This ZZ Top/ Black Crowes concert at the Nassau Coliseum on a Saturday night in January of 1991 is memorable for a number of reasons. The Black Crowes were coming off their hugely successful debut album and it was the first time I would see them perform. I have most recently seen the band at Jones Beach last summer ,and before that Chris and Rich Robinson performed an acoustic set at the Newport Folk Festival as Brothers of a Feather. The absolute greatest Black Crowes experience for me was catching them at the Jones Beach Theatre with Jimmy Page; this ranks up there as one of the best rock and roll shows I have ever seen. Mr. Nut and I were standing on our seats screaming, yelling and having a grand old time; that’s rock and roll!

ZZ Top’s headlining set that night was pretty cool; the stage was set up like an oversized junkyard, and at some point during an extended instrumental portion of a song, a giant claw came down over each of the individual members, picked them up one at a time, and dropped them into a giant compactor on stage (if you were paying attention you could see that a life size ZZ Top doll fell from the claw into the compacter and it was hysterical). The members were in the crusher but the music continued until the band returned in compacted cars that they drove around on the stage with only their heads sticking out (this is my memory so if I got some of this wrong, forgive me, but it was a blast). I have seen ZZ Top a number of times since then, and some blues purists may blush, but this was my favorite time seeing the band and such a fun night out.

Just Got Paid

Rock on!

GQ