Caesars Windsor Became Skynyrd Nation for an Evening of Classic Southern Rock

This weekend Caesars Windsor became Skynyrd Nation as the classic southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd (with guest Randy Bachman) created the party of all parties, giving the 2019 Windsor concert year something to live up to. (More photos of both acts, below)

Labelled as a farewell, The Last of the Street Survivors Tour felt more like a celebration than a funeral, giving fans a blast for their money. The band sounded great on that massive arena rock stage, with a huge light show, plenty of dry ice and a great arched screen that was encompassed by a circular lighting truss.

The fans were geared up for the show before it even began. They were standing at their seats and up against the stage before the show even began, but once the southern gentlemen kicked into Workin’ For MCA, the farewell party began.

Windsor got all those incredible hits: What’s Your Name, That Smell, Saturday Night Special, Don’t Ask Me No Questions, Simple Man, Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Call Me the Breeze, Sweet Home Alabama and the closing Free Bird.

Free Bird was a suitable closing for the show, ending their farewell with arguably their crowning achievement. In radio we used to call Free Bird a washroom song, meaning that we’d play the song and have nine minutes to head to the washroom without having to play the next record. There were only a few of those legacy songs, but Free Bird was always my favourite because people love the song. For the entire 12-minute version in Windsor, fans would have been obsoletely insane to leave during the performance. It has as much passion as the original recording and is a beautiful swan song to a legendary band.

Lynyrd Skynyrd has been rocking the world for 55 years and although there was no evidence that the band is slowing down, they deserve their upcoming retirement. They gave the world some great music and they left Windsor pleasing fans with a show that focused heavily on the albums Second helping, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd) and Street Survivors. 2009’s Skynyrd Nation was also a great choice for this tour.

Although the only remaining veteran Skynyrd members were founding guitarist Gary Rossington and long-time vocalist Johnny Van Zant (younger brother of the late co-founder and former lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant), the band felt genuine and sounded on-the-money.

Canadian icon Randy Bachman opened the show with a stellar 14-song set that felt more like a Canadian encyclopedia of music rather than a homage to one man’s career. For some in attendance, Randy and his band were the highlight of the night.

Randy’s show was phenomenal. He barely touched his catalog and didn’t derive from the hits, so fans were treated to a solid full concert of singalongs that every Canadian knows. Right from the opening of Roll On Down The Highway to the end notes of Takin’ Care of Business, it was one memorable song after another.

Randy has a great touring band, featuring his son Tal on guitar and vocals, Mick Dalla-Vee who handles those Burton Cummings vocal parts like a champ and drummer Marc LaFrance, who’s played or sang on some of the greatest hair band albums of the 80s and 90s.

One treat in the show was Tal’s original song She’s So High, which was a hit in North America in 1999. You could see Randy’s eyes light up when the crowd sang along to his son’s biggest song.

It might have been Skynyrd Nation for most of the night, but when Randy was on stage, it was all about Canada and our Canadian music heritage coming from that Gibson Les Paul.

Classic rock fans couldn’t ask for a better night. The two bands played more than two dozen rock radio classics and if you weren’t raising your fist at least once during that show, you must be a jazz fan.

Lynyrd Skynyrd with Randy Bachman
The Colosseum – Caesars Windsor
March 3, 2019

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