We review Red Hot Summer: ZZ Top, George Thorogood, The Living End, Baby Animals, Rose Tattoo, Dallas Frasca at Mornington Racecourse.
For those not already aware, the legend that is Dallas Frasca is rocking out solo these days. She’s manifested the perfect amount of breeze to keep her fuchsia-dipped tresses off her face, so no Beyoncé fan is needed today as Frasca opens Red Hot Summer Tour’s second 2025 series with aplomb.
Many punters surrounding us admit they were previously unaware of Frasca, but after just one song they’re singing her praises. During the “soft and sexy” section of her set, Frasca’s smoked-honey vocals are showcased to perfection. River Queen’s lung-busting sustained note is absolutely astonishing. Then as Let It Rain’s staggering, descending riff fully kicks in, the rock gods approve.
Frasca holds her own solo, not only as a vocalist – Heart’s Ann Wilson springs to mind! – but also guitarist. She closes with a Zep medley, which is sure to drive ticket sales for her recently announced Dallas Frasca Plays Led Zeppelin – A Rock’N’Roll Reckoning tour. When it comes to Frasca, Whole Lotta Love is an understatement.
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“I’m a bad boy,” Rose Tattoo’s 77-year-old frontman Angry Anderson bellows. There’s much peacocking up on stage as everyone’s favourite Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaws bust out their authentic pub-rock anthems. Angry explains rock’n’roll is a “reciprocal” energy exchange between band and crowd. He regularly encourages clap-alongs – “Feels good, doesn’t it?” – and slings off at the bums in camp chairs, who choose to maintain a safe distance beyond the standing-only area. Following a particularly face-melting guitar solo in Nice Boys, we half expect sparks to ping from the strings – who could resist these riffs of fury?
If this heritage Aussie rock act’s first 20 minutes were “foreplay” (Angry’s words), Bad Boy For Love is the climax. Also, chanting, “We can’t be beaten!” en masse is therapeutic beyond belief.
Baby Animals open with Rush You, which entices many revellers off their camp chairs towards the front section for a boogie. Immaculate lead singer Suze DeMarchi’s lippie shade matches her stylish, red-framed sunnies and she totally nails those key changes. This band’s chops are immediately apparent, especially guitarist Dave Leslie (his extended Waste Of Time solo, though!)
Despite having played Painless for (slight exaggeration) “35,000 years”, DeMarchi admits to often stuffing up the start; she never knows when to start singing. Frasca is invited back to the stage, adding her powerhouse pipes to their take on Jimi Hendrix’s Fire. Leslie takes lead vocals on this one while DeMarchi smashes tamba and joins Frasca on BVs: “Let me stand next to your fi-ire!” – um, DeMarchi/Frasca collab, please? “And I’d feel a whole lot better!” – One Day becomes one of the day’s top audience sing-alongs.
Baby Animals’ latest single is Ace Of Spades (yep, a Motörhead cover) feat. Chris Cheney. The Living End is up next, so it’s only fair that Cheney joins the onstage party, right? Leslie and Cheney exchange admiring glances – clearly a mutual admiration society – and the ensuing mayhem closes this set on an exhilarating high.
We’ve already scored a preview of Cheney’s guitar wizardry and his band, The Living End, never ceases to amaze. During song two, Second Solution, Scott Owen surfs his double bass for the first of several times this arvo, which just never gets old. When Cheney steps up on Owen’s bass, simulating shooting the crowd with his axe from this elevated position, West End Riot wins Performance Of The Day. They even preview a new song called Alfie, which Cheney explains represents the current state of rock’n’roll – in a coma and desperately in need of an awakening.
Then The Living End take us back to 1995, repping their formative years with E-Boogie, the stompin’ instrumental rockabilly tune during which Cheney uses a VB stubby to play slide before downing the remaining contents in one.
“So we don’t need no one like you to tell us what to do…” – Prisoner Of Society is the ultimate closer. Also, safe to say not one of us arrived here today expecting to hear Cheney bust out Waltzing Matilda on guitar, either.
They’ve been touring our shores since 1981 and all the “groovy people” head down front for George Thorogood & The Destroyers’ Rock Party. Thorogood is an old-school showman, lashing his tongue about like a lizard, pointing to individual fans that catch his eye and also pulling exaggerated expressions that call Zoolander’s Blue Steel to mind. “How sweet it is!?” he proclaims shortly after arriving on stage and we appreciate the sequinned side seams on his black trousers.
Buddy Leach’s sax contributions consistently drive the crowd wild. Elevating their take on Bo Diddley’s Who Do You Love?, Thorogood demonstrates some thrilling “brrrrrrrrr” trills. His banter keeps us well entertained in between songs and he delivers some “good news”: “I found out today that The Delaware Destroyers’ probation officers have allowed them out for 24 hours for this one engagement.”
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer gets the crowd going, with Thorogood splicing in a public service announcement for inebriated punters: “If you get a little too high, you get your buddy to drive you home” – yep, there’s sure to be some hangovers from hell on the morrow.
We’d totally forgotten about the hilarious Get A Haircut (“…and get a real job”) – another crowd favourite. Bad To The Bone was always gonna be this set’s most badass moment, and it’s as satisfying as expected, before Thorogood and co. close with a rockin’ rendition of Van Morison’s Gloria.
After The Destroyers leave the stage,Thorogood returns for an extra solo bow. A stagehand waits in the wings, holding out a black robe, which he wraps around Thorogood’s shoulders before he wanders off into the night like a victorious boxer.
Australian fans had been expecting this latest ZZ Top tour to feature two of the band’s original members until very recently. At the 11th hour, advice from “medical personnel” caused drummer Frank Beard to pull out. Having kept Beard’s drum stool warm when he was unable to complete The Elevation Tour’s recent US leg, John Douglas is kept on and makes the trip Down Under. Dusty Hill, the band’s bassist, passed away in 2021 and – as per his request – was replaced by their longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis.
As stacks of multi-coloured Magnatone amplifiers are set up on stage our excitement for tonight’s headliners piques. Douglas sneaks on behind his kit and then ZZ Top’s sole original member, the legendary Billy Gibbons, struts out alongside Francis, who’s wielding a ginormous, yellow 17-string bass and rocking a bright blue mullet.
The guitarists’ matching bedazzled, embroidered jackets – tailored by Nudie Cohn, surely – have “Lord Have Mercy” emblazoned across the back; if every girl’s crazy ‘bout a Sharp Dressed Man, they’ve definitely got that covered. We shriek with delight at the mere sight of them! At one point, Gibbons flips his guitar around to reveal it reads “Frothy” and the Mornington massive dissolves into fits of laughter.
The lustful Gimme All Your Lovin’ receives a rapturous reception. Gibbons and Francis strap on matching white fluffy guitars for Legs and we lose our shit. “She’s got hair/ Down to her fanny…” – funny every time! (Even though we realise fanny means bum in America.) During this song’s instrumental break, there’s some unison guitar-ography and lunge work from our axemen, although we wish for more of this.
There’s a costume change, of course. The guitarists return to the stage sporting snazzy new matching, fuchsia jackets. “You can’t get rid of us!” Gibbons teases. “A how, how, how, how…” – closing with La Grange is perfection. ZZ Top’s exquisite blend of debilitating riffs and horny lyrics, laced with an abundance of humour, are soul medicine. There’s nothing better than smiling and laughing while rocking out, amirite?
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