Written by Dave Clements

I just enjoyed another Sunday night show at The Woodlands Pavilion even though the summer heat is continuing to make outdoor concerts tough on the body.
And let me quickly add that this Sunday night was well worth the sweating that occurred by this reviewer and likely the eleven plus thousand who also attended the Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour show at the beautiful Woodlands Pavilion. It featuring two R&R HOF bands: Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top (with Uncle Kracker opening).

There was from time to time a nice breeze that kicked up as the sun was going down, fortunately for all of us!

Uncle Kracker sang eight songs and were very impressive especially given they were opening for Classic Rock Royalty TIMES TWO.
The show was booked as a Co-Bill which I think meant that they would alternate who went on first and who would close out the evening, In Fort Worth the night before ZZ Top was first and LS second.
After seeing what happened this Sunday night if I was producing the show and taking it across the country, I would keep it a Co-Bill but have ZZ Top go ahead of LS every night. Period. No questions asked. And I love ZZ Top, maybe even more than LS yet the evening would have flowed much better than it did this night.

Let me explain my logic and how it impacted the evening:
There are several relevant elements.
First, LS has nine people on stage and ZZ Top has three. Ninety minutes is a lot of heavy lifting for three performers when basically only one sings and that is really without back up singing to lighten the load.
LS has Johnny Van Zant plus two women backup singers to round out the LS vocal experience.
Now add to that a LS keyboardist, extra guitar players that are freakin’ awesome and a killer catalog of songs. (I’ll come back to the songs in a moment.)Certainly, if you were inclined you could make the counter argument that there are no original members of LS and that really, they are a tribute and/or cover band.
Not the case with ZZ Top. You still have 66 & 2/3’s percent of the original members but you are missing Dusty Hill who was a key member of the group from the beginning.
And BTW I did not hear his name being mentioned during the show. If it was, I missed it. And Dusty lived but a few miles from The Woodlands venue and had passed only two years before (almost to the day of the show.)

What I didn’t miss is the tribute that Johnny made for Gary Rossington who died this past March at the age of 71. Gary was the last of the original members of LS and for sure we hated to see him go just as we miss Dusty. Both died way too young and we both significant parts of the musical presentation.
As an aside, Hill’s replacement is Elwood Francis who I have the greatest respect for. Francis was the band’s longtime guitar tech and frankly he authentically looks and plays like he always belonged in the band. (Check out my photos).

Now before sharing the two biggest reasons for my argument of ZZ going first, and LS second. Let me say the both bands have terrific music catalogs, both have been around for five or more decades, both are high on the Rock food chain and both can kick ass in their own special sort of way.
Each played among other tunes their hits with LS playing What’s Your Name, That Smell, Saturday Night Special, The Ballard of Curtis Loew, Tuesday’s Gone (dedicated to Rossington) Simple Man, Gimme Three Steps and Call Me the Breeze.
And ZZ Top played Got Me Under Pressure, I Thank You, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Gimme All Your Lovin’, Pearl Necklace, I’m Bad Nationwide, Sharped Dressed Man, and Legs.

In total LS played fifteen songs and ZZ Top played seventeen. All just like you would hope!

Now let me get to the most important part of this review, assuming any of it is indeed important.
Gibbons’ vocals were weak and I thought at a few junctures he was going to be unable to continue. I’ll go ahead and state that maybe he was just having an off night and I honestly hope that was the case but regardless he just isn’t as strong vocally as LS.

But the real reason is no band can close a show with Sweet Home Alabama and then do a 15-minute version of Freebird (that was absolutely fabulous well beyond anything I have ever heard or experienced visually) and then less that 30 minutes later have Billy Gibbons come up with a cracking voice and play Got Me Under Pressure and do it successfully. Ain’t happening. No chance of success, just not in the cards.
Firebird is a game changer any night and this night it was a historic musical experience. It is an evening ending event not the last song before the intermission!
I actually think some of the patrons left saying ‘there is no way to follow THAT (referring to FB)’!
And you know what…. there was no way in this reviewers’ mind that ZZ Top could have succeeded in that circumstance. I can’t think of case that would have worked.

And I will close by saying I know ZZ is a Texas band and well loved, including by me, and yet it was pretty sad to watch and listen too.
Until next time help keep live music alive.