Lynyrd Skynyrd keeps ‘On Turnin’ in SPAC concert
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Lynyrd Skynyrd played loud and proud during a crowd-pleasing Saturday night show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, part of the band’s Big Wheels Keep On Turnin’ Tour.
While the wheels do keep on turnin’, this tour has been a bumpy road.
Earlier this summer Gary Rossington, the only surviving original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, dropped off the tour due to heart issues. As he recovers from emergency surgery, guitarist Damon Johnson is filling in.
A few weeks ago, another one of the group’s guitarists, Rickey Medlocke, tested positive for COVID-19, causing some concerts to be canceled — but he was back on stage with the band for the Spa City show.
This, of course, comes after a year of cancellations amid the pandemic, which silenced much of the country’s live music events in 2020.
After enduring these challenges, Lynyrd Skynyrd is especially grateful to be playing to large amphitheater crowds once again.
“Thank you Lord for this tonight,” frontman Johnny Van Zant said on stage Saturday.
“It’s good to be alive,” the lead singer expressed later in the show. “It’s good to have live music.” Johnny Van Zant is the brother of the late founding vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, who died in a devastating 1977 plane crash along with other members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Though the act has certainly evolved since the Southern rock band was formed in 1964, the current Lynyrd Skynyrd lineup does its best to honor the music that so many fans have come to love over the past 57 years.
At the SPAC show, concertgoers heard all the hits from “Saturday Night Special” to “Simple Man” to “Sweet Home Alabama.”
The band also performed “Tuesday’s Gone,” “That Smell,” “Workin’ for MCA,” “What’s Your Name,” “Gimme Three Steps” and a cover of J. J. Cale’s “Call Me The Breeze.”
One 2010 single called “Skynyrd Nation” made the setlist, but the group primarily stuck to the material that made Lynyrd Skynyrd popular in the ‘70s.
The evening ended with an encore of the band’s famous “Freebird,” featuring a vocal track and video of Ronnie Van Zant.
Despite the nearly half a century since Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut album, the band’s music still resonates with fans both young and old. In 2006, the act earned its spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“Thank you so much for keeping Lynyrd Skynyrd music alive for all these years,” Van Zant said to the local audience. “We love you.”