YOB & Lynyrd Skynyrd

Friday the 13^th?  Not a fan of the movies or the superstition itself.

Yet again I take a perverse pleasure in reviewing my two most recent concert experiences, bands which have absolutely nothing in common aside from playing music.

YOB, Metro Gallery, Baltimore.  This is a club north of the Pennsylvania Station with little in the way of seating (up against the wall facing perpendicular to the stage) and a stage facing away from the entrance, basically just a big empty room.  The band itself is a doom metal trio from Eugene, Oregon, consisting of Mike Scheidt (guitar/vocals), Aaron Rieseberg (bass), and Travis Foster (drums).   Opening acts were Bell Witch and some band not identified except in indecipherable logo on t-shirts for sale.  These acts did a good job of playing the stoner rock which us stoner rock fans know and enjoy, though their performances fell short of inducing me to purchase any of their material or pursue them further.  Sorry. 

Yob’s songs are long, slow, heavy, obnoxious, and truly radio-unfriendly as you might expect from any band referred to as “doom”.  Scheidt cites the following bands as influences:  Neurosis, Tool, Immolation, Saint Vitus, Soundgarden, Deep Purple, The Obsessed (Wino again), Judas Priest, Pentagram, Trouble, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath (de rigeur for doom bands), King Crimson, and Pink Floyd.  Some tracks do get a bit mellow and change up the rhythm a little to keep it from getting too oppressively doomy.  In that regard, however, Elder (who I still haven’t been able to see in concert) do a better job.  Both band’s newest albums are the best so far of their material. 

Albums: Elaborations of Carbon (2002); Catharsis (2003); The Illusion of Motion (2004); The Unreal Never Lived (2005); The Great Cessation (2009); Atma (2011); Clearing the Path to Ascend (2014); Our Raw Heart (2018).  All but the first album are available on Spotify.

Set:  Ablaze, The Screen, The Lie That Is Sin, Breathing From The Shallows, Adrift in the Ocean, and Our Raw Heart.  Six songs in about 90 minutes = 15 minutes per song.  [Their live album, Live at Roadburn (2010) similarly features four songs over an hour, again averaging 15 minutes per song].  Having driven up myself this show was straight edge for me, no inebriants of any nature.  Despite that, and despite the nature of the music, I enjoyed it from start to finish and even more remarkably had no trouble driving home from Baltimore.  Wonders never cease. 

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jiffy Lube Live.   Prior to the show the ads conspicuously refused to acknowledge who the opening acts were, but they turned out to be:  Atlanta Rhythm Section, Foghat, and .38 Special.   ARS I ignored as I was picking out a t-shirt at the concession stand.  Foghat I enjoyed, particularly the only two songs I knew, “I Just Wanna Make Love To You” and “Slow Ride”.   .38 Special was a band I’d known of but never actually listened to, so I was fresh in my assessment of them being a slightly commercial copy of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Skynyrd themselves?   I got into them in college, picking up the first two albums Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd and Second Helping on cassette from Kemp Mill Records, probably in spring of 1988, followed by Nuthin’ Fancy (last album with Ed King), Gimme Back My Bullets, Street Survivors (last original studio album, only one with Steve Gaines on it), the live album One More From The Road, and the bonus albums First…And Last & Legend, both of which are simply collections of extra tracks left around.   These five studio albums were the core released from 1973-77 and the only ones with Ronnie Van Zant on them.  Thus the classic original lineup was Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Ed King/Steve Gaines (third guitarist), Leon Wilkinson (bass), Billy Powell (keyboards), and Bob Burns/Artimus Pyle (drums).  RVZ and Steve Gaines died in the infamous plane crash.  That was when their charter plane, supposed to take them from South Carolina to Louisiana, ran out of fuel and crashed in the forest of Mississippi on October 20, 1977.   

