Lynyrd Skynyrd at Carrington Pavilion on Thursday night

By Lisa Snedeker
Correspondent
Published: September 16, 2008

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If you’ve ever heard Lynyrd Skynyrd perform live, you know they aren’t just a Southern rock band. They are a rock band — period. And that’s just what Johnny Van Zant and the boys proved Thursday night at the outdoor Carrington Pavilion in Danville, Va., where more than 3,000 fans turned out despite the threat of rain that never materialized.

The band is considered a tribute band today, since three founding members, including Ronnie Van Zant — Johnny’s older brother — died in a plane crash in 1977 at the height of the band’s success. Tribute or not, it sounded like the old Skynyrd when the boys — and girls — hit the stage promptly at 8 p.m., a rare event at concerts. The screams of approval from concertgoers could be heard blocks away when the band kicked off the set with a rousing rendition of “What’s Your Name.”

The hit parade continued with “Saturday Night Special,” “I Knew A Little,” and “That Smell,” on which Johnny had the crowd sing some of the lines, as he would do throughout the night. In a nod to the fact that the date was Sept. 11 and the meaning it holds, Johnny gave a shout out to the troops in the middle of “Simple Man.”

Speaking of men, the crowd was definitely tilted toward the male side, but the ages ranged from 16 to 60-plus, a testament to the band’s longevity. And no one sat during the entire show that included “Whiskey Rock ‘n’ Roller,” “Tuesday’s Gone,” “Give Me Back My Bullets,” “Gimme Three Steps” and “The Breeze.” The band finished the set with the ubiquitous bar ballad “Sweet Home Alabama,” which wasn’t a surprise.

What was a surprise, and the sole disappointment of the show, happened when the band came back for an encore. The only song they played was a nearly 15-minute version of “Free Bird.” And while the guitar work by Rickie Medlocke and the others was amazing, I would have liked to have heard “Red, White and Blue” or one of the new songs the band has on its upcoming album, due out next year. While the band performed what I consider the “essential” Skynyrd, I wish they would have stuck around longer than an hour and 25 minutes. I bet Ronnie and the boys would have.

• Lisa Snedeker is a freelance writer who lives in Madison.