{"id":8795,"date":"2014-03-19T08:50:51","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T15:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=8795"},"modified":"2014-03-21T16:15:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T23:15:36","slug":"zz-top-rock-into-their-fifth-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2014\/03\/19\/zz-top-rock-into-their-fifth-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"ZZ Top rock into their fifth decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZZ Top vocalist\/guitarist Billy Gibbons is a man of few words. But after being part of the classic rock band since their formation in 1969, releasing 15 studio albums (including 1983\u2019s Eliminator,<\/i> which sold a staggering 10 million copies), and recently releasing one of their best discs in years with 2012\u2019s La Futura,<\/i> he doesn\u2019t need to talk. The cooler-than-words blues and rock licks he dishes out say it all.<\/p>\n

Well, almost: they only tell half the story sometimes, like, for example, what the audience makeup at a ZZ Top show in 2014 consists of. Everyone\u2019s rocker uncle? Kids? Young men in their \u201920s who know the power of great rock and roll?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
ZZ Top, one of rock and roll\u2019s all-time coolest bands, doing their thing (photo by Ross Halfin).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a multi-generational thing happening,\u201d says Gibbons. \u201cThe fact is that we\u2019ve had fans who go all the way back to our earliest days and they\u2019ve turned their kids on and that goes down the line. One of the most gratifying things is when kids today discover us on their own and have a \u2018eureka\u2019 moment when they realize they\u2019ve \u2018found the sound.\u2019 We\u2019re just here waiting to be discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what a discovery it is to fans of rock music. The band\u2019s back catalogue is worthy of much exploration, from the raw, blues-drenched early material (first three albums = classics) to the fun, if not dated, synth-groove rock of the \u201980s material. And while the band\u2019s \u201990s and \u201900s output often struggled to attain their high standards of excellence, La Futura<\/i> brought all that back. The album has great, simple, fun tunes, and one of the greatest production sounds of the past five years: huge and natural, raw and professional, it\u2019s got it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe album\u2019s sounds got that grit in the grooves and dirt in the works,\u201d says Gibbons. \u201cOne can crank it up and enjoy that beautiful distortion in all its glory.\u201d<\/p>\n

That simplicity was part and parcel of the process for the album, by the sounds of it. Gibbons\u2019 answer to why the album came out as good as it did is simple: \u201cWe cooked up some hot tunes, and laid down our licks,\u201d he says. \u201c[Producer] Rick Rubin invited us be the best ZZ Top possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how long can they continue to be the best ZZ Top possible? A simple run-through of the math shows that the guys ain\u2019t exactly young pups. So when does Gibbons stop playing music? Apparently, not any time soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a car to tinker with and a guitar to string up and an amplifier to turn on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Like any true rocker, Gibbons perks up when I mention to him that there are undoubtably a lot of longtime ZZ Top fans in Victoria who will be so happy to see the band coming through town that they\u2019d love nothing more than to buy the trio some beers to thank them for all the years of good rock and roll.<\/p>\n

\u201cFree beer?\u201d says Gibbons. \u201cWe\u2019re in!\u201d<\/p>\n

ZZ Top
\n6:30 pm Friday, March 21
\n$39-$85, Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
\nsofmc.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZZ Top vocalist\/guitarist Billy Gibbons is a man of few words. But after being part of the classic rock band since their formation in 1969, releasing 15 studio albums (including 1983\u2019s Eliminator, which sold a staggering 10 million copies), and recently releasing one of their best discs in years with 2012\u2019s La Futura, he doesn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-march-19-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8795"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8799,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8795\/revisions\/8799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}