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| ZZ TOP Tour Announced Concerts North Ltd. is pleased to present Rock and Roll Hall of Famers ZZ TOP on their Western Canadian Tour this June. The band will be rolling into Vancouver, Victoria, Cranbrook, Grande Prairie, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, and Winnipeg. Tickets for all performances go on-sale Friday, April 9 at 10 AM at specific ticket outlets in each city (except Winnipeg will go on-sale, Saturday, April 17). ZZ TOP a/k/a "That Little Ol' Band from Texas, " lay undisputed claim to being the longest running major rock band with original personnel intact. Of course, there are only three of them - Billy F Gibbons, Dusty Hill, Frank Beard - but it's still a remarkable achievement that they're still very much together after more than 40 years of rock, blues, and boogie. ZZ TOP formed in 1969 from the core of two rival bands, Billy's Moving Sidewalks and Frank and Dusty's American Blues. The new group went on to record the appropriately titled ZZ Top's First Album and Rio Grande Mud that reflected their strong blues roots. Their third, 1973's Tres Hombres, catapulted them to national attention with the hit "La Grange, " still one of the band's signature pieces today. Their next hit was "Tush, " a song about the pursuit of "the good life" that was featured on their Fandango! album released in 1975. Following a lengthy hiatus during which the individual members of the band traveled the world, they switched labels (from British Decca's London label to Warner Bros) and returned with two amazingly provocative albums, Deguello and El Loco. Their next release Eliminator was something of a shift for ZZ TOP. Their roots blues skew was intact but added to the mix were tech-age trappings that soon found a visual outlet with MTV. Suddenly, Billy, Dusty and Frank were video icons, playing a kind of Greek chorus in videos that highlighted the album's three smash singles: "Gimme All Your Lovin", "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs." The melding of grungy guitar-based blues with synth-pop was seamless and continued with the follow-up album Afterburner. They stayed with Warner for one more album, Recycler, released in 1990 and switched to RCA where they debuted with Antenna and followed with Rhythmeen and XXX. Mescalero, their latest, is one of the deepest sets ever presented by the band with 16 tracks brimming with virtuoso musicianship, humorously enigmatic lyrics and even a track sung entirely in Spanish. Beyond that, ZZ TOP has released a lavish four CD box set compilation, Chrome, Smoke & B.B.Q. and a two-CD distillation of that package, Rancho Texicano. ZZ TOP has performed before millions of fans throughout North America on numerous tours as well as overseas where they've enthralled audiences from Slovenia to Italy, Australia to Sweden, and Russia to Japan. Their iconography - beards, cars, girls, and that magic keychain - seems to transcend all bounds of geography and language. The elements that keep ZZ TOP fresh, enduring and above the transitory fray can be summed up in the three words of the band's internal mantra: "Tone, Taste and Tenacity." ZZ TOP's music is always instantly recognizable, eminently powerful, profoundly soulful and 100% Texas American. ZZ TOP's support and link to the blues remains as rock solid as the music they continue to play. They have sold millions of records over the course of their career, have been officially designated as Heroes of The State of Texas, have been referenced in countless cartoons and sitcoms and are true rock icons. write your comments about the article :: © 2010 Jazz News :: home page |