Bassist Dusty Hill (left) and guitarist Billy Gibbons cranked out the hits Tuesday night at the Orpheum Theatre.
(Robert E. Klein/Associated Press)
Music Review
ZZ Top plays it loud and proud
Bassist Dusty Hill (left) and guitarist Billy Gibbons cranked out the hits Tuesday night at the Orpheum Theatre.
(Robert E. Klein/Associated Press)
If not for all the folks who arrived drunk and spilled their beer on other people, or the gentleman who screamed “[expletive]-A!’’ every time the band finished a song, or the extremely wasted individual who rubbed up against his irritated neighbors while dancing with his shirt off until finally he sat down and vomited all over himself and his chair, the ZZ Top show at the Orpheum wasn’t half bad.
The hard-working blues-and-boogie trio from Texas led by the dudes with the cheap sunglasses and long beards has been together for 40 years and hasn’t charted a big hit in a quarter century, but these guys are still having fun. Lead vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard were supposed to be the opening act this summer for Aerosmith, but when Steven Tyler and the boys canceled their tour, ZZ Top quickly put together its own headlining tour.
In a 92-minute, 20-song set Tuesday night, ZZ Top tore through its catalog of hits, starting with “Got Me Under Pressure’’ and ending with a fusillade of smashes from the ’70s and ’80s: “Gimme All Your Lovin’,’’ “Sharp Dressed Man,’’ “Legs,’’ “La Grange,’’ and “Tush.’’
Gibbons played a few unaccompanied riffs that sated the crowd’s appetite for uncomplicated blues, and he scattered the obligatory Boston references here and there, though the band had to abandon a take of “My Head’s in Mississippi’’ when it became clear that “Mississippi’’ wasn’t rhyming with “Massachusetts.’’ “We’ve been coming here for a long time, but we’re still tourists,’’ Gibbons told the crowd, apropos of nothing.
Though the audience loved every minute, it was difficult to shake the feeling that ZZ Top has grown satisfied with mediocrity. It was evident in the volume, which was cranked so high that nothing stood out and the vocals were buried under the guitar chords, and in the images that were projected on the screen behind the band. Every time the trio did a song from their monster 1983 album, “Eliminator,’’ the MTV video for that song played behind them, pixilated.
On the other hand, it’s possible that the show was better than this review implies. It’s just difficult to appreciate a concert fully with all the beer, expletives, and vomit flying about.
Steve Greenlee can be reached at greenlee@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
