REVIEW: Lynyrd Skynyrd brings out a little redneck in Edmonton
There weren’t a lot of Confederate flags spotted at the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Edmonton on Tuesday night.
Maybe four in a crowd of thousands at Rogers Place – not counting the one hanging from lead singer Johnny Van Zant’s microphone. Sure, it was a bit distracting – but not enough to take away from the band’s classic music. You don’t have to like the people, or their politics. You just have to like the art. And for their farewell tour, Skynyrd delivered a solid Southern rock show with that all-too-familiar twang that thrilled their audience.
After a set by opening act Randy Bachman, it was around 9 pm when the headliner took the stage. They didn’t say much, and let the music do the talking.
“How many die-hard Lynyrd Skynyrd fans are out there in the crowd?” shouted Johnny (brother of Ronnie Van Zant, who died in that tragic plane crash that killed half the band in 1977). The crowd cheered their answer. Yes!
The audience was pretty interesting – a mix of older and young. There were a surprising number of young people, perhaps because how many cover versions of Sweet Home Alabama there have been, one on pop radio at the moment, and one by Kid Rock. But most of the fans were from the 1970s generation, out for a night of getting up and letting loose – definitely reliving their long-lost wild-child past lives. It was a sea of leather jackets with sewn-on rock band patches, long hair, mullets, handlebar mustaches, and ball-caps. They all partied like it was 1979.
The music was nostalgic, harmonies along with the twang of the guitar, and heavy on the slow songs like Tuesday’s Gone, and Simple Man, the kind of songs where the people put up up their lighters and sway. Actual Bic lighters, not cell phones like in new times. The vibe was not high energy – they’re on their farewell tour, after all – reminiscent of the many nights we can all relate to, when you lie on your bed while staring at the ceiling, music playing and you let yourself and the melody take flight – a true free bird! People stood, paying tribute with lighters ablaze, doobies lit, swaying as a united front – as the Skynyrd Nation.
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