago and I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide and it’s time for Billy to address the crowd properly for the first time of the night. Everyone knows you can’t go wrong by repeating the name of the city you’re playing in, so as he continues checking that he’s got his pronunciation correct, the Wolverhampton crowd is lapping it up. A short story complaining at the lack of dollar stores, referring to Poundland as a $1.63 cent store, serves as an anecdotal intro to the next song, telling his audience to get themselves some Cheap Sunglasses. This leads into a blues-oriented middle section of the set with a slower pace, but no less style. Billy calls for his glamorous assistants, a couple of scantily clad young ladies, to bring him his ‘blues hat’ before they continue with My Head’s In Mississippi. They round off the slower-paced songs with the mandatory Jimi Hendrix cover in the form of Foxy Lady before picking up the pace with Party On The Patio.

It’s not long before the real crowd pleasers start getting everyone singing along; Gimme All Your Lovin’, Sharp Dressed Man and Legs provide the perfect excuse to get dancing. After a short break they’re back on stage for the encore. They show that they’re still as rock and roll as ever, using a Jack Daniels bottle to strum along to before throwing it off stage to be chased down by a member of the crew. The atmosphere as the show goes on becomes increasingly intense, and La Grange and Tush certainly manage to keep the crowd buzzing. With as much energy as at the beginning of the night, they round off the 22-song set list with a second encore, and the final song: Tube Snake Boogie. I can’t imagine there will have been an unhappy face in the building after such a memorable performance. You have to come out of the show wondering if there will ever be another band quite like ZZ Top.

Venue: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton

Date: 27 October 2009

Band Links:
ZZ Top

Steel Panther

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