ZZ Top

Manchester Apollo

Thursday 31 October 2002

A brilliant concert, full marks in almost every respect. One of those that I liked so much that on returning home I immediately tried to find a video on the internet - had to make do with a Greatest Hits collection. It can't be considered my favourite concert simply because although ZZ Top are very firm and old favourites of mine, they aren't in the top echelons with the likes of Deep Purple and Yes, and brilliant as their unique style of blues/rock is, it's essentially a little bit limited when you compare it with the variety of output that the truly great bands can achieve. I'll get my grouse out of the way first: the wait that had to be endured before they came on stage was almost interminable and a number of jeers and slow handclaps were starting to ring out. When they did come on stage, it was sheer brilliance and great showmanship. I have complained in other reviews about excessive degrees of self indulgence, and there was no lack of it here, but diametrically opposed to such posers as Robert Plant, the self indulgence here was totally devoted to giving the audience exactly what they wanted. After all, you pay a high amount of money to attend these concerts and it isn't unreasonable to expect some value for money. ZZ Top are of course extremely old, but their whole raison d'etre means that they could keep performing at this level until they are 80 - if they aren't that old already! Their beards are so long and they are disguised so much that it could actually have been anyone singing and playing the instruments - only thing is, nobody else could have done it so well. The stage show was very glitzy and flashy, in all respects a throw back to the days of glam rock. The sound was loud and crystal clear, much like Bad Company although perhaps a tad quieter - probably because I was a little further back. As for the songs, well it was everything you would expect, a good amount of new ones, but this isn't really a problem because their stuff does tend to follow a bit of the old Status Quo sound alike routine. Perhaps one slight criticism I could make was that this was rock music pre packaged to a formula like McDonalds. Fair enough, but it is surely the most delicious McDonald's ever conceived, this was more on a par with eating at the Ox Noble! (21.10.03)