In 1987 the band reunited for a tour, and after legal issues were resolved finally released a new album in 1991 with the remaining surviving members, remarkably Ed King returning as Allen Collins had died the year before.  From then until 2012 they released 9 albums:  Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991, The Last Rebel, Endangered Species, Twenty, Edge of Forever, Christmas Time Again, Vicious Cycle, God & Guns, and Last of a Dyin’ Breed.  Ironically, that’s almost twice the output of the original lineup, though not quite as productive in terms of albums/year.  Then again, during the 60s and 70s bands were pushed to release no less than an album per year PLUS touring, which obviously took its toll even on young, energetic musicians.  But now natural causes conspired to thin the herd, gradually and not in one fell swoop, e.g. plane crash: Ed King left after Endangered Species, Leon Wilkinson died after Christmas Time Again, and Billy Powell died after God & Guns.  Rickey Medlocke, best known as the singer/guitarist for Blackfoot, had actually been in LS before the first album came out, and joined the band for Twenty. 

Thus of the original band, only Gary Rossington is left.  Part of my reluctance to see the band in concert up to now has been the knowledge that Rossington is the only member left, although the replacement members are very much competent and the substitution is not one I’d be in a position to ascertain, having been a kid in the US well below concert attendance age in 1977. 

Of these newer albums I only have the two most recent: God & Guns and Last of a Dyin’ Breed.   Fortunately 1991 through Edge of Forever are all on Spotify for me to listen to when I get the chance.  The last two I have heard do a competent job of replicating what RVZ might have done had he survived 1977.  However, neither Gimme Back My Bullets nor Street Survivors seem to be as consistently heavy hitting as the first three, notwithstanding Steve Gaines pouring new energy into the band on the last album.  Figuring what post-’77 LS would look like with RVZ alive is speculation at best.  Who knows, maybe there’s a parallel dimension where their plane didn’t crash and RVZ decided to turn the band to disco or heavy metal. 

Current touring lineup, then.  In addition to Rossington, they have Johnny Van Zant on vocals.  Notwithstanding the lyric “my only son” in “Simple Man”, ZVZ is the younger brother of (sign of the cross here) Ronnie Van Zant, and their brother Donnie Van Zant is the singer for .38 Special.   Rickey Medlocke, who favors Korina Gibson Explorers, effectively takes Allen Collins’ place in the group.   The remainder are Mark Matejka (third guitarist), Keith Cristopher (bass), the appropriately named Peter Keys (keyboards), and Michael Cartellone (drums).   As noted they did their jobs to my satisfaction, there being no reason Gary Rossington couldn’t find capable replacements for his fallen comrades.

Set: Workin’ For MCA, Skynyrd Nation (only newer song), What’s Your Name, Travelin’ Man, That Smell, I Know A Little, Whiskey Rock-A-Roller, Saturday Night Special, The Ballad of Curtis Loew (deep cut added to the set to the audience’s immense satisfaction), Tuesday’s Gone, Don’t Ask Me No Questions, Simple Man, Gimme Three Steps, Call Me The Breeze, Sweet Home Alabama, and guess the encore:  FREEBIRD. 

Overall an excellent show.  JVZ talks a bit much, but not too much.  Some good footage on the screen behind them, particularly during “Breeze”.   CSA flags were in abundance among the audience, as you might expect, although the band themselves only showed it briefly in the screen footage.  JVZ’s banter suggested that the band is patriotic and loves America, but with no express exhortation to “Make America Great” or any references to our current President, I’m wondering if they didn’t vote for Gary Johnson.  I can’t imagine anyone in the band voting for Hillary Clinton.   

This gets us back to the CSA flag debate.  Skynyrd has never expressed any support for slavery, secession, subjugation of blacks, or any political position which might be asserted, directly or indirectly, by the overt display of what we commonly refer to as the Confederate flag.  They are from Jacksonville, Florida, and straddle the line of being a rock band which happens to be from the South, vs. a southern rock band, whatever that might be.  I’ve never heard of Ronnie Van Zant or any other band member expressing any political views which would be negatively associated with the CSA.  Anyhow.  I’d say this is a prime example where the CSA flag might well merit a pass.  The funny thing is, the audience was 99.99% white….