ZZ Top
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Hartford Civic Center
Hartford, Connecticut
January 20, 1999
A southern rocker’s tag team dream come true! Never before had the two toured together. Skynyrd was touring on the largely excellent “Edge of Forever” and ZZ Top with “XXX.”
Skynyrd opened the show with “Workin’ from the new album, and then from there they stayed close to the vest belting out hit after hit – “Saturday Night Special”, “Gimme Three Steps”, “Tuesday’s Gone”, “I Know a Little”, “Sweet Home Alabama”, and the perennial show closer “Freebird.” The late Hughie Thomasson ripped on Ed King’s solos during “Sweet…” while Rickey Medlocke paid homage to the late Allen Collins by taking his leads into another dimension. And let’s not forget the late and still incomparable Billy Powell on the keys; he positively shone at this show.
While Skynyrd was simply amazing, ZZ Top were not. This had to be a low point in their illustrious career. Billy, Frank and Dusty basically went through the motions. And Billy was so thin he looked sickly. I, like many others, prefer the pre-“Eliminator” material, but all we got were the MTV hits of the 80s. No one can deny the band’s talents, but on this night Skynyrd were heads and tails better than that little ol’ band from Texas.
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