ZZ Top & George Thorogood in Essex Junction

ZZ Top are an American blues-rock band formed in Houston in 1969 and long identified with guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard. Their tightly wound boogie and electric blues produced songs including “La Grange,” “Tush,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and “Sharp Dressed Man,” while the albums Tres Hombres and Eliminator became central to their catalogue. The Worldwide Texas Tour of 1976 and 1977 used a Texas-shaped stage and incorporated live animals into its production. The band later returned to arenas on the Afterburner World Tour and marked five decades with the 50th Anniversary Tour in 2019. After Hill’s death in 2021, longtime guitar technician Elwood Francis took over bass duties for the band’s concerts. The band plays most often in the United States and has returned repeatedly to the United Kingdom and Germany for tours and festival appearances.

George Thorogood is an American singer and guitarist, born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1950, who plays blues rock and boogie with the Destroyers. He is known for “Bad to the Bone” and hard-driving versions of “Move It on Over” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” songs central to albums including George Thorogood and the Destroyers and Bad to the Bone. The 50/50 Tour in 1981 took George Thorogood and the Destroyers through all 50 states in 50 days. That year they also opened concerts on the Rolling Stones’ American tour, and in 1985 George Thorogood performed at Live Aid at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.