![]() ![]() But in 1980, ZZ Top were one of the (if not the) most powerful trios in all of rock, and Live in Germany 1980 helps confirm this claim once and for all. Shortly after this concert was recorded, ZZ Top got a bit handcuffed by gimmicks (long beards, wacky-looking guitars) and electronics. ![]() The word "explosive" springs to mind upon coming in close contact with "Heard It on the X" and "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers," and the hits that made ZZ Top synonymous with classic rock radio are included as well - "La Grange," "Tush," etc. And as expected, the tunes take on a life all their own throughout - "Jesus Just Left Chicago," "Precious and Grace," and "Cheap Sunglasses" sound even more muscular and strut-heavy on a concert stage. Featuring half of the audio portion of their 2009 Double Down Live DVD, Live in Germany 1980 does a fantastic job of displaying all of the group's pre- Eliminator classics in a concert setting. But as they say, it's better late than never, and 2011 finally saw the arrival of an archival live ZZ Top recording, Live in Germany 1980. During their performance as part of the Rockpalast Night in the Essen Grugahalle, they played classics from their 1979 album Degello ('I Thank You. Their success in Europe is mainly accredited to their brilliant live album Live in Germany 1980. ZZ Top cleverly reference past glories without succumbing to recycling: "I Gotsta Get Paid" could have wallowed in the Rio Grande Mud, "Chartreuse" boogies as relentlessly as "Tush," "Have a Little Mercy" winks at "Waitin' for the Bus," and they revive the arena rock of the '80s with "Flyin' High." What makes these songs really cook is how ZZ Top are celebrating everything that they've taken for granted for decades - they're embracing the sleazy boogie, the dirty jokes, the locomotive riffs, the saturated blues, the persistent lecherous leer, and by doing so they finally sound like themselves again.Interestingly, while always priding themselves on being a kick-ass live band, ZZ Top never got around to issuing a full-length live album during their 1970s/1980s peak. With their 1973 album Tres Hombres ZZ Top achieved their well-deserved breakthrough in the USA. Far from hiding his ragged singing, Gibbons and Rubin have it battle the thick blasts of fuzz guitars throughout the whole of the album, noise that even splatters the slow 12-bar form of "Heartache in Blue." It's a thick, tactile sound that's invigorating - the smack of Frank Beard's snare is infectious - and that alone would make La Futura a success, but what makes it a triumph is the coolly efficient songwriting. ZZ Top have the weathered interplay of vets who've been doing this for almost their entire lives and Billy Gibbons' gravelly growl has now withered into a gnarly, strangled croak, almost primal in its ugliness. And there's no mistaking that this lil' ol' band from Texas is indeed old - and its age is part of the pleasure of La Futura. Rubin returns real drums to ZZ Top but doesn't entirely strip away drum machines, giving La Futura just enough of a futuristic shimmer to live up to its name, just enough of the present to make it feel of the moment. ![]() Certainly, La Futura is the best album from ZZ Top since that '80s landmark but it flips Eliminator on its head, using synthesized elements as accents, not as a skeleton. Gibbons sits at the mixing board with Rubin and together they revive the Top's dirty '70s boogie, never quite forgetting the coolly propulsive stylized rock of Eliminator. La Futura is that long-awaited ZZ Top record, their first full-length in nearly a decade (the last was 2003's Mescalero) and, more remarkably, their first-ever album to bear a production credit by somebody who is neither Billy Gibbons nor longtime manager Bill Ham, who left the organization in 2006. ZZ Top have long been a prime candidate for a Rick Rubin-led comeback, having long ago settled into an insular digital rut that paid back increasingly small dividends. ![]()
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