Austin: ZZ Top at ACL Live (Saturday Show)

ZZ Top, the trio Texas has claimed as its own for more than half a century, opens a two-night stand at ACL Live at the Moody Theater on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. Doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. show, tickets start at $137, and Austin’s own Mike “The Drifter” Flanigin opens.

Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill formed ZZ Top in Houston in late 1969, pulling from two rival bands — Gibbons’ Moving Sidewalks and Beard and Hill’s American Blues. Their third record, 1973’s Tres Hombres, broke them nationally on the strength of “La Grange,” and 1983’s Eliminator turned their blues-boogie foundation into an MTV-era phenomenon, going Diamond on the strength of “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs.” Elwood Francis has held down bass since Dusty Hill stepped away from touring in 2021, and the band’s chemistry has barely missed a beat.

ACL Live sits in the same downtown Austin blocks where the city’s blues tradition still runs deep, and a hometown-adjacent stop for a band the state has officially designated a Texas Hero carries extra weight. Gibbons has spent decades trading licks and stories with the same scene that built clubs like Antone’s Nightclub, and a ZZ Top show in Austin always feels a little like a family reunion.

Grab tickets on StubHub before Saturday’s show sells out.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famers — inducted by Keith Richards himself — ZZ Top have sold hundreds of millions of records and toured four continents without ever losing the “tone, taste and tenacity” that’s defined them since Houston in 1969. The band returns to Austin for two nights, Aug. 22 and 23, giving fans a rare chance to catch back-to-back shows from a band still touring hard more than 55 years in.

Doors open at 7 p.m. with the show at 8 p.m. Parking is available in the Moody Theater’s attached garage and nearby downtown lots.