XXX Tour

The XXX Tour was a worldwide concert tour by American rock band ZZ Top. Staged in support of their 1999 album XXX , the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 1999 to 2002. With five legs and 134 shows, the tour began in Denver, Colorado on September 12, 1999 and ended on November 1, 2002 in London, England. The first two legs took place in the United States before the next leg visited Australasia. After three legs, the band was initially expected to tour Europe, but the European leg was postponed until over two years later, which was branded as "Euro-Afrique". Although the tour provoked a range of reactions from critics, it was generally well received.

XXX Tour
World tour by ZZ Top
LocationUnited States, Australasia, Europe
Associated albumXXX
Start dateSeptember 12, 1999
End dateNovember 1, 2002
Legs5
No. of shows134
ZZ Top concert chronology

Background

ZZ Top's 1996 album Rhythmeen and the supporting Continental Safari Tour brought them to new audiences, particularly in South Africa. Unlike their previous tours, Continental Safari was a minimalistic, sparse production. According to a press release, guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons described the tour's production as a "no-frills, full-thrill presentation—streamlined and down and gritty", further acknowledging, "ZZ Top drives it home with a meaner rhythm than ever before." Although their 1997 Mean Rhythm Global Tour did not visit Europe, they performed over 170 shows in support of Rhythmeen.

Stage design and production

The XXX Tour stage was designed by Chris Stuba, ZZ Top's lighting director To design the set, Stuba collaborated with longtime production manager Donny Stuart stage set. In place of ZZ Top's elaborate productions of the past, the XXX Tour stage was a simple setup, designed to be intimate. The set included a 48-by-30 foot (15 by 9 m) stage, and was supplemented by giant stretch fabric fixtures, known as Transformits, and were made into geometric shapes, which showed various visuals, including the "XXX" logo behind the stage; for any in-the-round venues, the Transformits were not used. Stuba faced the challenge of designing a lighting system to suit both ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the opening act for most of the tour; both bands used the same wash lights.[1] The set used 87 automated luminaries and 180 PAR lamps, emitting much heat in which the band favored. Stuba explained:

Because the band has literally grown up with conventional lights, they tell me they play better when they 'feel the heat.' They like a really hot stage. The story is they had so many PARs they couldn't move the drum riser until a half hour after the show because it was so hot. They like it that way, and as more conventional lighting goes away and more automated lighting comes into play, a lot of newer bands have no idea what it's like to play under a 150-degree stage. It's an observation we've made about the whole thing, from Billy's point of view.



The way we discovered this was, I was running moving light cues and Billy was saying there was something missing and he couldn't put his finger on it. And it came to turn out that it was just the heat factor. He missed the heat. I was pretty shocked hearing that and didn't give it much thought myself until he pointed that out. Our cues now have more PARs in them just for that reason. If they're happy with the heat and they don't think about it and it's the norm, then in turn they probably do play better.[1]

