Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 21

THE STATE JOURNAL Dec. 1 1 979 S-3 Rock success: great fun, bad love life This story continues the "Bar Bands" series, in which State Journal rock critic David Winkelstern looks at the best rock groups in the Lansing area. Previous stories have looked at Champion, Northwind, Blue Money, the Squires, Lady Grace, Salem, Crowd Please rs and Tantrum. By DAVID WINKELSTERN Journal Correspondent When Frankie Valli headlined a show at the Civic Center some time ago, there were about 3,000 people in the audience. Maybe 300 of them kiicw the opening act, Salt Creek.

i "I scared to death," recalls guitarist Dan Tripp. "We were supposed to go on at 8 o'clock. From 7 until then I paced back and forth for a solid hour. I went up and down the stairs and into the bathroom and back again." Then it came time to start the show and, "the lights came on, and I knew that was where I was supposed to be." BERNIE NELSON also plays an acoustic-guitar in Salt Creek. When he spoke of the Civic Center gig he called it, "Not the best show, but the most memorable." He was not so nervous at the time, but he was aware of how Tripp was feeling.

"Five minutes before we had to go on, just to make him feel "more confident' I told him I was going home to change!" The newest member of Salt Creek is bassist Randy Boudreau. He joined the other two country-style players in May. If there is a concert that they all consider their" best to date, it was when they were the warm-up act for Commander Cody when his group played at Dooley's in East Lansing. TRIPP HOPES, "to see our stuff on the charts." So far, one band member seems interested. And Nelson said the band members "basically like pluckin' at the guitars and having a good time." Their crossover country style includes about a dozen original tunes.

All of their music seems geared to helping everyone have a good time. The most familiar song the band wrote, perhaps, is a local one for "House of Car Stereo." It's an extremely clever piece, partly country, partly rock, partly satire. NELSON KNOWS that in order to be a successful songwriter, "You have to be able to write a pop tune to get any recognition. I guess that is what I am looking for now, a pop tune, something more catchy." Playing progressive country music with Tripp in his Bull Rider Stetson and Nelson in his bluejeans might seem out of place in the flashy world of big-time show biz, even though the band is good and the members have "personality. Nelson isn't naive about the group's chances.

"It's all hype. There is a fine line between talent and and promoting someone with a lot of big bucks." Salt Creek might lack the financial backing, but it probably has the support of just about anyone who has heard it. "That was when we got our first ever encore at a concert type of thing," Tripp says. SALT CREEK has been a regular at other area spots such as Lizard's, Olde World and Mountain Jack's. The organization that owns Mountain Jack's operates a national chain that keeps the band booked.

As Tripp put it: "At least the bars we're playin' in aren't meat markets." For the past two years, their mailing address has been Lansing, but they have been doing a lot of traveling. In January, Salt Creek will be going to California and won't return to this state until May. NATURALLY, such a schedule has affected their love lives. "It changes all the time," Nelson says. "I was married for a while.

That has its disad vantages when you're playin' five or six nights a week. Obviously, it didn't work out." Tripp agrees: "My love life is not excep- tional, my lust life is. There is a lot of difference. I have many physical relationships, none that last long. "I go away for two months and come back to nothin'.

It would take somebody really special to put up with the life style. I'm semi-lookin'." AS THE BAND becomes more successful, the parents seem to approve. Tripp just bought a new 1979 Starfire Olds. "Mom thinks it's great, now that I'm makin' money." Boudreau's parents travel all over the state to hear him play. Nelson's mother and father think the whole thing is "phenomenal." "What we're goin' now is temporary," Tripp says.

"Just like everybody else, we do believe we can get out of doing these things." Tusk conquers all By YARDENAARER LOS ANGELES (AP) Can Fleetwood Mac's hew "Tusk" rescue the faltering record industry? Will one of the most talked-about albums" in rock history remain hot long enough to become one of the best-selling? THESE MAY NOT be the burning questions of our time, but they are the stuff of which high drama Concluded on page S-9 FRENCHIE'S BAR Fine Mexican Food and country music! 400 BAKIK STUIT the delicious change of taste 6 locations ZZ Top: Texas boogie and straight-ahead rock Lansing and with Greenhouse Cafe Free Evening Parking cast Lansing wh atever happened to ZZ? TICKETS FOR THE NUTCRACKER BALLET' DEC. 7 and 8 "A CHRISTMAS CAROL" DEC. 20 thru 23rd and DEC. 27 thru 30th Available at: Rock group's alive and well after three-year absence tweAI 11 fl II "Canter for The Arts: 372-4636 ULMUU eMeridian Mall: 349-5887 BOX UH-CCE (Lansing Mall: 321-2657 DRAPERY SH0PPE, 1976 the year the group finished what was said to be the largest concert tour in the history of American rock-and-roll. ZZ Top had sold 1.2 million tickets and had grossed $11.5 million.

Its album, "Fandango," had been on the Billboard charts for 83 weeks. The group was getting hotter all the time. And then ZZ Top disappeared. NOW THE GROUP Gibbons, bass player Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard are trying to prove that the band is still alive and well. They should have no trouble filling the Civic Center, with their own brand of Texas boogie.

Their -more familiar songs like "Le Grange" and "Tush" and "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers" are simple straight-at-you rock 'n' roll that have elements of technical prowess. After all, Montrose and Nugent aren't 221 SOUTH BRIDGE ST. GRAND LEDGE FREE PARKING IN REAR OF STORE impressed by just anybody. This is the same group that once outdrew Elvis in Nashville. Their new album is called "De-guello." It seems geared toward a more-commercial market and it does mark a change for the band.

It will be interesting to see the reactions to the comeback of ZZ Top after a three-year disappearance. THE LAST TIME they were in town was in the early "70s. ZZ Top played to a crowd at the Brewery (no the Silver Dollar Saloon). Someone had taken Dusty Hill's oversized cowboy hat on his way to the stage. He told the rowdy crowd, "We'll never come back to this town again." Now they'll be back after all, but it will cost $9 or $10 to see them.

Point Blank will be the opening act. By DAVID WINKELSTERN Journal Correspondent Ronnie Montrose and Ted Nugent, know what ZZ Top is. When the two superstar rock guitarists were in East Lansing recently, Montrose had a comment: "There is one thing that Ted and I have in com- mon. We both idolize Billy Gibbons." Gibbons, you see, is the guitarist and vocalist of the high-power trio called ZZTop. The group coming back from a three-year lay-off will be at the Civic Center at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday. ZZ TOP, the little band from Texas, has had the respect of musicians since its first gold album back in 1971: That was followed by another gold LP and then three others that went platinum. The last of those records came in WALLCOVERING PAINT CARPET WINDOW COVERING Check our Prices. Compare our Quality- yB Open 9 to 9 to Sat. 627-8402.