Billy Gibbons Up Close And Not So Personable

****News Flash**** After another disaster in Newcastle last night where Billy played 3 songs and supposedly stormed off…and did not do the meet and greet with the fans afterward…Gibbons has canceled the last remaining show.
Haw Haw Haw Haw….11 Jan 2018

WELL AT LEAST THE SECOND VERSION OF LA GRANGE WAS BETTER….

Surrealism comes in many shapes in sizes or does it? Surreal theatre, or vaudeville, in Floral Park Movie Theatre (for a Police Benevolent Society Fundraiser) high on acid watching Tiny Tim and George Jessel, The Ink Spots and others was surreal. Up Close and Personal with Billy F Gibbons at Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul was crap.

With very little notice a short tour was announced with Gibbons doing 2 shows in Thirroul, one in Newcastle and one in Brisbane. I was surprised there was little fanfare and the localities were a tad different then major cities, so who knew what was going on. Maybe Billy needed something to write off his trip to Australia as a tax deduction. Bottom line Billy wrote off a number of longtime fans with this escapade.

Starting the evening of ‘entertainment’ was the Billy’s backing ban for this show, The Billy TZ’z. They played a ZZ Top song and then Billy came out to an excited crowd looking forward to some guitar licks. Gibbons launched into La Grange, which is normally an encore number for ZZ Top, and I thought, “well, that is shooting your load a bit too early”.

Hoping for more fretwork, even with a mediocre backing band, the crowd had to wait. A couch, a chair and compere were wheeled out to move on with the proceedings and talk to Billy about his life. The most idiotic and banal interview then took place. With a notebook on his lap, the questions were as simple as, “So how do you guys stay together for so long?” (Billy answered….”Separate buses”).

The MC had very little knowledge of ZZ Top and Billy did not seem engaged with him at all. Lead up to questions were thanking Billy for his music and patting his ego and I found out nothing about Gibbons or ZZ Top that I did not already know. Gibbons was slouched on the couch looking as if he had spent the day knocking back cold frosty beers. His answers were short and not enlightening at all.

So the first hour was over and people went for a 15 minute break and Billy had played 2 songs. People were looking bemused and trying to find a silver lining that may lay ahead in the second half. Having read some comments on the previous night, I advised them it was probably not going to get any better.

Billy’s traveling companion for these gigs and Australian jaunt is Jimmy Shine. Who? Yes, that was the question many asked. He is a Hot Rod builder from California who has been good mates with Billy for 20 odd years. Word is there is  a TV Show in the works with the two starring, so maybe that was part of the trip to Australia. Who the hell knows?

Jimmy talked Hot Rods for a bit and then the floor was opened up for a Q and A. Fortunately there were very few Rev Head questions except for one that was so technical you could see the audience scratching their heads. Shine sat there with a beer in his hand, made wisecracks that made Gibbons laugh and generally gave the compere a hard time about his lack of ability to interview properly. What a show!

I was hiding my laughter at how bad it was at times by holding my head down. Unfortunately, it was not even that funny.

Billy was asked many questions. Unfortunately, he either is going deaf or was not listening or the playback on stage was off, because he had to have the MC repeat some of them. That did not help much.

A prime example was when an audience member asked Gibbons about playing with Duane Allman and what impressions that made on him. He rambled on about losing Duane so young and now losing Gregg but never got back to talking about playing with Duane when he was alive. He did the same thing when asked about jamming with Stevie Ray Vaughan. He never answered the questions, just rambled onto something else, like talking about recently playing with Jimmy Vaughan.

Quite possibly the highly rated senseless question was from an audience member who asked if Billy had heard of 2 Australian musicians and Billy was lost in thought for a second and he said, “No”. The audience member said well check them out, you will love them. The gentleman to my left said, “We have never heard of them either.”

And the most amusing answer was how did Billy deal with being a such recognized rock star when he is out in the world…..he ran his hand through his beard and replied, “ I can easily got out on Halloween each year and people are amazed at how good my ZZ Top costume is.”

Gibbons either has a bad memory, cannot hear, or did not want to be in attendance at this gig. So the Q and A finished off and Billy wanted to play some more guitar, and the audience was ready and we were hoping for some fireworks. Instead, Billy decided to play a little blues riff and then launched into La Grange for the second time tonight. Yes, it was better than the first visit to that classic boogie, but really, who plays the same song twice unless it is a really, really long gig! Even The Grateful Dead did not do that in a gig that lasted hours longer than this thing.

All up we got 3 songs played by Billy, 4 if you count La Grange twice. Word has it he was not very forthcoming to the meet and greet VIP ticket holders, begrudgingly posed for pictures and did not sign memorabilia people brought along with them. These true fans paid 175 dollars for the privilege to bask in his ‘greatness’, hear very little music and then be treated poorly for the extra dollars.

To put the number of songs Billy did in perspective, Jacob Lee a young singer and son of the bass player of the band, sang 3 songs after the intermission. Granted the third song was Viva Las Vegas which Billy came out and played on, but who the hell is Jacob Lee and why was he even performing?

The Brewer Brothers are noted as the producers of this event and I have no idea who they are but if you are planning an event of any sort, don’t look to them for any level of professionalism. They should be ashamed.

I had one idea for a question at the event but held my tongue. It was: Billy, besides this tragic idea for an event, are there any career or musical decisions that you regret as much as this?” I have a feeling the audience would have appreciated it…..But I might be mistaken.

A haw haw haw haw….

PS-I messaged Jimmy Shine on Sunday to see if Billy or he would have a word with me about this series of performances as I would have liked to have heard it from them. No reply….

Statement From Billy F Gibbons Facebook Page

Statement regarding Billy Gibbons Up Close & Personal dates in Australia:

Audience expectations regarding Billy Gibbons’ role as a performing musician in the recent Up Close & Personal dates through Australia seem not to have been in line with what he was asked to do when his services were engaged last year.

Mr. Gibbons was contracted to appear on those dates to discuss his passion for custom cars and hot rods with Jimmy Shine and to sign autographs and greet fans with no musical component called for or anticipated in the arrangement. It should be noted that, based on that understanding, he didn’t even bring, nor did he request musical equipment appropriate to such a performance.

It appears that these dates were promoted in such a way as miscommunicate to ticket holders that a substantial musical performance would be part of these events. Billy Gibbons, ever the consummate professional, had not planned nor prepared that kind of program and regrets that his role in those dates appears to him been grossly misstated.