{"id":2529,"date":"2015-12-03T20:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T20:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/?p=2529"},"modified":"2016-01-31T22:18:27","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T22:18:27","slug":"billy-gibbons-and-the-bfgs-cullen-performance-hall-houston-tx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/03\/billy-gibbons-and-the-bfgs-cullen-performance-hall-houston-tx\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Gibbons and the BFGs – Cullen Performance Hall – Houston, TX"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bg10\"<\/a>Written by Jim Bille<\/p>\n

Billy Gibbons took his time on going solo from his main act ZZ Top but when he finally figured it was time to do so he gathered a great ensemble, recorded an album and is now touring the U.S.<\/p>\n

Story is that Gibbons was invited to play the Havana Jazz Festival in Cuba and decided to spice up his act with new material flavoured with an Afro-Cuban beat that is heavy on the blues and rock and roll influence and that\u2019s exactly what he brought home to Houston when he performed to what appeared to be a near capacity crowd at Cullen Performance Hall on the U of H campus.<\/p>\n

Although this is a new sound for Billy Gibbons fans to get used to it\u2019s not unfamiliar territory to Gibbons. As a youngster his father, who was friends with Latin percussion master and band leader Tito Puente, sent young Billy to New York to study Latin percussion with Puente. This tutelage was well learned and obviously not forgotten over the years as Gibbons and the BFG\u2019s put a Mambo edge on the show that was an unexpected musical diversion to probably most fans in attendance.<\/p>\n

The show consisted mostly of material from the new album, \u201cPerfectemundo\u201d, which includes original music as well as a few covers.<\/p>\n

The performance opened up with a number called \u201cQvo\u201d, a hip almost full instrumental tune that featured Austin\u2019s Mike Flanigan on the Hammond B3 organ laying down a smoky sounding Jimmy Smith cool groove.<\/p>\n

The next song featured, \u201cTreat Her Right\u201d by Houston legend Roy Head, was extra special since Head was in attendance that night.<\/p>\n

Not one to be considered out of musical touch, Gibbon\u2019s even threw in a smattering of hip \u2013 hop vocals from conga player Alx \u201cGuitarzza\u201d Garza on numbers like \u201cYou\u2019re What\u2019s Happening Baby\u201d and \u201cQuiero Mas Dinero\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"bg8\"<\/a>Other Cuban tinged tunes from Perfectemundo featured were \u201cSal y Pimiento\u201d, which gets its name from a restaurant on Houston\u2019s west side and the rocking \u201cPicking Up Chicks on Dowling Street\u201d, which is a\u00a0 tip of the hat to one of Houston\u2019s more notable streets that Lightin\u2019 Hopkins used to prowl.<\/p>\n

Spicing up some old blues numbers Gibbons included Slim Harpo\u2019s \u201cGot Love if You Want It\u201d and the Lightnin\u2019 Hopkins standard \u201cBaby Please Don\u2019t Go\u201d. Another song featured that came out of left field was \u201cThe Drifter\u201d which was recorded on the duet album Makin Music from the 1970\u2019s that featured Gatemouth Brown and Roy Clark.<\/p>\n

What would the night be though without a few ZZ Top songs? Gibbons obliged the audience with three ZZ numbers that included a salsa tinged \u201cTen Foot Pole\u201d from the ZZ Top\u2019s El Loco release, \u201cThunderbird\u201d which was originally recorded by The Nightcaps back in the 1950\u2019s and was featured on ZZ Top\u2019s album Fandango as well as the first encore number \u201cLa Grange\u201d.<\/p>\n

The final encore tune was a surprising version of \u201cWhole Lotta Love\u201d with Alx Garza on vocals. I\u2019m not convinced that a hip-hop version of this song quite worked but it was interesting to say the least.<\/p>\n

The BFG\u2019s consist of Martine\u201cG.G.\u201dGuiGui on keyboards, Mike Flanigin on Hammond B-3 organ, Alex \u201cGuitarzza\u201d Garza on percussion, SoZo and Melanie DiLorenzo, on duelling and sometimes synchronized drums.<\/p>\n

It was a rare treat to see the Reverend Billy G step out of his well rooted comfort zone and stretch his talents out. Hope to hear more from him sooner than later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Jim Bille Billy Gibbons took his time on going solo from his main act ZZ Top but when he finally figured it was time to do so he gathered a great ensemble, recorded an album and is now touring the U.S. Story is that Gibbons was invited to play the Havana Jazz Festival… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2630,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529\/revisions\/2630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}