Last night three of the fine fellows of the Local Buzz teamed up with some of us Advocate types (Tom Sturm and Kendra Thurlow plus me) to be ZZ Top for Transperformance. I’ve never had so much fun in a fake beard. After spending the last several years playing Gypsy jazz a la Django Reinhardt (well, except for recent stints doing rockabilly with the Econoline Kings and solo shows as Led Heflin), it seems my rock and roll muscles needed some flexing. So it felt pretty darn good to stretch out with a slide solo on "Tush" while throwing around a beard that was a fair bit larger and furrier than my dog.
The local media mafia joining forces turned out to be a swell idea. And hey–Josh Thayer, Bill Peters, and Greg Saulmon?–dudes can play. ZZ Top rocked the house last night.
Greg wrapped up the evening well, saying something along the lines of "I never thought it would be so hard to play guitar wearing a fake beard." True dat. (But he rocked like a madman anyway.)
I hope next year (or heck, next month) brings more Vuzz!
Here’s (l to r) yours truly, Josh Thayer and Tom Sturm making an attempt at choreography.
Rick Thayer photo