Tour dates
List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, tickets sold, amount of available tickets and gross revenue
Date City Country Venue Opening Act(s) Attendance Revenue
Leg 1: arenas in the United States[2]
September 12, 1999 Denver United States McNichols Sports Arena The Groove Hawgs N/A N/A
September 15, 1999 Pensacola Pensacola Civic Center Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
September 17, 1999 Orlando Orlando Arena
September 18, 1999 Fort Lauderdale National Car Rental Center
September 19, 1999 Gainesville O'Connell Center Lynyrd Skynyrd
September 21, 1999 Greenville Bi-Lo Center Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
September 22, 1999 Greensboro Greensboro Coliseum 6,822 / 23,500
September 24, 1999 Charlotte Charlotte Coliseum N/A
September 25, 1999 Birmingham Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Arena
September 26, 1999 Knoxville Thompson–Boling Arena
September 28, 1999 Atlanta Philips Arena
September 29, 1999 Roanoke Roanoke Civic Center 9,408 / 9,828
October 1, 1999 Hampton Hampton Coliseum Lynyrd Skynyrd N/A
October 2, 1999 Philadelphia First Union Spectrum Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
October 3, 1999 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Civic Arena
October 6, 1999 Buffalo Marine Midland Arena
October 8, 1999 East Rutherford Continental Airlines Arena
October 9, 1999 Worcester Worcester's Centrum Centre
October 10, 1999 Fairfax Patriot Center
October 12, 1999 Cleveland CSU Convocation Center
October 13, 1999 Fairborn Ervin J. Nutter Center
October 15, 1999 Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena
October 16, 1999 Detroit Palace of Auburn Hills 13,896 / 13,896 $476,361
October 17, 1999 Indianapolis Market Square Arena Lynyrd Skynyrd N/A N/A
October 19, 1999 Moline MARK of the Quad Cities
October 20, 1999 Madison Kohl Center
October 22, 1999 Chicago United Center Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
October 23, 1999 Ames Hilton Coliseum Lynyrd Skynyrd 7,362 / 14,092
October 24, 1999 Fargo Fargodome N/A
October 26, 1999 Minneapolis Target Center Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
October 28, 1999 Kansas City Kansas City Municipal Auditorium
October 29, 1999 St. Louis Kiel Center
October 30, 1999 Memphis Pyramid Arena 13,621 / 13,621 $489,795
November 5, 1999 New Orleans New Orleans Arena N/A N/A
November 6, 1999 Jackson Mississippi Coliseum
November 7, 1999 Nashville Nashville Arena
November 9, 1999 Shreveport Hirsch Memorial Coliseum
November 10, 1999 Little Rock Alltel Arena
November 12, 1999 Oklahoma City Myriad Convention Center
November 13, 1999 Tulsa Tulsa Convention Center
November 14, 1999 Wichita Britt Brown Arena
November 16, 1999 Omaha Omaha Civic Auditorium Arena Lynyrd Skynyrd
November 17, 1999 Rapid City Rushmore Plaza Civic Center
November 19, 1999 Salt Lake City Delta Center Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
November 21, 1999 Billings MetraPark Arena
November 22, 1999 Missoula Adams Center Lynyrd Skynyrd
November 24, 1999 Tacoma Tacoma Dome Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
November 26, 1999 Spokane Spokane Arena
November 27, 1999 Portland Rose Garden Arena
November 28, 1999 Boise Idaho Center
November 30, 1999 Reno Lawlor Events Center Lynyrd Skynyrd
December 1, 1999 Sacramento ARCO Arena Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
December 3, 1999 Oakland The Arena in Oakland Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sy Klopps Blues Band
December 4, 1999 Anaheim Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim Lynyrd Skynyrd
December 5, 1999 San Diego San Diego Sports Arena
December 7, 1999 Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Events Center Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
December 9, 1999 Tucson Tucson Convention Center 7,379 / 8,962 $258,265
December 10, 1999 Phoenix America West Arena N/A N/A
December 11, 1999 Albuquerque Tingley Coliseum
December 14, 1999 Odessa Ector County Coliseum Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
December 16, 1999 Lubbock Lubbock Municipal Coliseum Lynyrd Skynyrd, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
December 17, 1999 Dallas Reunion Arena 14,654 / 14,654 $579,290
December 29, 1999 Lafayette Cajundome Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jivin’ Sister Fanny N/A N/A
December 30, 1999 Austin Frank Erwin Center
