Zz Top Casino Rama

Get the ZZ Top Setlist of the concert at Casino Rama, Orillia, ON, Canada on June 3, 2017 from the The Tonnage Tour and other ZZ Top Setlists for free on setlist.fm! View Casino Rama Resort's concert history along with concert photos, videos, setlists, and more. View Casino Rama Entertainment Centre's concert history along with concert photos, videos, setlists, and more.

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Casino Rama capped 2011 with dates for James Blunt, Russell Brand and KISS among others
grandMA2 has proved to be a good bet for Casino Rama, Ontario’s only First Nations commercial casino, which stages 150 shows a year featuring top names in music and comedy. First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. Casino Rama invested in a grandMA2 full-size late last year, and it has quickly become their “console of choice,” reports lighting designer and programmer Derek Noble.

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“Casino Rama purchased a grandMA2 full-size because of the size of the shows they attract,” says Andrew Beck, senior account executive with PRG Canada who sold the system. “They have an extensive amount of equipment, including all their own lighting and rigs, and many acts request a grandMA. They’ve had a grandMA full-size for a while but in the interest of keeping their facility as cutting-edge as possible, they decided to purchase a grandMA2 and use their existing system as a backup. Now they have media server control and LED balancing capabilities.”

Among the acts that played the 15-year old Casino Rama last year were ZZ Top, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Ricky Martin, and Deep Purple; the casino also hosted HDTV events Bellator (an MMA championship) and a TSN Curling Skins game. Casino Rama capped 2011 with dates for James Blunt, Russell Brand and KISS.
“Before we got the grandMA2 it was already an in demand item,” says Noble. “We had a number of touring shows that had brought the console in with them. We bought our own, not only because it’s the newest but also because it was the most in-demand gear. We need to ensure we offer clients the best so that they walk away happy.”

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He notes that the casino’s inhouse lighting rig is used for 85 percent of the shows. “We have over 400 conventional fixtures and 200 moving lights and LEDs plus 112 motors. The grandMA2 gives me easier access to all the parameters. Its effects engine is also better than our old console, and it’s very easy to navigate.
“The grandMA2 gives us some flexibility in data management, too,” he adds. “We utilize it for data management for the MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) when other consoles are in use. We have 16 active universes and the capability to expand to 64. Although we only bought the console in December, we already love it!”

Another Canadian-based casino also upgraded its lighting control system when Caesars Windsor moved from a grandMA full-size to a new grandMA2 from PRG Canada, Beck reports.
A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting in North America.

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Zz Top Casino Rama

Who has three beards, cheap sunglasses, furry guitars, killer blues riffs, rockin’ good times, and is loaded with coolness? ZZ Top, that’s who.

50 Years Of Killer Blues/Rock

Saturday night was all about getting into some killer blues/rock from the Texas trio known as ZZ Top. For pretty much five decades the same three musicians (Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard – that’s where the third “beard” comes from) have been dishing out some soulful rock and roll, with a good dose of whimsical, fun and even a touch of kitschy performances. I mean, who else can rock some big oversized white furry guitars, and make it ultra cool? Their personalities are larger than life it seems, with the beards, the hats and the dark shades. There is a certain swagger that comes with this band and rightfully so. Legends. And I personally have loved all of that since I first heard the band on the 1973 release of Tres Hombres.

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As Tight As They Come

It seems redundant to say that this band is wicked tight. If you’ve seen them or listened to them at all during the last 50 years, you know how spot on they are. But something that stood out to me on Saturday night, was just how tight they really are. I guess after 50 years you should be, but damn, they have being in-synch down to a “T”.

Hit After ZZ Top Hit

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Opening the show with Got Me Under Pressure, the boys played a great set list of pretty much all hits. Gimme All Your Lovin, Pearl Necklace, Legs, La Grange and on and on it went. Lots of the music from the early days and that suited me just fine. And they tried to get some response from the crowd who really seemed pretty subdued. There were bunches of the audience who were vocal and making some good noise, and at times everyone would join in with great cheers and applause, but overall, this was a slightly quiet audience. I really expected to experience a bit more of a rowdy, raucous bunch.

But, having said that, I wasn’t there to hear the crowd, and it certainly didn’t detract from the show for me. I found myself rocking along and finishing the lyrics when the band would stop playing to give us our chance to sing.

Went By Fast

Rama

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The entire night seemed to go by so fast. There was no opening act for this show, so getting underway at just a few minutes past 8:00 pm meant that we were all walking out after the show ended around 9:20. Perhaps that seemed a couple of songs shorter than some expected. We did overhear some comments to that effect, but I can’t really find much fault with how this night went down. And personally, I’d love to see more bands take the stage at an earlier time and thus wrap up earlier. That is always one of my personal pet peeves with some shows (particularly in clubs) where the headliner doesn’t go on until 11:00 pm or some ungodly hour. No, I’m fine with the way ZZ Top ran this one.

No Complaints Here

Loved it! And got my fill of some great live music that I have been listening to for many, many years. The Rock Source would like to thank ZZ Top and their team, along with our hosts at Casino Rama Resort for having us out.

Review and Photography: Scott Burns, The Rock Source