ZZ TOP AND LYNYRD SKYNYRD: SWEAT AND SHOWMANSHIP (MUSIC REVIEW)

Lynyrd Skynyrd's music resides in the American psyche somewhere in Charlie Daniels' neighborhood, around the corner from Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly. They are defiantly proud of being Southern and are almost revered for surviving one of the worst tragedies ever to befall a rock 'n' roll band. ZZ Top, on the other hand, lives on their own planet somewhere in Texas.

Skynyrd's triple-guitar rock sweated up the 6,906 people who packed the Show Me Center Friday night and ZZ Top cooled them down with some bluesy playing and showmanship that included a backdrop resembling a sailing ship or tents on the desert and the best chorus line dancing outside the Rockettes.

A guess is that the majority of the 6,908 people who packed the Show Me Center Friday night were there because Lynyrd Skynyrd would be their first choice of bands for a pig roast. ZZ Top is the band you want playing when the pig and the beer are gone.

Skynyrd satisfied their fans with a set that included the big hits "Gimme Three Steps," "That Smell," "What's Your Name," "Sweet Home Alabama" and the encore "Freebird" along with tunes off their new CD, "Edge of Forever," that sound like hits, especially the title song.

The plane crash that killed three members of the original band, including frontman Ronnie VanZant, is always somewhere in the back of your mind listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd. The three remaining original members are complemented with superb musicians who filled the hall with the band's trademark sound expertly propelled by drummer Michael Cartellone.

Musicianship was the band's forte from the beginning and, along with loyal fans, are the main reason it has survived since the 1970s.

But you wonder if the band's Southern pride hasn't outlived its youthful origins. Lynyrd Skynyrd long ago claimed the Confederate flag as one of its symbols, and plenty of them were seen in the audience Friday night. Lead singer Johnny VanZant tied one to his microphone stand and waved it to and fro.

Is someone who waves a Confederate flag proud to be from the South or proud to be racist? How can the rest of us tell? You have to wonder how a black person would feel watching this display. Not that any black people were at the concert.

ZZ Top has survived and thrived since the 1970s by writing and playing songs about a topic that has consumed men for millennia -- women, with specific attention to their anatomy. And led by Billy Gibbons, one of rock's more sonically adventurous guitarists, performing those songs with an idiosyncratic flair.

ZZ Top makes music for people who can't dance, just shift their weight from one foot to the other and back again. Gibbons and Hill have refined their side-by-side dance choreography to the point where just a dual wiggle of the hips is all they need to do.

It's not complicated. It's just the blues, sometimes played at Quaaludinous speed ("Jesus Just Left Chicago") and sometimes rolling down the highway at the velocity of something with a four-barrel carburetor.

With Gibbons and Hill out front in their Rip Van Winkle beards, black leather coats and gold-sequined vests, ZZ Top is much more interested in visual effects than Lynyrd Skynyrd is. Strobe lights flashed between numbers, not letting anyone's attention slip. At one point, Gibbons and Hill played while walking toward each other on dual treadmills.

ZZ Top also touched on hits like "She's Got Legs," "Tush" and "Sharp Dressed Man" along with and especially spicy number, "Sinpusher," from their newest CD, "X X X."

A band called Laidlaw opened the concert and was notable for a singer who could have been Robert Plant's son and for turning CSN&Y's anti-establishment anthem "For What It's Worth" into an enjoyably rousing rocker.