090791 ZZ Top/Extreme, Ottawa, ON

On September 7th, 1991 I walked to the Ottawa Civic Centre to see ZZ Top and Extreme.  I distinctly recall being really excited about this show; I had long been a fan of ZZ Top and was especially psyched to hear Billy Gibbons play the guitar, but having Extreme on the bill pushed things over the edge for me.

I was living in a large house on First Avenue, just five avenues from the venue.  It was a big, beautiful Glebe house that the landlord had – in a fit of blindingly poor judgement – rented to a group of nine near-hooligans who paid the rent with student loans and beer bottle money and heated the place by burning pizza boxes and Jim Watson election signs in the gorgeous, overly-ornate fireplace.

I’m telling you, this was a nice place, and yet we nine treated it like it was Animal House, which I suppose was a nice place too before the Delta’s moved in.  I could write a book about our short time there were it not for the multiple nondisclosure agreements that were agreed upon in tight moments, many of which were signed in blood or worse.

Me and Jojo had our room set up in the basement, which quickly became the main hangout space for the whole tribe and the two real-live bats that shared our subterranean space.  On the night in question Jojo and I and another of our roommates Alex prepped for the concert down there by blasting the title track from Extreme’s Get The Funk Out over and over and over again.  Nuno Bettencourt was just the right blend of cerebral modal technician and widdly-widdly dumb old guitar freakout for me at the time, sitting as I was on the cusp of my Def Leppard days and my coming love for guys like Lenny Breau and Charlie Parker.

And while I might be embarrassed to admit how many times I’ve played More Than Words and Hole Hearted around the campfire over the years I will say with much confidence that those horns in Get The Funk Out…man!  They are positively Stevie Wonder-esque.  

So like I say, we got pumped up like frothy teenagers listening to the opening track on repeat for a solid hour at full volume, no doubt over a pint or three.  And then a short summer stroll through the leafy streets of The Glebe and our tickets were punched. 

I seem to remember being on the floor for this show, but that might not be true.  I do remember the three of us being thrilled by Extreme’s opening set.  It couldn’t have gone any other way – by the time we had walked into the arena we had already well-convinced ourselves of the band’s greatness.  Nuno wowed us with his stellar command of the guitar and that singer…what’s his name, Sammy Cherone?  Or is it Gary Lee Roth…anyway, he’s got the pipes, especially for the band’s borderline cheesy FM MOR post-hair metal sound*.

He’d probably be pretty good in musicals too.  Or on The Voice or something.

ZZ Top was great, and I loved every minute.  In addition to a wealth of excellent material, a bang-on rhythm section, and a guitarist who the incomparable Jimi Hendrix once said would be the best player in America, the band had some really fun stage tricks for us.

At one point I remember two (or was it all three?) of them driving around the stage in tiny vehicles that looked like Shriner-style miniature bumper cars.  But the best bit were the two moving sidewalks that were built into each side of the stage.  With their dry, statuesque stage presence Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons variably walked towards or away from each other while remaining perfectly in place on the moving platforms.  At other times they would stand still and let the sidewalks slide them back and forth in unison.  It was a subtle recurring stage trick and it was awesome.

And quite appropriate really.  Before starting ZZ Top Billy Gibbons was in a band called The Moving Sidewalks.

Really, the only disappointment of the night was that the band didn’t play my favourite ZZ Top song, Cheap Sunglasses.  That would come eventually though, many years later.  After a show this fun I was certainly not through with ZZ Top.  

Or Extreme I suppose – who I saw at least once more, if not twice – though (like the rest of the world) I would be done with them soon enough.

*Did I really say “borderline”?