Guitarist and singer Anthony Biancofiore remembers exactly the day he formed ZZ Top tribute band Fandango.
It was Back to the Future Day, October 21st 2015.
“It started because there was a night at, I don’t remember what bar it was now, but they were doing a classic albums night – so people get together and play a whole album from an artist,” Biancofiore said.
“So I thought, I’ll do Tres Hombres by ZZ Top, it’s a great album. Then the band got together and we learnt all the songs, and the night didn’t end up happening.
“So we thought, why don’t we just do a ZZ Top night? We did it at Yah Yah’s (in Fitzroy), and originally we had no intention to keep it going.
“I had a long beard at the time, and I was going to shave it off because it was Halloween in a couple of days and I had to do a costume. So I thought, why don’t we do a Shave for a Cure night, do the gig, raise some money, and we’ll shave my beard off.”
However, the night went so well Biancofiore got a call the next day asking when they could do another ZZ Top night.
“I said, well, I don’t have a beard anymore; give me six months and we’ll talk!” he said.
“So in six months we did another show. And it became a thing… people really loved it, it brought a lot of ZZ Top fans out of the woodwork. So we played again, and then we got booked again, and again. And we’re still at it.”
The powerhouse tribute trio, comprised of Biancofiore in the role of frontman Billy Gibbons (guitar/vocals), Nathan Farrelly as Dusty Hill (bass/vocals) and Ryan Scoble playing the parts of drummer Frank Beard, bring their beards, hats and furry guitars to Beav’s Bar next weekend.
Biancofiore said the original band’s amazing musicality was often dismissed due to their “pretty goofy” image.
“You listen to those early albums and there’s not a whole lot of studio trickery; it’s just blues songs played well by three incredible players, and you can hear it all,” he said.
“I love that, it means you have to play them live the same way, you can’t hide behind anything.”
Fandango is at Beav’s Bar on Saturday, November 23. Visit trybooking.com/cvnnz for tickets.
