ZZ Top Coming to Salina

“That Little Ol’ Band From Texas” is coming to Salina. Rock N Roll Hall of Famers ZZ Top are coming to the Stiefel Theatre.

ZZ Top lay undisputed claim to being the longest running major rock band with original personnel intact and, in 2004, the Texas trio was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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 almost 45 years of rock, blues, and boogie on the road and in the studio.

As a touring unit, they’ve been without peer over the years, having performed before millions of fans through North America on numerous epochal tours as well as overseas where they’ve enthralled audiences from Slovenia to Argentina, from Australia to Sweden, from Russia to Japan and most points in between.  Their iconography – beards, cars, girls and that magic keychain – seems to transcend all bounds of geography and language.

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 paradigm 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 the nascent 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 as they continued their chart juggernaut.  ZZ TOP had accomplished the impossible; they had moved with the times while simultaneously bucking ephemeral trends that crossed their path. They had become more popular and more iconic without ever having to be “flavor of the week.” They had become a certified rock institution, contemporary in every way, yet still completely connected to the founding fathers of the genre.

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, XXX and Mescalero. Beyond that, both a lavish four CD box set compilation, Chrome, Smoke & B.B.Q. and a two-CD distillation of that package, Rancho Texicano, were released by Warner prior to The Complete Studio Albums set.

In 2012, ZZ  Top unveiled LA FUTURA, their first studio album in nine years.  Produced by Rick Rubin and Billy F Gibbons, and released on American Recordings, it reflected the solid blues inspiration that has powered the band since the very beginning with a contemporary approach that underscored the group’s inclination to experiment and explore new sonic vistas.  The album included the widely lauded “I Gotsta Get Paid” that has become both a video and in-concert sensation.  ZZ Top’s rich history became the subject of a box set release the following year.  ZZ Top: The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990 offered no fewer than 10 of the band’s most lauded albums all with the original mixes restored.

ZZ Top’s brand new career retrospective The Very Baddest spans the entire course of their London, Warner Bros. and RCA years. Listeners can follow the evolution of the band’s sound from the early 70s into the 00s on either a 40 track double CD or a 20 track single CD. Live at Montreux 2013, just released on Eagle Rock Entertainment on both Blu-ray and DVD formats, showcases their live act, leaving no doubt as to why they have been such a huge concert draw for the last several decades. When it comes to the live experience, they’ve still got it.

ZZ Top’s music is always instantly recognizable, eminently powerful, profoundly soulful and 100% Texas American in derivation.  The band’s support for the blues is unwavering both as interpreters of the music and preservers of its legacy.  It was ZZ Top that celebrated “founding father” Muddy Waters by turning a piece of scrap timber than had fallen from his sharecropper’s shack into a beautiful guitar, dubbed the “Muddywood.”  This totem was sent on tour as a fundraising focus for The Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, site of Robert Johnson’s famed “Crossroads” encounter with the devil.  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 but, against all odds, they’re really just doing what they’ve always done.  They’re real and they’re surreal and they’re ZZ Top.

“ZZ Top first played the Stiefel in October of 2013. The absolutely great show sold-out quickly. We are so excited to have this legendary and surreal band back,” says Stiefel Theatre Executive Director Jane Gates.

ZZ Top will be in Salina on Wednesday, September 21st. Tickets Start at $79, and go on sale this Friday.