ZZ Tripp

Thursday, May 16,2013

ZZ Tripp

BY TOM IRWIN

Springfield’s ZZ Tripp with Brad Alan (as Billy Gibbons on guitar), Dan Kress (as Dusty Hill on bass) and Tom Summerlin (as Frank Beard on drums) gives ZZ Top a tremendous tribute treatment. With songs “structured like their studio work, but with some of ZZ Top’s signature live elements added in,” the trio spans “over 40 years of ZZ Top’s greatest songs, as well as some of their obscure songs that should have been hits,” making this central Illinois band look, sound and act like, the world famous threesome from Texas. The notion started in mid-2009 and by that September, Brad and Dan made the big commitment to grow beards. With incomparable aid from drummer Gordon Carvalho in song structure and stage training for the first year and a half, the guys were joined in public performances by drummer Rob Ross before settling in with Tom in 2012. ZZ Tripp has since played a variety of local venues, plus performed a series of Florida shows, properly portraying, “the best little blues band out of Texas.”

ZZ Tripp

Saturday, May 18, 7pm

Springfield Ski and Boat Club

2 different radio spots: ZZ Tripp @ The Dixie in Cape Coral, Florida (12/20/2012)

December 20, 2012, ZZ Tripp got the opportunity to go to Florida for our 1st, 3-day mini tour. We left Springfield and drove straight through, 1200 miles in about 20-22 hours, arriving at Cape Coral. Our first night was at SWFL premiere nightclub “The Dixie Roadhouse” in Cape Coral. It was funny feeling the temperature changes from IL snow -to- 80 degrees in FL. We arrived, unloaded, set up, did a sound check, then went to our hotel to relax and recover from the long drive. I personally drove about 1000 out of the 1200 miles to get there, got absolutely no sleep, but the show that night went well. We got many great praises and compliments from all, had much fun and made some great friends. The sound guy (sorry forgot your name) and light guys, Joe Gibson and Joe Basak, aka “the 2 Joes” from JET PRODUCTIONS were awesome, made us sound and look thunderous. The video is on this site, check it out, tell me what you think. That show was the main reason for us going to FL. the other two shows were on the eastern side of FL, one at a strip mall, and one at a tiki bar. After the last show, we packed up, and drove straight through, back to the snowy confines of Springfield, IL. and the sad reality that we wouldn’t see warm weather again for another 2-3 months.

Discovering WordPress: learning how to use it

Hello World!  This is my new WordPress blog. Ha.

Actually this is my first post, of my first blog. I am learning how to create a WordPress web/blog sites for 2 bands I am in:

Dan Kress, ZZ Tripp Bass Player

• ZZ Tripp (Authentic ZZ Top Tribute Band)
• Chosen Stranger (Originals & 80’s hair band covers)

I love working with Multimedia, I initially went to Columbia College in Chicago to study 3D modeling and animation, then added graphic design, video production, audio production, interactive multimedia (Director & Flash), as well as DVD design and production. I also dabbled with html and css, but wanted more to do with 3D than the web. In hindsight, that was my mistake.

But now I am trying to learn the ins and outs of WordPress. I first started learning with the (.com) free version, this site here. I did eventually get a host, and am trying the (.org) way, I exported the (.com) site, and imported that to my host site. It mostly worked fine, but I am finding out that some widgets don’t work, which do work perfectly on the (.com) site. Still trying to figure that out. But all in all, I love WordPress, its fun to mess with, and, it is very powerful.