ZZ Top Rolls into Atlantic City
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Over the past few years, Trump Marina has grown well known throughout the casino industry as one of the few on the East Coast willing to book bands outside of the typical casino entertainment stream. While the facility, does include some of the standard casino performers in its entertainment schedule, many of the Grand Cayman and Shell performers hail from the realm of rock and roll roots, and come as varied as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Sting and the Goo Goo Dolls.
In addition to bringing in a host of currently popular acts, Trump Marina has done more than its share to include many of the music industry's classic performers as well, including Squeeze, Meat Loaf and now, ZZ Top.
ZZ Top, one of the few bands in music that has maintained the same three-person line-up since forming in 1970, continues to play to sold out crowds of all sizes throughout the country. For its performance in Atlantic City, the Texas trio will take the stage in the Grand Cayman Ballroom and offer up a helping of blues-rock El Paso style.
Early ZZ Top recordings, such as Tres Hombres, showcased the band's mix of Texas rock and southern wit, which steadily allowed the boys to gain the respect of industry critics and develop a base of fans outside their native state of Texas. In the early 1980s, the band experimented with blending electronic keyboards with their developed grungy blues-groove, which helped ZZ Top become a household name. Both Eliminator and Afterburner capitalized on this mix of electronics and guitar-heavy riffs, adding a modern flavor and contemporary style to their existing rock roots. Highly polished tracks like "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man" helped the band gain presence on the airwaves, while their accompanying videos on MTV gave the band a new way to gain new fans.
Now that more than 10 years have passed since the initial hype over those now-classic songs were released, ZZ Top continues to release more music, which continually defies modern trends and sets the trio apart from any other working band. The group's songs remain instantly recognizable, and the group is the oldest rock and roll group out in the industry with all of its original members still intact after more than 20 years in the business.
As a band made of true roots musicians, ZZ Top is continually supporting the blues in everything it does. One of the group's notable gestures came when they were given a piece of Muddy Waters' shack that had been located in Clarksdale, Miss. Honored by the gift, the boys had the remnant crafted into a guitar, then sent it out on tour to raise funding for the Delta Blues Museum.
As one of the music industry's longest-lived rock outfits, ZZ Top is not an act to be missed. They remain a force to be reckoned with and stay true to their music, the blues and to the fans that continue to support them with every new record they put out.