They played their first Beaumont gig to 13 people. Now, they get a crack at more than 18,000.

That little ol' band from Texas, ZZ Top, joined by Mr. "Family Tradition" himself, Hank Williams Jr., will appear in concert June 26 at the Ford Amphitheater, 5155 Interstate 10 in Beaumont.



This is an A+ Quality Audience Recording with a Sony DAT M1 and core sound mics from the 5th row. This was my 8th time to see ZZ Top, and my 8th audience recording. Not only is this the best recording I have ever pulled off but it was also the best show I've seen. The band was totally on and they pulled out some older stuff that has not been heard for decades, live that is! The new set list is really cool and they sound top notch. Billy is being very creative with lead guitar, Dusty's vocals are perfectly astounding and Frank was having a good time and really getting into the drums big time. Frank was grinning which I have never seen him do before. Frank was also playing with his eyes closed for a good amount of time, smokin' in between songs as well.

9:22 PM the band enters the stage together from the center of the black curtain behind the Mescalero drums with what appear to have a new larger bass drum with some type of wild looking outside flexible airfoil or duct type case that expands with the bass. Very odd looking. Standard chrome mics. Very bare stage. No huts, cacti, dog, or even the normal speakers/amps. Just 4 very small amps/speakers (about 1 foot high by 2 feet wide) and that was it. Billy was using a guitar I do not remember seeing before. It had a solid black face, with the sides and back being red. Dusty had a solid black bass that I believe he used for the whole show with the exception of legs when both fuzzy guitars were used. Billy switched to what looks exactly like the Bo Diddley red Gretch for the encore. Billy was using a red slide with the gretch. Frank was wearing black jeans and a black T-Shirt along with his gloves. Billy & Dusty were wearing the same black sequined suits as in Dallas on June 6th, however this time both Billy and Dusty were wearing black Wrangler jeans instead of dress slacks. Billy had on his funky green African cap for the entire show and Dusty wore a light grey cowboy hat the entire show. While Dusty had on some long black cowboy boots, The Rev. was wearing a redish brown pair of work boots which had mud all over them. Billy was wearing that same large chrome ring he always has on. The only time the dress was changed was for the encore when Billy & Dusty changed their coats to some very cool looking blue velvet sport coats with iridescent sequins. They were using a red tray in front of the drums to swap out picks and slides, and Billy's cigar during Tush. There were two sombreros laying on the small monitor speakers on Billy's side, one of which fell off during the 1st verse of Pin Cushion, and Billy picked it up and put it back on the amp. We expected them to put them on at some point but they never did.

Pablo & Wendy were both there. Pablo was checking things out from the mixing station to stage left even before the opening act of Hank Williams, Jr. came on. There appears to be a different drum tech other than John Douglas, and there are also two new younger guys that were at the mixing boards that I have never seen before.

It had been raining bad coming to the show and streets around the Ford Park were flooded pretty bad, up to a foot deep in some areas. It has been raining big time in Houston for the last week and there have been constant flood warnings, rain and storms. A huge amount of traffic was coming from the East on I-10 as opposed to from the West (from Houston) surprisingly. Must have been a lot of people from Lousiana there as evidenced by the license plates. The rain storms finally stopped and it never rained during the show, much to the relief of the people out on the lawn. The entire place (Ford Park) is really nice and is better than the Woodlands Pavillion. There were 18,000+ people, sold out show and according to the 1st announcer (who mentioned that Bill Hamm was there) this was the largest concert in the entire history of Beaumont Texas.

People had a great time, did a little smokin', but it was hard as even though this evert was outside it was non smoking! Security was tight but some drunk dude managed to leap onstage (about a 5.5 foot leap) and started walking towards Dusty pretty fast. When he got about 2 feet from Dusty the bands own security ran out and managed to get him off the stage and back on the ground. The arena security really screwed up there and the guys standing there got chewed out pretty good by their supervisor. Some people were using Mescalero tour passes to take photos even though the new tour badges are blue and grey. One of the people using the old pass from last tour got pretty drunk and took out about 3-4 other people with him when he did a swan dive over some seats right in front of us. The crowd had a great time! Thanks Mike (from the Volcano party November in Houston) for coming over to say hello before the show! Great memory to recognise me in the crowd, you surprised the hell outta me! Hahah!

A high point of this show was the trio of new (old) songs added to the new set list! New T-Shirts were there with all the new tour dates on them. Beer was cheap, they needed more restrooms big time, staff was friendly and this is a great place to see a concert! I would go back to Beaumont to see ZZ play there at Ford Park again! The sound is excellent as well! There were also three video screens and the entire show was shown on video to people on the lawn.

It appears as though the Ross Mitchell type intro is over. Also, Precious & Grace, Catfish Blues & Piece have been dropped from the set list. Also no Just Got Paid Today, Rough Boy or Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers. They only song played from Mescalero was Buck Nekkid. (4) Beach balls were tossed around by the crowd for almost the entire show starting during Sharp Dressed man. Dusty kicked the ball back to the crowd twice, Billy actually stopped playing guitar during Sharp Dressed Man and walked off the back of the stage to get the ball and tossed it back to the crowd. The crowd threw it back to them and Billy kicked it off stage again. They were not bothered by the beach balls and it was cool that they kept tossing and kicking them back. While I was in the 5th row, the way the front seats curved around there was no one in front of me so it was basically front row about 30 feet from Dusty. And of course Billy made frequent visits to our side of the stage. All three band members look great, healthy and energetic. Once again they made it look like child's play and they were obviously having a great time. Dusty does a LOT of singing with this new set list and it's very interesting to hear I'm Going Down, Party On The Patio & Viva Las Vegas with the added maturity to his voice in the last decade + since those songs have been done live. And Billy really tears it up something quite beautiful during I'm Going Down. That's an excellent live song. Well they all are. This is a bitchin' setlist! Go See ZZ this summer!!! Okay, nuff said. Let's get to the music.... Here we go;

Intro :

To a fading background of Depeche Mode "Your Own Personal Jesus" a new and different announcer comes on stage and says "Ladies & Gentleman it's showtime! It's a summertime sensation yes, it's startime, with Billy, Dusty & Mr. Beard. It's that little 'ol band from Texas, Z Z Top!"

As Bill Hamm was at the show, this might have been him but I am not sure. If anyone knows please let me know.

CD Contents / Setlist:

A) Mic, drum, lead guitar & bass sound tests
B) 1st introduction
C) Second introduction (as above) 10 minutes later as band enters

1) Pincushion
2) Waitin' For The Bus
3) Jesus Just Left Chicago (Beaumont)
4) I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide
5) Manic Mechanic
6) Buck Nekkid
7) Mexican Blackbird
8) I Loved A Woman
9) Cheap Sunglasses
10) BFG Guitar Solo (leads into I'm Goin' Down as a medley)
11) I'm Goin' Down (has not been performed live since 1981)
12) Party On The Patio (has not been performed live since 1997)
13) Viva Las Vegas (has not been performed live since 1994)
14) Gimme All Your Lovin'
15) Sharp Dressed Man
16) Legs (with fuzzy guitars)

Encore :

17) Tube Steak Boogie
18) La Grange
19) Tush (Beaumont Texas)


Master>CDR>Nero copy>Trade>CDR>EAC>Flac lvl6