Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard, the three musicians collectively known as ZZ Top, will perform a long-awaited concert today at Mississippi State University’s Humphrey Coliseum.
Doors open at 7 p.m., and openers Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters will start the show at 8 p.m. ZZ Top will follow at 9 p.m.
Student workers with MSU’s Music Makers Productions said all floor-level tickets are already sold out, and many of the sections closest to the stage were close to selling out by business hours Thursday.
General admission tickets will remain on sale today at the Colvard Student Union and at the Hump at the time of the show. Prices range from $25-$45 per seat.
ZZ Top was originally slated to perform Oct. 30 but had to postpone the show after Hill injured his hip.
Thomas Fitzner, MMP’s student director, said the decision to book the classic rock band, known for hits like “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs” and “Gimmie All Your Lovin’,” was one made to reach out to both students and community concertgoers.
“We have been waiting for the right classic rock show for years, and when we had the opportunity to bring ZZ Top we knew we had to take it,” he said.
Since forming almost 50 years ago in Houston, Texas, ZZ Top churned out 11 gold and seven platinum records. The blues-based rock band is most known for its 1983 album “Eliminator,” which landed on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 greatest albums of all time.
Self-described “modbilly” – a combination of influences from the British Mod scene and the American hillbilly sound – group The Boxmasters formed in 2007 with the acclaimed actor Thornton at the microphone. The band’s newest release, a 22-song double album titled “Somewhere Down The Road” was released Tuesday.
ZZ Top will play one more Mississippi show Saturday at the IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi before heading west. The Boxmasters’ tour continues through the Southeast with mid-April stops in Bossier City, Louisiana, Huntsville, Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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