Pandemonium reigns at SPAC concert witnessed by 14,000
by Steve Grandin, The Saratogian
“We jus’ wanna play our music and take it to the people, ” said Ronnie Van Zant, lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd. And Lynyrd Skynyrd did play their music Tuesday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the result was the wildest, craziest concert in the past two years.
The band, all good ol’ Southern boys, got together with Wet Willie, another group from the South, and Atlantis, a German band, to incite over 14,000 fans to complete pandemonium in the most insane SPAC performance since the Allman Brothers came to town in 1973.
Atlantis opened things and got the crowd in the right frame of mind by jamming to hard rock for 45 minutes. They yielded to Wet Willie, and the boogying sound of this Macon, Georgia group was a perfect setup to Lynyrd Skynyrd. By the time Van Zant and his friends hit the stage, the entire crowd was on its feet, and remained standing until the end of the evening, over four hours from the beginning.
Van Zant talked to reporters before the concert, and the chunky vocalist was extremely worried about a cold that “kept me in the tuning room for a half hour trying to get my voice right.” He showed no trace of sickness in the performance, although he took four time-outs to grab beers to help his throat. The group is near the end of a four-month tour, which has already cost them a band member. Guitarist Ed King was sent home recently for fatigue. “Touring so long, and going every night really gets to you after a while,” Van Zant admitted.
The concert was a half hour late starting, but Atlantis quickly made people forget the delay. The group is based around lead singer Inga Rumpf, a combination of Janis Joplin’s voice and Mick Jagger’s strut, and is composed of several great musicians.
The group made fine use of the tremendous sound system which had been set up for this concert. Playing Rolling Stones-type rock, Atlantis certainly woke people up and got them ready for the evening. This group could certainly hit it big in the near future as it possesses all the needed ingredients.
Wet Willie, most famous for their hit single, “Keep On Smilin,” proved that their talents far exceeded one type of music. Lead vocalist Jimmy Hall is the main man of the band, as he has a fine voice, and plays a great saxophone and harmonica. Besides playing their famed boogy style, Wet Willie got into good time rock ‘n roll, blues, and country. Formerly known as a “junior Allman Brothers Band”, Wet Willie was much more than that — and a great lead into Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Lynyrd Skynyrd kept the crowd standing throughout their performance, although they saved most of their rousing rowdy music until the end. Van Zant’s voice was perfect for the down-home, whiskey drinkin’, woman chasin’ music the band plays, while guitarists Allen Collins and Garry Rossington showed abundant talent. Besides doing country songs such as *Whiskey Rock ‘N Roller”, “On The Hunt”, and “Poison Whiskey”, Lynyrd Skynyrd warned the crowd about the “Needle &Spoon”, and struck out against guns in “Saturday Night Special”. Their “Country Boy” is much different from John Denver’s, but the thought is the same. JJ Cale’s “They Call Me The Breeze” was a real crowd pleaser, but the next song sent them completely wild. Dropping a huge Confederate flag from the ceiling, the band broke into “Sweet Home Alabama”, their most famous number. The song is a response to the anti-South publicity in the media, although Van Zant admits they did the whole thing as a joke. The song’s lyrics have caused many writers to link the group with George Wallace’s Presidential campaign. Van Zant resents this by saying. “He don’t care about music and we don’t care about politics.”
The group came back for an encore and, with some help from Wet Willie’s Jimmy Hall, did Jimmy Rogers’ 1920 song “T For Texas” a song that seemed to be 50 years ahead of its time. The night’s finale was the high point as the band did a tribute to the late Duane Allman and Berry Oakley, by playing “Free Bird”. Van Zant literally had to pull his guitarists off stage after 20 minutes to end the concert. By the night’s end, the crowd seemed to be as physically drained as the group was.
The warm evening combined with two phenomenal Southern bands, turned the crowd rowdy and the boogying music only added to the concert’s craziness. But over 14,000 fans wouldn’t trade that for all the moonshine in Tennessee or cotton in ‘Bama.
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