Back together (pictured in the same order) 44 years later, they play B.B. King’s tomorrow night. (Kevin Walder)
Back together (pictured in the same order) 44 years later, they play B.B. King’s tomorrow night. (
)
Billy Gibbons has been fronting ZZ Top for so long that there are plenty of fans who must think he came out of the womb wearing sunglasses, a cowboy hat, and sporting that iconic nestlike beard. But that wasn’t always the case, and tomorrow night at B.B. King’s the Texan will turn back the clock to his teenage years by playing with his old band, the Moving Sidewalks, for the first time in more than 40 years.
They lasted only a couple of years, but in that time the quartet (completed by bassist Don Summers, drummer Dan Mitchell and keyboardist Tom Moore) picked up a sizable following thanks to their British invasion melodies and swirling guitar psychedelics.
When the band first came to prominence in 1968, they even managed to land themselves a spot opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience which, as Gibbons, 63, fondly remembers, was truly the making of him. “We showed him around Texas and made him feel at home,” he tells The Post. “He wasn’t shy about doing new things with [his guitar]. On a daily basis, I was learning things about playing guitar that weren’t in any book. It was a real education, and he was a genteel man in person.”
The following year, the band released their sole album, “Flash,” which showcased the obvious influence of Hendrix and landed them a spot opening for The Doors. Aside from pushing the envelope musically, the Moving Sidewalks were also keen on bringing a sense of showmanship to their gigs and utilizing primitive pyrotechnics.
“We had flash pots onstage, and on one fateful night, they burned out of control and set The Doors’ gear on fire,” says Gibbons with a laugh. “Luckily, they could still play the show.”
Sadly, Summers and Moore got drafted into the Army, and the Moving Sidewalks dissolved. But their work has grown in stature over the years, and their reunion would have happened sooner were it not for those pesky ZZ Top tours.
“All the band have kept on good terms with each other and they’re all proud of what they did,” says Jon Weiss, who engineered the reunion of the Moving Sidewalks for the garage-rock festival Cavestomp!, which he founded in 1997.
In the past, he brought together other cult bands from the ’60s including the Sonics and the Monks.
“Billy’s schedule with ZZ Top has never allowed a reunion up until now. I’ve been trying to get them back together for 10 years!”
But the Moving Sidewalks and their contemporaries are not simply getting back together to give aging baby boomers a reason to squeeze into their leather pants once again. The psychedelic/garage rock scene of the ’60s has been repeatedly referenced by contemporary acts over the past few years. Bands such as New York’s MGMT have paid homage to the genre, particularly through their fantastically trippy album “Congratulations,” while Australia’s Tame Impala showed heavy tones of American psychedelia during last year’s critically acclaimed album “Lonerism.” It’s a retro sound that has been given a modern makeover by a new generation of fans and musicians.
“We do have a pretty young crowd coming out to Cavestomp!” says Weiss.
“When we had the Sonics play in 2007, I think the average age of the audience was 20-something.”
So it comes as little surprise to hear that Gibbons doesn’t necessarily consider this appearance from the Moving Sidewalks to be a one-off. “I think we may be returning to the studio to make a contemporary recording,” he says. “So this reunion could take on a life of its own.”