I was a bit ambivalent about attending this show, at the urging of a good friend of mine. Doobie Brothers is a shadow of itself, with two original members. And it’s the same with Lynyrd Skynyrd, who played as if they were in a hurry go to back to the hotel and catch a WWE fight before going to bed early. Barely a 90-minute set.

Well, I never see any Skynyrds here, so I thought I’d upload this one. I drove from Montreal that morning. Big mistake, the Quebec National Holiday weekend meant the burder crossing was backed-up badly. Took us 2 hours to get across. And once in the Boston area, we of course hit the weekend rush-hour, and it took another 90 minutes to get to Mansfield from Lowell! End result, we missed the first half of Doobie Brothers.


Lynyrd Skynyrd
Tweeter Center, Mansfield MA.
June 22 2007

Recording gear: JB3 at 44khz , Sound-Professional stealth mic, battery box with bass roll-off at 100.
Sound-Pro, CD Wave, FLAC.

Taper: Micro-Magnon

The set list:

Travellin’ Man
Workin
What’s Your Name
That Smell
Simple Man
The Needle and the Spoon
Gimme Back My Bullets
The Ballad of Curtis Lowe
Tuesday’s Gone
“Red, White and Blue
Gimme Three Steps
Call Me The Breeze
Sweet Home Alabama
Free Bird




Lynyrd Skynyrd never on cruise control

MUSIC REVIEW


By Scott McLennan Telegram & Gazette reviewer
smclennan@telegram.com



MANSFIELD— If given the chance, the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd would give Mount Rushmore a face-lift, adding the visages of fallen comrades Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, Leon Wilkeson and Allen Collins.

Short of that opportunity, Lynyrd Skynyrd uses the concert stage for nightly elegies to those responsible for one of the all-time great Southern-rock songbooks. Of course, in honoring the spirits of the original Skynyrds killed in a 1977 plane crash (Van Zant and the Gaines siblings) and the others who later succumbed to illness (Collins and Wilkeson), the current version of the band is sure to keep its tributes rowdy and raucous.

The Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famers played Friday at the Tweeter Center along with fellow ’70s hit makers the Doobie Brothers in a solid and satisfying classic-rock package.


It took a while for the hard-core Skynyrd crowd to file into the amphitheater, leaving the Doobie Brothers to play before a lot of empty seats. Yet that did not slow down the Doobie juggernaut. The band hit the stage with the slick and rocking “Dangerous,” and from there unfolded a set that contained blues, soul, Hawaiian slack-key guitar music, acoustic folk, Cajun influences and reams of singalong lyrics.

Original Doobies Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons remain an unlikely pair, Johnston looking all business and Simmons the long-haired hippie, yet together they marshaled a superb cast of players through a course of such memorable numbers as “Takin’ it to the Streets,” “Black Water,” “Long Train Runnin’ ” and “China Grove.” The “brotherhood” expanded to the children of band members who ambled on to sing, play guitar and bang drums as the band crafted a communal set closing, “Listen to the Music.”

The Skynyrd fans filled in the venue by the time the house lights came down for the headliners. Guitarist Gary Rossington and piano ace Billy Powell are the last of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd, and their presence provides the band’s spiritual anchor. Singer Johnny Van Zant, who is Ronnie’s younger brother, guitarists Ricky Medlocke and Mark “Sparky” Matejka (acquired last year from the Charlie Daniels Band), bassist Ean Evans, drummer Michael Cartellone, and backup singers Dale Krantz-Rossington and Carol Chase bring the rest of the muscle.

The current incarnation of Skynyrd carefully respects the legacy of the original unit, from which it draws the bulk of its material. But year in and year out, the band tweaks the performances, so there is never a whiff of staleness coming off the stage when Lynyrd Skynyrd plays.

After a slow-burning bluesy start with “Travellin’ Man” (which incorporated some live recordings of Ronnie Van Zant vocals), and “Workin’,” the band kicked into a full-tilt boogie mode with “What’s Your Name” and “That Smell,” the one-two opening punch from the classic “Street Survivors” album.

The band built a big, swooning version of “Simple Man,” a cornerstone of its blue-collar philosophy, before delivering one of its signature medleys, used to touch upon the hits unable to fit full-form into the set. Rossington, Medlocke and Matejak ate up the guitar parts in the medley of “The Needle and the Spoon” and “Gimme Back My Bullets,” while Van Zant nailed the narrative of “The Ballad of Curtis Lowe.”

After the soaring, wistful blues of “Tuesday’s Gone” and the newer, patriotic “Red, White and Blue,” Lynyrd Skynyrd went to the bank with perennial barroom faves “Gimme Three Steps” and “Call Me The Breeze.” Doug Flutie reprised a role he had when Lynyrd Skynyrd played in Worcester last year and joined on backup vocals for “Sweet Home Alabama.” (Skynyrd next month plays a benefit concert for the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism.)

There was no doubt what song would be the encore, leaving the only speculation as to how “Free Bird” would arrive. On this night, it was lean and mean, as Powell trimmed the keyboard dramatics, the guitarists scorched, the backup singers stayed out of the picture and even Van Zant departed amid the six-string fireworks. Sure, the old songs are fueling Lynyrd Skynyrd’s continued survival, but the way the current band approaches that catalog proves it is not content to travel on cruise control.