Review: Legends rock city amphitheater

Published: August 5, 2007

Some Texas thunder and 1980s pop and bop were mixed in a smorgasbord of classic rock at the Oklahoma City Zoo amphitheater Friday night.

While the buffet of sounds boomed back to 1969, the main course was a huge helping of 1980s hits from three legendary bands.

Headliner ZZ Top, The Pretenders and The Stray Cats brought out their hits from the early years of MTV and blasted them to the packed, tree-lined slope off Martin Luther King Avenue.

The Stray Cats

With a tongue-wagging, pompadour-sporting cat grinning in lights above the stage, Brian Setzer's orange 1959 Gretsch guitar and Fender tube amp rang out the rockabilly revival licks of the Reagan era.

The Stray Cats kicked into high gear with "Rumble in Brighton,” as the wiry stand-up drummer Slim Jim Phantom and bass slappin' Lee Rocker proved they still have that certain cat rhythm.

Lee Rocker celebrated his birthday Friday as if he'd only had a few since he first manhandled an upright bass fiddle.

"This is a song I wrote in Lee's garage about my neighbor's cat,” Setzer said. "This was one of the first songs on MTV. You know, when they used to play music.”

They didn't miss a step on "Stray Cat Strut.”

In his black leather slacks, Setzer bounced on his feet as he did some 20 years ago; his fingers were every bit as slick on the guitar neck and his vocals just as rich.

The Pretenders

She once followed such women of rock as Blondie, Pat Benatar and Joan Jett.

And Friday, Chrissie Hynde, in her knee-high boots and tight jeans, showed she hadn't lost a beat or her figure. She opened a treasure chest of pop with "Message of Love,” "Back on The Chain Gang,” "Middle of the Road” and "Brass in Pocket.”

Hynde said she visited The Flaming Lips Alley while touring Oklahoma City and liked the urban renewal here.

"If only they could do something like that in my hometown of Akron, Ohio,” she said before singing "My City Was Gone.”

ZZ Top

The real 72 ounce steak for most of the hundreds standing through the hot summer evening was the men who wore long white beards and hats and synchronized their steps and strums.

They took their name from two kinds of cigarette rolling papers, and ZZ Top let no one down who wanted to burn a few 1970s monster hits such as "Jesus Just Left Chicago” and "Tush.”

Many fans, who first heard the band's scorching Texas jams in the 1980s, sang along to "Legs,” "Cheap Sunglasses,” "Gimme All Your Lovin',” "Sharp Dressed Man,” "Tube Snake Boogie” and the too-cool-for-school "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide.”

Singer Billy Gibbons talked about eating barbecue in Oklahoma City. And he played a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, "Foxy Lady,” while lights that looked like flames bounced behind them.

The B-52s, Elvis Costello, the Eurythmics, Aztec Camera, Social Distortion and others played the zoo in the early and mid-1980s, but not since then have so many hits of that decade been found on the outdoor stage on the same night.

Robert Medley, Staff Writer

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