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LOUD, COIFED AND COOL What can you say? ZZ Top, Skynyrd play Metra By JENNIFER McKEE Of The Gazette Staff They did not come for the music.
 Gazette photos/KEN BLACKBIRD ZZ Top - Dusty Hill, left, Billy F. Gibbons and Frank Beard on drums - played to a packed Metra on Sunday. After all, every bar band in this town plays "Sweet Home Alabama." And chances are good that every Camaro in the tri-state area contains at least one ZZ Top album. No, the 6,356 screaming people filling the Metra Sunday night wanted something more, something human. They came for the legends. They wanted to see the famous facial hair for themselves, to scream "Free Bird" at the people who coined the term, to watch rock-and-roll legends rock-and-roll. And that's exactly what happened. Sunday night's Lynryd Skynryd and ZZ Top concert, started off with punk boogie newbies, the Screaming Cheetah Wheelies, was all things rock-and-roll. The Wheelies came out coiled, wailing their electric guitars and thrashing across the stage like fourth graders throwing a Ritalin fit. They were loud and coifed and cool. They had lots of hair and lots of noise and most of the young people, at least, responded in kind, punching the air over their seats and screaming as only concert-goers do. The Wheelies played about half an hour of fast, loud guitar boogie. The lead singer periodically screamed things like, "You ready to punk ass rock," and a lot of other stuff nobody could understand. Skynryd came out next and what can you say. Yes, they played "Free Bird." They had a white lacquer grand piano that spun in a circle. A Confederate flag dropped behind the band and the crowd let out a collective scream. This was it - the song that makes them Skynyrd - "Sweet Home Alabama." The crowd sang along every word. But with a band like Skynryd, it's tough to say what you really like about them. True, they are legends. Their music was at every party you've ever been to. Everyone younger than Watergate cannot even remember a time before Skynyrd.
 Lynyrd Skynyrd's lead singer Johnny Van Zandt led the legendary band through their performance at Metra Sunday.But did the fans really come to the Metra Sunday to watch seven guys older than Dad dance around and make Eddie Vedder faces during the guitar solos? Did they really come because they wanted to hear some live songs off Skynryd's new "Edge of Forever" album? Maybe. Or did they come because they remember being 19 at a kegger in somebody's basement singing along to "Gimme Three Steps" and loving it? Yeah, that sounds more like it. ZZ Top came out as coolly as everyone knew they would. They had the black leather, they walked in unison and yes, their beards were really long. The backdrop looked a little like the new Denver airport, with white tenting stretched in random, triangular shapes behind them. They played loud, signature guitar riffs. They even had the huge, fuzzy white guitars. The show was good - it was all ZZ Top. But like Skynryd, they're legends and their status lends much to the show. It's sort of like going to Yellowstone - there's certain famous things you have to see, like Old Faithful. That's a ZZ Top show. You have to see the beards, you have to see the crazy guitars. They have to sing "Sharp Dressed Man" and everybody has to scream. It's a rock concert, man.
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