So much happened at the Norva in Norfolk, Virginia, last night that I
don't know where to begin. So I'll just go through the evening
chronologically. Ross Panneton and I headed down the road and got so
caught up in conversation that we missed a major turn and didn't
realize it for about 15 miles. That should have been a bad thing,
yet in retrospect, the timing of events throughout the evening would
have been completely different. Last year I kept running into Donnie
Van Zant just as soon as I'd get to a venue.
Well, this time, it was Mojo (Gary Hensley). He was standing in front of the tour bus (which was parked dead in front of the venue instead of out back), getting ready to go take a shower. As if the tour bus isn't big enough, they had an equipment trailer hooked to the back of the bus! We kidded Gary about who was going to be running the t-shirt stand (it ended up being an employee from the venue.)
It wasn't showtime yet, and since the venue didn't allow re-entry, we went around back to the Backstage Café. What a place. Autographed guitars and drums and gold, silver, and platinum records lining the walls. No sooner than we had walked in, I recognized a fan who I had met at two different .38 Special shows last year. As we were chatting, a few of his friends came up to us, at which point I became an idiot. The one man had pulled a guitar pick out of his pocket and then put it back. I asked him what kind is was (I'm a fanatic for collecting guitar picks). It was a Lynyrd Skynyrd pick! Imagine my dismay when this same gentleman took the stage later on when they played "Call Me the Breeze" , grabbed up Mojo's bass guitar, and turned out to be none other than Leon Wilkeson! So much for my stupidity. I guess he didn't have on a crazy enough hat!
Bobby Capps appeared from a side hallway and took Leon aside for awhile, then headed off to get ready. The fan I had run into (Charles), said, let's go to his car, he'd show us some pictures he took at the Raleigh show. He not only showed us the photos, but proceeded to give both Ross and myself a handful of them. I can't thank him enough. The venue was very strict about cameras. They had bouncers from the second level pointing down to a bouncer on the floor to who had the cameras so they could confiscate them. And here I was with developed prints already in my shirt pocket!
As we stood on the sidewalk, Eric (one of the guitar players) came from the hotel down the street and went inside. So did Mike (drummer). It was time to go into the venue, and as we went back past the tour bus, we ran into Mark Rogers. We said a brief hello and let him get back to business. That man NEVER slows down. And BC was there too.
It was a terrific venue, good view from wherever you were, and smoking was only allowed in their 3rd floor smoking lounge. We had missed most of the Katie's performance by now, but that's life. The crew got busy switching over the stage and at 9:15, the haunting opening to Oklahoma began to fill the hall. I'm not sure how the first few shows went, but this was stop number seven on this mini- tour, and these guys had jelled very fast. Ross and I had been listening to both albums on the drive down and making guesses on who was singing what. We got a lot of those guesses answered last night. There was one slight miscue where I don't know if it was supposed to be Donnie or Johnny singing, but neither of them did, so you only heard Bobby Capps. Donnie went over to Bobby and laughed like Oh well, and they kept right on going. It's been said over and over again how great the interaction between the brothers is. You really have to just see it to understand. They were really enjoying themselves. I have no idea how Donnie keeps his cool in that long leather coat he wore all night. Johnny was in a Rolling Stones black concert t-shirt, and seemed to always have a cigarette lit.
They had an oriental rug on the stage floor with set lists and lyrics taped down to it, and I'm sure by the end of the tour, it'll have a lot of burns in it too.
The emotion just continued to pour out as they went through song after song, culminating with Brickyard Road. I had a great time seeing how the musicians were playing all these tunes, and hoping I'd remember some of it by the time I get my guitar back in my hands tonight!
You always see Mark Rogers tuning up guitars over on the side of the stage, but last night, he even got into the act with a mean lick on one of the tunes. These guys are all professionals through and through. Jeff's guitar (and violin) work was awesome, as was Eric's. One of the bouncers tripped over his guitar cord and just about unplugged him, but he never missed a lick. It was a treat to see Gary perform. I'd heard him on the Downtime CD. His style of playing is more centered around finger picking, whereas LJ uses a pick. I couldn't figure out what kind of bass he was playing. (He told me afterwards it was just a bunch of parts he put together). It had a body style like a stratocaster, but a headstock like a telecaster. Bobby Capps can sure hit some high notes, can't he? The drum kit was fairly small, but Mike made the most of it. As is always the case, the show came to an end way too fast.
Time for the mad flurry for souvenirs. I begged John Livotti for a setlist, and he kindly obliged. I got a broken "Skynyrd 2000" drumstick. I bought a tour shirt, a signed CD, and a publicity photo. Good thing too. Ross got the brothers autographs on his Cd's while I was getting the rest of the band's autographs. They fooled me. Everyone came out of different doors from the venue, and while I was discussing the equipment set-ups with Eric and Jeff, Donnie and Johnny slipped away into the hotel up the street. Eric had a Digitech effects board (which I'm about to go buy), Jeff uses a Line6. He had an Ovation acoustic guitar mounted to a microphone stand so that he could step up to it and play it with his Les Paul or his Stratocaster guitar still strapped on. He told me after the show that they barely did get the special bracket in in time for this tour. We stayed until they finished loading out. The final thing to get packed in was Mojo's bicycle!
