Lynyrd Skynyrd Brings Last Of The Survivors Farewell Tour To Biloxi (SHOW REVIEW/PHOTOS)

If you grew up in the south in the 1970’s, and beyond, the words Lynyrd Skynyrd were as familiar to you as pickup trucks, fishing and Sunday dinner. It was inevitable that a Road Home poster would hang in your room and Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd would make many spins around the turntable. And you usually ended up a Skynyrd fan for life.

Skynyrd Nation went into mourning back in January when it was announced that their beloved band would be heading out on their last tour, dubbed Last Of The Street Survivors Farewell Tour presented by SiriusXM, beginning on May 4. In a year that has seen numerous artists throw up the end-has-come tour flags, the gasp from the collective was one of the loudest heard round the globe, as Skynyrd fans are amongst the most loyally dedicated. To them, Skynyrd is a way of life, a rite of passage, their never expiring we-are-family membership card.

The tour, which is down to it’s last couple of shows for 2018, is bittersweet in more ways than one, as Skynyrd has seen more than their share of tragedies and triumphs since they began as friends playing music: “It’s hard to imagine, after all these years, the band that Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins and myself started back in Jacksonville, would resonate for this long and to so many generations of fans,” said Gary Rossington in a statement. “I’m certain they are looking down from above, amazed that the music has touched so many.”

With only guitarist Rossington remaining in the band from those early incarnations, Lynyrd Skynyrd came to Biloxi’s Mississippi Coast Coliseum on Saturday, December 8th, to say goodbye for what looks to be the very last time. And they were not holding back. They bulleted through anthems and power ballads, cranking up the volume past ten to blow holes in the walls with their three guitar onslaught that has always been their signature. “You guys ain’t tired are you?” asked singer Johnny Van Zant, the youngest of the Van Zant brothers, who came aboard in 1987. “Cause we’re just getting started.”

Opening with “Workin’ For MCA,” from the band’s 1974 sophomore album, Second Helping, they jumped into “Skynyrd Nation,” one of the newer songs in the setlist, albeit being nine years old, and “What’s Your Name” before “That Smell” caused the crowd to really erupt. For a song about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and featured on the infamous 1977Street Survivors album that had been released just days before the horrific plane crash that took the lives of Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie, the song resonates with a chilly foreboding while totally kicking ass sonically.

All evening, Rossington was a quiet superman on guitar, keeping his head down, eyes shadowed by the brim of his hat, and almost reluctantly easing to the front of the stage to show off some superlative slide or dual guitar epics alongside Rickey Medlocke and Mark Matejka. He left the souped-up riffing to Medlocke, who handled each solo with a flair and zest that only comes from experience and passion. Medlocke knew just how to rev up the crowd, visually and fret-wise, giving songs that are at least forty-five years old some supersonic zoom; the same songs that have never left the airwaves no matter what was in radio fashion.

Maybe that’s because Skynyrd’s songs contain powerful imagery: family, good-natured fun, faith, respect, friends, girls, cars, backbone and love for America. Introducing “Red White & Blue” as a song for all the military personnel and their families, Van Zant proudly exclaimed that they were “behind them 100, 110, 120 percent,” as the Stars & Stripes appeared on the big screen behind them. During “Simple Man” and “Freebird,” old video footage of the band in happy times – goofing off, fishing, playing with kids – played on the screen; and during the Peter Keys piano solo on the latter song, the names of all those in the Skynyrd band family that have passed on appeared amid lighted candles. Just seeing the long list of names, twelve in all, it made one realize how many have stood under the Lynyrd Skynyrd moniker and how short life really is. “Sweet Home Alabama” was dedicated to bassist Ed King who passed away in August at age 68.

For the tour, Skynyrd has been having some very special guests open some of the shows along the way, including Bad Company, the Kentucky Headhunters, Marshall Tucker Band, Kid Rock, Jamey Johnson, 38 Special, ZZ Top and Blackberry Smoke. In Biloxi, and the Baton Rouge show the night before, it was a young singer/songwriter named Dillon Carmichael, whose debut album, the Dave Cobb produced Hell On An Angel, was released in late October, and the band A Thousand Horses, who have two albums and an EP under their belts. Carmichael had the deep soothing voice of a classic country crooner with specks of Merle Haggard, while A Thousand Horses stayed more on the side of kicking up some dust and firing up the near, if not sold out crowd.

Other highlights of the night included the rip-roaring Medlocke guitar solos on “I Know A Little” and “The Needle & The Spoon,” the JJ Cale penned “Call Me The Breeze,” the Honkettes (Dale Krantz Rossington and Carol Chase) slipping in those honey sweet harmonies that have always kept Skynyrd from becoming too much testosterone, and the power of the climatic guitars on “Freebird.” If that doesn’t raise your heartbeat then nothing probably will.

If you stop and think about it, Gillsburg, Mississippi, where the fatal plane crash happened in October of 1977, is only about two and a half hours from Biloxi. The band was heading to do a show in Baton Rouge. How ironic that two of their last American dates would be so closely related to those last hours for Ronnie, Steve and Cassie; and how afterwards the band went from Southern Rock trailblazers to legends in one sad moment. But Skynyrd is not one to dwell on the sadness. They celebrate life while honoring the memories of their brothers and sisters. All of them. After the show, I overheard a man telling his friend that this was the best present he could give him, bringing him to this concert, because it will, “stick here forever,” tapping his chest above his heart. I believe this is how the band will remember their fans as well.

SETLIST: Workin’ For MCA, Skynyrd Nation, What’s Your Name, That Smell, You Got That Right, I Know A Little, The Needle & The Spoon, Saturday Night Special, Red White & Blue, The Ballad Of Curtis Loew, Tuesday’s Gone, Don’t Ask Me No Questions, Simple Man, Gimme Three Steps, Call Me The Breeze, Sweet Home Alabama ENCORE: Freebird.