Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Entertainment P hHBI HBI^hIHhm - npi B. ,', ^Bcx^H BKI^ ,., <^dS fe. mmrn few hh f Johnnie Van Zandt and B Backioi ip jslb^ - aouraern nic/iio ? A ny ijinia n/uxuiMy SUA Writer A thick haze of smoke filled the Township by eight o'cloc Sunday night. Spontaneous cheering would erupt in on section and spread to others. Three confederate flags hung i ftip ctonric After a summer that featured only one rock concert thes folks were ready for music. Southern rock music. They ha come to see Blackfoot and their special guest The Johnni Van Zandt Band, but it could have been any number c southern rock groups and the excitement would have bee the same. When the lights went off hundreds of lighters came on. Th crows rose to its feet in anticipation. They didn't have to wa long as a spotlight pierced the smoke and The Johnnie Va f Artlr otodA liCllIUv bwn miv . THEY PLAYED the typical Southern rock with an urgenc only a Southern audience could understand. Songs lik 'Gettin High on Your Love' and 'No More Dirty Deals' struc a familiar chord with the audience. When Van Zandt challenged the crowd to "get your hanc up and get the hell out of your seats," they responded. This i A A i I wnai i ney nau cume iur. Halfway through the song that followed the exhortation b Van Zandt a guy a few rows ahead of me spotted a frier behind me. He smiled and raised his fist to the ceiling. H lackfoot gave the crowd at the Township a massive dose of Soi . b m _ mm _ dt Ana vai am iriends returned the gesture. ~ And as if Van Zandt had seen the silent exchange he thrust k his hand toward the audience signaling number one. The e crowd reacted with cheering. To many of them Van Zandt is n part of 'the first family of rock'n'roll.' That family includes Donnie Van Zandt of .38 special and the late Ronnie Van e Zandt whose name has risen to an almost legendary status d since his death in a tragic plane crash. )f THEIR LAST two songs were ones the crowd readily n identified with. "Only the Strong Survive Rock and Roll" reminded the audience of Ronnie and then Johnnie dedicated l.e the last song, "Standing in the Dark," to him. The song started out slow and ended in a frenzv of guitar chords and n Johnnie parading around the stage with a confederate flag. The crowd, however, needed more. The memory of Ronnie had excited them. Stomping and screaming and lighters y blazing they called the band back for a two song encore that e ended, fittingly enough, with an old Lynyrd Skynyrd song, 4I K Ain't The One.' . Satisfied, the crowd drifted back to their seats to wait for Blackfoot. They didn't have to wait long as Blackfoot exploded on stage amid the cheers of fans and captured the attention with the opening number, 'Gimmie, Gimmie, ?y Gimmie' leaving no doubt which band was the main event, jd Blackfoot's energetic hard-driving southern rock peris formance was spearheaded by vocalist/guitarist Hick ? ? _ ^ lltltiC #'jJg^^^MBiily ^k msE:"W*e v-1 IMHraB^ ^1, mmem uthern rock 'n' roll, sun photo by iarry newman. Medlocke. Constantly urging the crowd into excited state he seemed to be feeding off their energy to fuel his playing. Medlocke was continuously contorting his face and rolling his eyeballs from side to side giving him the look of an insane man. GUITARIST Charlie Hargret didn't need the crowd's inspiration to fire his performance. Much of the night Hargret was in nis own world. Hopping around the stage he was as much fun to watch as Medlocke. Blackfoot's songs were classically Southern. 'Everyman Should Know (Oueenie)' received wild crowd reaction when Medlocke introduced it by saying, "If you go messin with my queen I'm gonna mess with your g-d d-m- nose." Blackfoot's performance of "Searchin," "To Hot to Handle," and "Fly Away" ignited the audience and formed a special bond with the most die-hard Southern rockers. To close the show Medlocke invited the audience to sing along, an inviiauon mey accepted. When they finished Medlocke thanked Columbia for turning out and Blackfoot left the stage. The audience didn't leave. The bond was not broken yet and Blackfoot returned to do "Highway Song" with the help of the audience. THEY LEFT once more and many in the crowd, feeling the show was over, departed. They were wrong. Blackfoot burst back on stage ending their concert with "Rattlesnake Rocker." The bond had been fullfilled. For those who loved Southern rock it was a very good evening