Aftermath can not begin to tell you how much of a beacon ZZ Top was for him over the past few days. The lil' ol' band from Texas' RodeoHouston finale may not have had anything to do with SXSW per se, but knowing the first thing he would be doing upon returning to Houston was heading down to Reliant Park to watch the Bearded Ones and the Beardless One Named Beard kept him going. And sure enough, nothing in Austin last week could compare to watching ZZ do its thang in front of more than 64,000 screaming hometown fans.
Conquering Reliant Stadium's cavernous acoustics - actually, the mix made songs like "Jesus Just Left Chicago," "Just Got Paid" and "Cheap Sunglasses" sound extra Mississippi muddy - the trio tossed in twangy covers of Johnny Cash's "Get Rhythm" and Hank Snow's "I'm Movin On" before closing out with the patented power-boogie of "La Grange" and "Tush." After half a week of hipster hell, it sure was nice to be back in the land of turkey legs and funnel cakes.
