ZZ Top is a rock band that was formed in 1969 in the city of Houston, Texas in America. Formed with Dusty Hill on bass/vocals, Billy Gibbons on guitar/vocals, and Frank Beard on drums, ZZ Top plays a characteristic form of blues rock that also incorporates elements of boogie, Southern rock, and synth-pop. They are among the most selling bands of the 1970s and 80s with total record sales exceeding fifty million.
ZZ Top has not gone on tour for most of the 2020 and 2021 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the band will be very active in touring in 2022. Their forthcoming tour will be their Raw Whisky Tour and it will be a unique experience as they intend to return to the intimacy of clubs in cities and towns in the USA this year. The aim is to get the music of ZZ Top closer to the faces of the fans who have over the years supported the band for more than five and half decades.
The Raw Whisky Tour is set to commence on 27th May at Atlantic City in New Jersey. From there it has concerts in New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in May before moving on to June. Georgia and Florida will also have stops in early June before some of the dates in Alabama and Louisiana in the later part of June and early July. Additional performances on the Midwest and the East Coast will extend the tour to September. Having toured across the United States during the spring and summer, ZZ Top’s Raw Whisky Tour is expected to run through September 17 in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Not only will ZZ Top be performing songs from their 15 studio albums, but also great live performances including their great live albums such as Fandango! 1975. and those from compilation albums as well. Some of the hits that should be played at one point or the other throughout the tour are Tush, La Grange, Gimme All Your Lovin, and Legs among others. Old-school fans might get to hear some of the deeper album tracks and obscure numbers when the band plays in less elaborate venues as well.
This is the Raw Whisky Tour and features bassist Dusty Hill who took some time off in 2021 due to a hip injury. Hill is returning to the stage alongside guitarist Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard to offer the audience a complete ZZ Top experience again. Although there are no openers yet, fans can look forward to performances with the length of 90 minutes to 2 hours filled with ZZ Top’s iconic blues and rock music.
Tickets for the shows are available through Ticketmaster though individual shows on the tour may already be sold out. Ticket prices range from $60 per seat to $250 for better seats and may offer VIP packages depending on the city. Tickets for many of the shows on the tour are still available for anyone who may want to see a show on this rather personal and close date.
The 2022 concert tour will be especially significant for ZZ Top and the fans as this is the first time that the band will be able to hit the stage again following the sudden death of their longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis due to a heart attack the previous year. The rest of their 2021 tour was then called off in the wake of this decision. Francis has been in cooperation with the band since the year 1976 therefore his absence will be felt.
Having been together for more than 40 years, the ZZ Top continues to create music and perform live, a 2022 concert is a must-see event for rock and roll lovers with a touch of blues. If the Raw Whisky Tour is to go by then fans are in for an up, close and very personal party that is steeped in ZZ Top’s Texas persona and rock n roll cred. Any fan that wants to see the band that created classics such as Sharp Dressed Man and Legs would be foolish to miss out on one of these spectacular performances taking place in a city near them this spring and summer. ZZ Top: They may just be the cure for the pandemic doldrums.
