BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A boogie-rocking band that headlined Bethlehem’s Musikfest last year will return to Bethlehem to play a much smaller stage.
Z.Z. Top, which had the hits “Tush” in the 1970s and “Legs” and “Sharp Dressed Man” in the 1980s, will perform at Wind Creek Event Center at 8 p.m. Sept. 21, it was announced Tuesday.
Tickets, at $49.50 to $129.50, go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 17 at the Wind Creek Event Center website or at the box office at 77 Wind Creek Event Center, 77 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem.Wind Creek Event Center website
Tickets, at $49.50 to $129.50, go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 17 at the Wind Creek websiteor at the box office at 77 Wind Creek Event Center, 77 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem.
The group headlined Musikfest's main Steel Stage in August.
Musikfest's main stage seats about 6,500 people. Wind Creek Event Center's capacity for a seated show is about 2,250.
The Wind Creek stage will be the smallest venue the band has played in seven appearances in the Lehigh Valley.
Before its last Musikfest show, it also played the Lehigh Valley at Musikfest in 2015 after canceling the previous year when bassist Dusty Hill had to undergo surgery.
Hill died in 2021 and was replaced by Billy Ethridge.
The trio, known as the Little Ol’ Band from Texas, has sold 30 million copies of its 24 studio, live and compilation albums in its career, which has stretched more than 50 years.
Its breakthrough album was 1973’s “Tres Hombres,” which went gold and broke the Top 10. “Fandango!” in 1975 gave the band its first Top 20 hit, “Tush.”
But by far its most popular disc was 1983’s “Eliminator,” which sold more than 10 million copies, with hits such as the No. 2 “Gimme All Your Lovin’.”
History in the Lehigh Valley
The follow-up disc, “Afterburner,” sold more than 5 million copies and was the band’s highest-charting album, hitting Top 5. A 1992 greatest hits album sold 3 million copies.
A dozen of its discs have gone gold or platinum.
The band’s most recent studio disc, “La Futura” in 2012, went to No. 6. It more recently released a compilation album, “The Complete Studio Albums, 1970-1990.”
It released a live album, "Raw ('That Little Ol' Band from Texas' Original Soundtrack)" in 2022.
ZZ Top's first show in the Lehigh Valley area was for a crowd of 10,000 for a non-fair show at Allentown Fairgrounds in 1980. It then played a similar show in 1983.Lehigh Valley concert records
In all, the band has had 25 Top 20 songs on various charts, with its last, “What’s Up With That,” hitting No. 5 on the Mainstream Rock chart in 1996.
ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
Before its last Musikfest show, ZZ Top last played the area in a co-headlining show with Brooks & Dunn, drawing about 5,500 people to Allentown Fair in 2008.
The group also headlined the fair solo in 2004, drawing about the same size crowd, and drew a near-capacity crowd to the fair in 1997.
ZZ Top's first show in the Lehigh Valley area was for a crowd of 10,000 for a non-fair show at Allentown Fairgrounds in 1980. It then played a similar show in 1983.
