So it was an invitation to go to a boys night out for some hellraisin' and beer drinkin'. I put on my cheap sunglasses and headed to West Valley college to meet the guys. We waited for the bus, six sharp dressed men, looking for some tush.... okay, enough of that.

The shuttle to Villa Montalvo is the only way to go. No parking hassles, (and less to drive drunk) We got some pretty decent food, some good beer and less good wine and settled into our seats. The Montalvo Garden Theatre is a good place to see a show. It gets a bit cold later in the month, but it was still nice out tonight. Usually the shows I've seen here are more jazzy. Heck, I saw Liza Minelli here (yes she put on a good show). So it's not really the place you'd expect to see ZZ Top.

SInce it's pretty small (especially for a band that's filled stadiums) every seat was great and it felt fairly intimate. This threesome definitely felt like they were having fun. I hadn't seen them for years and last time I saw them they had a pretty fun looking stage. Well, it wasn't all that, but the stage was set up nice, good lights and cool speaker stacks. The drum kit looked like a motorcycle and mic stands like tail pipes.

They still have the beards ( how genius! If they ever quit, they will never get mobbed in private as long as they shave off the beards) These guys are old, but they look great. Billy still is one of the most under-rated guitar players. They have played together 35 years and it shows. They were tight. And they were having fun!

Since they really only have a couple of hits, I guess you could say they played all their hits, but they definitely didn't get to play near all the songs I'd have liked to heard. The ones they did play rocked. One of the guys I was with commented how much sound this band puts out with just three guys. Obviously the band is based around Billy Gibbons, but Dusty Hill plays a mean bass and Frank Beard (the only one with no beard) plays pretty damn good drums.These guys could probably play these songs in their sleep, but they weren't slacking tonight.

In addition to their favorites, they had a couple of Elvis covers, they played their fuzzy guitars, and plain just had fun. We danced and cavorted. And we, of course, had on our sunglasses. I wish they would have played longer (and I for sure wish I could see them in some place like JJ's Blues Cafe), but I left wanting to listen to all their albums again, just to re-appreciate how good they were (and to listen to the songs I wish they would have played, like Tube Snake Boogie).

Check out: http://www.zztop.com