As a touring unit, they’ve been without peer over the years, having performed before millions of fans through North America on numerous epochal tours as well as overseas where they’ve enthralled audiences from Slovenia to Argentina, from Australia to Sweden, from Russia to Japan and most points in between. The band’s momentum and success built during its first decade, culminating in the legendary “World Wide Texas Tour,” a production that included a longhorn steer, a buffalo, buzzards, rattlesnakes and a Texas-shaped stage. The song is unabashed elemental boogie, celebrating the institution that came to be known as “the best little whorehouse in Texas.” Their next hit was “Tush,” a song about, well, let’s just say the pursuit of “the good life” that was featured on their Fandango! album, released in 1975. Their third, 1973’s Tres Hombres, catapulted them to national attention with the hit “La Grange,” still one of the band’s signature pieces today. The new group went on to record the appropriately titled ZZ Top’s First Album and Rio Grande Mud that reflected their strong blues roots. It was in Houston in the waning days of 1969 that ZZ TOP coalesced from the core of two rival bands, Billy’s Moving Sidewalks and Frank and Dusty’s American Blues. “Yeah,” says Billy, guitarist extraordinaire, “we’re the same three guys, bashing out the same three chords.” With the release of each of their albums the band has explored new ground in terms of both their sonic approach and the material they’ve recorded.
Of course, there are only three of them – Billy F Gibbons, Dusty Hill, Frank Beard - but it’s still a remarkable achievement that they’re still very much together after almost 45 years of rock, blues, and boogie on the road and in the studio.
Add to this a rare cover of Jimi Hendrixs "Foxy Lady and Live From Texas becomes a DVD that every ZZ Top fan should own.ZZ TOP a/k/a “That Little Ol’ Band From Texas,” lay undisputed claim to being the longest running major rock band with original personnel intact and, in 2004, the Texas trio was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Among the revelations: Gibbonss passionate assertion that fellow Texan Roky Erickson gave birth to psychedelic rock and that the Eliminator car took six years to build. Even better is the bonus disc that offers off-stage glimpses, including a casual conversation amongst the band members about their history. Live From Texas provides what any fan should want: a tight set in front of a rabid hometown audience, slanted toward pre- Eliminator favourites like "Just Got Paid and "Heard It On The X. These tunes balance out the expected run-throughs of "Legs (yes, played on the fuzzy, spinning guitars), "La Grange and "Tush, although its entirely more exciting hearing Billy Gibbons tear into them rather than the pick-up band at your local bar on any given Friday night. But with ZZ Tops most recent albums restoring their cred after the cartoon-ish stretch that lasted well into the ∩0s, now seems the ideal time to finally capture the simple but powerful stage show that has been the essence of their appeal all along. Its incredible to think that, aside from half of 1975s Fandango, theres been no live document of one of Americas most enduring bands.
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