December 31, 1999 Houston Houston Compaq Center 11,777 / 11,777 $681,372
Leg 2: arenas in the United States[2]
January 14, 2000 Hershey United States Hersheypark Arena Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Demonseeds N/A N/A
January 15, 2000 Charleston Charleston Civic Center 11,423 / 11,423 $379,891
January 16, 2000 Wheeling Wheeling Civic Center N/A N/A
January 18, 2000 Wilkes-Barre Northeastern Pennsylvania Civic Arena Lynyrd Skynyrd, Laidlaw
January 19, 2000 Rochester Blue Cross Arena 5,147 / 10,877
January 21, 2000 Hartford Hartford Civic Center 9,784 / 12,500 $334,342
January 22, 2000 Providence Providence Civic Center N/A N/A
January 23, 2000 Uniondale Nassau Coliseum
January 25, 2000 Albany Pepsi Arena 8,899 / 10,000 $297,211
January 26, 2000 Portland Cumberland County Civic Center 8,068 / 8,068 $282,380
January 28, 2000 Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena N/A N/A
January 29, 2000 Atlantic City Trump Marina
February 2, 2000 Tampa Ice Palace Arena Lynyrd Skynyrd, Laidlaw
February 4, 2000 Savannah Savannah Civic Center
February 5, 2000 Tupelo Tupelo Coliseum
February 6, 2000 Biloxi Mississippi Coast Coliseum
February 8, 2000 Louisville Freedom Hall 11,116 / 13,000 $341,567
February 9, 2000 Huntsville Von Braun Civic Center 7,862 / 7,862 $269,867
February 11, 2000 Johnson City Freedom Hall Civic Center 7,958 / 7,958 $278,530
February 13, 2000 Fort Worth Fort Worth Convention Center 11,923 / 11,923 $492,155
February 16, 2000 Macon Macon Coliseum N/A N/A
February 18, 2000 Albany Albany Civic Center
February 19, 2000 North Charleston North Charleston Coliseum
February 20, 2000 Raleigh Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena
February 22, 2000 Toledo Savage Hall
February 23, 2000 Kalamazoo Wings Stadium
February 25, 2000 Cincinnati Cincinnati Gardens
February 26, 2000 Columbus Value City Arena
February 27, 2000 Evansville Roberts Municipal Stadium
February 29, 2000 Peoria Peoria Civic Center
March 2, 2000 Terre Haute Hulman Center 6,086 / 10,200
March 3, 2000 Cape Girardeau Show Me Center N/A
March 5, 2000 Beaumont Montagne Center
Leg 3: arenas and stadiums in Australasia[3]
April 17, 2000 Perth Australia Perth Entertainment Centre N/A N/A
April 19, 2000 Adelaide Adelaide Entertainment Centre Orianthi
April 21, 2000 Byron Bay Red Devil Park Robert Cray Band, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones
April 22, 2000 Brisbane Brisbane Entertainment Centre
April 24, 2000 Sydney Sydney Entertainment Centre Never the Bride
April 26, 2000 Melbourne Melbourne Park
April 28, 2000 Auckland New Zealand Ericsson Stadium Supertop
April 30, 2000 Christchurch WestpacTrust Centre Delta
May 1, 2000 Wellington Queens Wharf Events Centre
Leg 4: arenas and stadiums in the United States ("Casino Tour")
May 4, 2002 Atlantic City United States Etess Arena N/A N/A
May 7, 2002 Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena
May 9, 2002 Albuquerque Sandia Resort and Casino
May 11, 2002 Paradise Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts
May 12, 2002 Alpine Viejas Casino
Leg 5: auditoriums and arenas in Europe ("Euro-Afrique")
October 1, 2002 Helsinki Finland Hartwall Areena Gary Moore N/A N/A
October 3, 2002 Stockholm Sweden Hovet
October 5, 2002 Aalborg Denmark Aalborg Stadion
October 7, 2002 Copenhagen Falkoner Teatret
October 8, 2002 Hamburg Germany Alsterdorfer Sporthalle
October 10, 2002 Berlin Velodrom
October 11, 2002 Leipzig Arena Leipzig
October 12, 2002 Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle
October 14, 2002 Paris France Zénith de Paris
October 15, 2002 Saarbrücken Germany E-Werk
October 16, 2002 Brussels Belgium Forest National
October 18, 2002 Essen Germany Grugahalle
October 19, 2002 Munich Olympiahalle
October 20, 2002 Stuttgart Schleyerhalle
October 22, 2002 Vienna Austria Spark7 Halle
October 23, 2002 Brno Czech Republic Hala Rondo
October 24, 2002 Zagreb Croatia Dom Sportova
October 26, 2002 Zürich Switzerland Hallenstadion Gary Moore
October 27, 2002 Milan Italy PalaVobis
October 29, 2002 Amsterdam Netherlands Heineken Music Hall
October 31, 2002 Manchester England Manchester Apollo
November 1, 2002 London Carling Apollo Hammersmith Headway

Notes
  1. High End Systems 2000.
  2. ZZTop.com 2000a.
  3. ZZTop.com 2000b.
gollark: FORTH isn't FORTRAN.
gollark: It's... FORTH or something insane like that.
gollark: no.
gollark: > being productive
gollark: Yes.

References
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.