Photos and Review by Robert McDonald
Galleries: Lynyrd Skynynd, Six Gun Sally
Saturday night at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield was exactly what a summer show should be. Three bands, four hours of music, and a crowd that sang every word of every hit like the songs belonged to them. Because honestly, they do.
Six Gun Sally opened at 6:25 with a tight set that mixed originals with covers of “Piece of My Heart,” “Somebody to Love,” and “Ramblin’ Man.” Openers on bills like this usually play to half-empty seats and polite applause. Not this time. They earned the crowd early and set the tone for the night.
Foreigner was the surprise of the evening for me. There are no original members left, and I went in wondering if it would feel like a tribute act. It did not. Luis Maldonado has a huge voice and worked the stage for 90 straight minutes, tearing through “Cold as Ice,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Urgent,” and a “Juke Box Hero” that had the whole amphitheater on its feet. The Simon and Garfunkel cover of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was a curveball that landed, and keyboardist Michael Bluestein, a Brookline kid, celebrated his birthday by strapping on a keytar. When “I Want to Know What Love Is” hit, the band could have stopped singing entirely. Nineteen thousand people had it covered.
Skynyrd took the stage at 9:15 after a video tribute to Hell House, the Florida cabin where the original band wrote its songs. Johnny Van Zant does not move much, but he does not need to. “That Smell,” “Saturday Night Special,” “Gimme Back My Bullets,” “The Ballad of Curtis Loew.” One after another, and the crowd carried every chorus. “Tuesday’s Gone” and “Simple Man” back to back was the emotional peak of the night, with Van Zant dedicating the latter to the military and first responders. Rickey Medlocke’s slide work all night was a reminder that this band is still a genuine guitar army.
Then the finish. “Sweet Home Alabama” turned the place into one giant singalong, and the “Free Bird” encore, with vintage footage of Ronnie Van Zant singing the verses on the screens, was as moving as it was loud. Van Zant said it himself from the stage: “Nothing in the world like a Lynyrd Skynyrd crowd, baby.”
He was right. Great sets from all three bands, but the crowd made the night. Every classic hit, sung back at full volume, from the lawn to the pit.