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ZZ TOP
+ George Thorogood
and The Destroyers
+ Dallas Frasca
@ Adelaide Entertainment Centre,
Adelaide,
29th April 2025
(Live Review)

Review and photos by Michael Selge (@oz.craftypics)

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ZZ TOP / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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It’s been 25 years since ZZ Top played a gig in Adelaide so there was a fair amount of excitement and anticipation with fans turning up in band T shirts and long beards both real and fake with the crowd being  generally an older demographic. Accompanying ZZ Top on the bill was another legendary Blues rock band George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

The Elevation tour has the original founding guitarist Billy Gibbons,  along with Elwood Francis on bass who replaced Dusty Hill who passed away in 2021. It was originally hoped that drummer Frank Beard would play on this Australian tour but he had to pull out on medical grounds, replaced by drummer John Douglas.

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DALLAS FRASCA / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Australia’s own Dallas Frasca starting off the evenings entertainment taking to the stage as a Solo artist with her trademark Red hair. We were reminded that she was originally from Adelaide and whilst the set was short there was lots of blistering guitar and strong raspy blues vocals  on the opening tracks and then finishing up her set with a Led Zeppelin compilation. Judging from the audience reaction I reckon Dallas Frasca won a few fans and I’d recommend catching her playing with her own band rather than a backing track for the full experience of her musicianship.

After a short break George Thorogood came onto the stage with his band The Destroyers who have been rocking now for over 50 years.  Opening the Set with “Rock Party” set the scene for a night of Rock/blues from a veteran of the genre. Next up was a cover of “Who Do You Love” originally played by Bo Diddley but was commercially a very successful cover when played by George Thorogood with his trademark slide guitar. There were plenty of references to Adelaide in the banter between songs as well as some replacement of locations with Adelaide sprinkled throughout.

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GEORGE THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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One of the frequent features in the set is the use of open string tuning, slide guitar and accompanying saxophone and mid set a couple of drinking songs made the list with “I Drink Alone”  followed by a  guitar solo with just George and the drums on stage before the rest of the band rejoined for a cover of John Lee Hooker’s classic “One bourbon, one scotch, one beer” which had the crowd singing along and George making a public service announcement not to drink and drive and thanking the crowd for the beautiful Australian accents and for singing along.

George said it was “time to get sophisticated”, opening into “Get a haircut and get a real job” during which George threw a live wireless mic to one of the crew to concentrate on guitar playing.  As the song ended he grabbed a glass from stage side, took a drink and threw the cup away and commented “Yuck that was tea”.  Changing up the pace next was rock song “Gear Jammer” with plenty of slide and saxophone filling out the soundscape.

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GEORGE THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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There was a quick acknowledgement and appreciation of the the loyal support of the Australian fans before George and the Destroyers broke into the Hank Williams classic 12 bar blues  “Move It On Over”.

It was nearing the end of the set when George put his guitar aside, donned a scarf and broke into a rendition of Gloria with a vocal crowd singalong before the final song, which was the signature original George Thorogood track “Bad To The Bone” which included a lyric change to “make the Adelaide girls squeal”. It was a quality performance from one of the masters of Boogie blues.

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ZZ TOP / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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The short break ensued and many in the crowd went out to grab a drink. Not sure what the ratio of Bourbon, scotch and beer was but the lines were long. The stage setting for ZZ Top was sparse with 2 banks of coloured Magnatone Amps/speakers either side of the drumkit and a couple of Microphones on coloured Cylinders in front of the drumkit.

Billy and Elwood took to the stage in Sparkling jackets and sunglasses with Elwood sporting his oversized yellow fender bass that looks quite spectacular until you realise much of the instrument is unplayable due to its excessive width  with only the top and bottom strings getting a workout. John Douglas who was filling in on drums for Dusty,  was barely visible behind the drum kit. The focus of the whole show was really on Billy and Elwood.

The opening track “Got Me Under Pressure”  started the night but by the second song Elwood had replaced the oversize 17 string bass for a traditional bass for the second song “I Thank You”. Slowing the pace a little ZZ Top broke into a couple of tracks from the 1973 Album Tres Hombres with renditions of “Waiting For The Bus” and  the slow gritty swampy sounds of “Jesus Just Left Chicago” before picking up the pace with the rocking blues of  “Gimme All Your Loving”.

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ZZ TOP / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Billy’s husky gravel voice is made for singing the blues and when together with Elwood the subtle hip sways, crouching, gyrations and synchronized leans in time with the grooves was found to be quite mesmerising and a feature of many of the songs.

Whilst the original studio version of “ I gotsa get paid”  is in itself very grungy and distorted the  live version sounded a bit too muddy in the mix and at times got lost. The sound mix cleaned up in the next few tracks “My heads in Mississippi” and “sixteen tons” with Billy making a reference between songs to their touring days with the late Jeff Beck.

“Just Got Paid”  started the final 3 songs in the main set followed by another 2 hit songs from the album Eliminator,” Sharp Dressed Man” with the crowd in full voice singing the Chorus and then a change to white fluffy adorned rectangular instruments in homage to the original film clip as they broke into their hit song “Legs”.

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ZZ TOP / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Coming back for the encore Billy and Elwood had undergone a costume change and were now sporting matching Pink jackets with white leafy highlights  The encore started off with the track “Brown Sugar” from the bands first album, followed by the “Tube Snake Boogie”.

The night was coming to a close but there was one song the crowd was yet to hear and is their most recognisable track so when the first notes were played the crowd erupted with Billy stating he “had better do that thing” .  Despite the fact that the band have been playing this for decades, Elwood and Billy genuinely seem to bounce energy off each other in front of the speaker stacks as they traded the very recognisable Riffs from the song from their instruments with embedded screens.  On stage they had bubble machines on the outer edge of each speaker bank and it looked like only one functioned, but they really didn’t need them so it was no great loss.

As the band left the stage you had to wonder whether this was the last time ZZ Top would take to the stage. They still have lots of shows on the elevation tour as well as Red Hot Summer Tour to play so if you want to see before they hang up their sparkly jackets then you better be quick.

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ZZ TOP / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Check out Michael Selge’s (@oz.craftypics) full gallery of this event HERE

Check out Lucas Packett’s (@lucas.packett.photography) full gallery of the Melbourne event (Red Hot Summer Tour @ Mornington Racecourse, Mornington, Vic, 27th April 2025) HERE

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ZZ TOP / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Follow ZZ TOP
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Spotify

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ZZ TOP / Photo – @oz.craftypics

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Press Release 9th April 2025 (below) HERE

ZZ TOP
& GEORGE THOROGOOD
announce
DALLAS FRASCA
as support for upcoming
Australia dates

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AMNPLIFY – DB