ZZ Top @ MGM National Harbor, Oxon Hill, Maryland

Featured, Live Reviews | Oct 25th, 2022

ZZ Top - MGM National Harbor
Photo by Eric Althoff

Date: October 22nd, 2022
Opening Act: Austin Meade

Dusty Gibbons has been gone since last July, and thus the question has been paramount if his surviving brother and bandmate Billy Gibbons could keep ZZ Top and its Texas tunes rolling on. Judging by the stellar show put on by Gibbons alongside drummer Frank Beard and guitarist Elwood Francis backing him up this weekend, the answer is a resounding yes!

Austin Meade - MGM National Harbor
Photo by Eric Althoff

Following a stirring, Southern blues-tinged opening set by the rather talented Austin Meade, the trio took the stage at the Theater at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Saturday evening. Wasting no time, they launched into “Got Me Under Pressure,” their hit from 1983’s album “Eliminator.” It was a stirring way to kick off an evening that, for many, would necessarily be a nostalgia trip tinged with a tear given Dusty’s absence. (Perhaps to head off any such lacrimosity, Billy never once mentioned his late brother, thus lending the evening over to rock n’ roll joy.)

Early tunes included the cover “I Thank You,” “Waitin’ for the Bus” and “Jesus Just Left Chicago.” The audience, not precisely in the prime of youth, got to their feet for “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” also from “Eliminator.” Gibbons tapped out the tune on guitar, his oh-so-familiar sunglasses and epic beard ever present. (For you Simpsons fans out there, recall when Bart went to New York City and “saw” the Gibbons brothers.) “Gimme” was followed by the smilingly naughty “Pearl Necklace” and its various double entendres.

ZZ Top - MGM National Harbor
Photo by Eric Althoff

A strange thing occurred about halfway through Top’s set: Ushers came around and seemed to be exhorting people standing up and rocking out to take their seats, to the seeming annoyance of the fans within my vision. My companion for the evening Darren, who himself is 58, joked that the ushers were probably hoping to head off a busted hip lest any of the geriatric fans get too rowdy. It was strange, and a bit disappointing, given that this was a rock show and not the symphony. However, in the rebellious spirit of rock, those fans who had taken a seat soon enough were back on their feet to bop along with the Texas trio. Take that, the Man!

“My Head’s in Mississippi” of course put in an appearance, followed by a cover of Merle Travis’s “Sixteen Tons.” Following “Just Got Paid,” Top was off to the hit parade with “Sharp Dressed Man,” about which every “girl” in the house went crazy. Gibbons, Beard and Francis left the stage at that point, only to return with furry guitars for “Legs”; recall that the video for same featured the Brothers Gibbons sporting similarly outlandish guitars that spun around like a clock.

After a bow and a few minutes offstage, the band was back—with even more outrageous duds—for a spirited encore, starting with “Brown Sugar” and the hilariously naughty “Tube Snake Boogie.” For the evening’s capper, you couldn’t do much better than “La Grange,” which, incredibly, will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in the rock pantheon next year.

ZZ Top - MGM National Harbor
Photo by Eric Althoff

Gibbons, Francis and Beard took a collective bow, and the house lights were up before they had even migrated to the wings, pulling the curtain down on the evening’s fun (were those same narc ushers in charge of the lighting booth?).

ZZ Top - MGM National Harbor
Photo by Eric Althoff

Elwood Francis indeed had big shoes to fill in Dusty Gibbons’s absence, but the ax-slinger did an admirable job, and likely silenced any potential naysayers in the crowd who might otherwise believe ZZ Top can only be fronted by the brothers. My friend Darren, who had earlier made the crack about fans potentially slipping a disc in their dancing, acknowledged at the show’s end that ZZ Top can continue on only so long as Billy Gibbons is there at front. Unlike Lynyrd Skynyrd and its many permutations, ZZ Top requires a Gibbons be at center stage.

But show up Gibbons did, with Beard and Francis faithfully and ably tackling those fun songs from the catalog. Dusty may be gone, but the Top remain tops.

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