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ZZ Top Doubles Down With New Live Set

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by Gary Graff, Detroit  |   August 31, 2009 11:08 EDT

ZZ Top will feature performances from 1980 and 2008 on its next concert DVD, "Double Down Live," which is due out Oct. 20 on Eagle Rock.

The "Definitely Then" half of the two-disc set features a 22-song performance from the 1980 "Deguello" tour that was filmed at the Gurgahalle in Essen, Germany, for the TV series "Rockpalast." The second disc, sub-titled "Almost Now" features footage shot at a variety of dates last year, including shows in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Calif., and other locales, guitarist Billy Gibbons tells Billboard.com.

"(The DVD) shows that one thing's for sure -- we've maintained our propensity not only to play loud but have a good time kind of bouncing around the deck," Gibbons says of the set. "With only three guys in the band there's plenty of room to create havoc and raise a little sand. That's what we've kind of always done."

ZZ Top is, in fact, doing that now, even after its tour with Aerosmith was scrubbed following Steven Tyler's stage fall on Aug. 6 in Sturgis, S.D. Gibbons says that his band, which was not in Sturgis with Aerosmith, started receiving offers to play its own headlining dates "within 72 hours" of Aerosmith pulling the plug, and he says ZZ Top's itinerary -- which is booked into late October with dates in North America, Singapore, the Netherlands and the U.K. -- is designed "to at least attempt to return to the previously booked markets and add a few along the way so we can make a well-rounding outing of this thing."

Once it comes off the road, Gibbons says ZZ Top plans to return to the studio with producer Rick Rubin and possibly the Black Keys to continue working on the Texas trio's follow-up to 2003's "Mescalero." "The first crack out of the box will start off with something somewhat predictable, making taking a blues direction, and then we'll see," Gibbons notes. "Rick Rubin is a guy with a lot of good, original ideas, so I'm sure he'll have a fresh vision for things to do with ZZ Top, and we can't wait."

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