There aren’t many things better for the soul of a struggling football coach the day after his season ends with a thud, than some rock & roll therapy in the form of taking in a live band with his wife. Football is a grind. It takes a lot of time and energy and it is a huge commitment. When it is over, the body, mind and spirit are all due for a factory reset and there was no better way to start that for this off-season than to spend the evening with my wife and catching one of the 70’s most underrated bands.
I’ve been fortunate enough to catch Foghat twice before. Back in 2014, they were opening for the equally awesome Blue Oyster Cult and Bachman-Turner Overdrive at the Ohio State Fair. Again in 2019, and coincidentally the very first live band reviewed on this page was Foghat opening for Bad Company in the Dayton area. This time was different, though. This would be my first chance to see Foghat as the headliner and able to play a proper full set.
Led by their thundering, founding drummer; Roger Earl, the quartet kicked off the evening with their opening staple “Chateau Lafitte ’59 Boogie“. Right from the get-go you could tell that the thumping bass and driving, slide guitar that are synonymous with the Foghat sound were going to be firing on all cylinders. The previous times that I had seen Foghat were with the long-time and charismatic front man Charlie Huhn on lead vocals. Replacing him in 2022 has been Scott Holt. I must admit, Holt’s vocals has added some needed power to these tunes. This is particularly evident on their newer songs and on the heavily blues influenced songs like “It Hurts Me Too“. Holt is no slouch, either, as a second guitarist. The band brought fresh life to jams like “Drivin’ Wheel” and “Stone Blue” and the aforementioned newer songs off of their recent album Sonic Mojo.
In case you didn’t know, the album was released in 2023 and spent 39 weeks atop of the Billboard Blues charts. They played “She’s A Little Bit of Everything” and “Drivin’ On” from that record. While it is obvious that fans are there to hear the hits, the band is even touring this year as the Slow Ride 50th Anniverary Tour, the new songs and the record itself work so well because they are keeping it simple. The band isn’t trying to re-invent the wheel. They are playing old school rock & roll music rooted in the blues. That’s what made them famous and that’s what is keeping them relevant nearly 55 years after their 1971 founding.
Of course, the trio of hits that ended the show were certainly the highlight. Their famous cover of Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want To Make Love To You“, “Fool For The City“, and the tour’s namesake iconic track “Slow Ride” were all received with crowd approval and applause. “Slow Ride“, the band’s era defining track that highlighted the soundtrack for one of my favorite movies of all time; Dazed and Confused, was the perfect cap to the night.
At 79 years old, Earl and his band mates appear to be having a great time still up there on stage and the songs sound great. That formula seems to be a recipe for success and is a testament that they’ve been able to carry the show forward all of these years. I don’t know how much longer Earl will want to remain on the road, but if he chooses to, he has surrounded himself with a band that seems to have the stamina to keep this thing drivin’ on.
Well, I’m going to start this one with the elephant in the room. The first Buckeye Motorcycle and Music Rally festival in Columbus, OH (at least on Saturday, I didn’t attend Friday) was horribly attended. I don’t know who dropped the ball. I don’t know if this was promoted poorly or if tickets were too expensive or if there were just too many other things to do in Columbus on this day, but I genuinely felt bad for all involved. I felt bad for whomever put this event on, because I don’t see any way that they made any return on their investment to host this event. I felt bad for the dozens of pop up shops and food trucks that had nobody to serve. I felt bad for the three great bands that likely haven’t played to crowds this small in ages.
With that said, each of the three bands that I took in, remained professional and put on great shows. At 6 p.m. Fuel took to the stage. The Pennsylvania rock band had played this venue before at 2014’s Rock on the Range Festival, which was the last time I had seen them perform. At this point in the evening there were only a few hundred people in the massive stadium to catch their set, and that’s a shame because they were on top of their game. The people in the pit area to the right of the band was spirited and engaged and I believe kept the band inspired to put on a good performance. Honestly, with as poorly attended as this was, the event’s organizers should have began massively discounting ticket prices a month ago to try to recoup some cost and they also should have allowed everyone on to the stadium floor yesterday as it became apparent that dividing the fans into areas made the crowd size look even smaller. At one point the band even remarked that they didn’t care if they were playing to 5 people or 15,000. Most importantly, the band sounded great and were able to debut a new song from an upcoming album release that they seemed genuinely excited about. Of course, their late 90’s and early 2000’s anthems “Shimmer” and “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)” were very well received by the fans in attendance but the prospect of new music is always welcome by fans and band alike.
Fuel performing “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)”.
I was very excited for the next performer of the night; Oliver Anthony. I believe that this was his first visit to Columbus. I don’t do many reviews of country artists or go to many country shows. Country music has become so commercial over the past twenty years with so many of the radio friendly artists honestly being the farthest thing from country. In recent years, however, there has been an uptick of talent being exposed that is more representative of real country music. Oliver Anthony fits that mold. His band was fantastic and brought their brand of foot stompin’, back porch sittin’, Blue Ridge Mountain music to life. After a brief Bible reading and a performance of “Amazing Grace”, Anthony would also remark about the scarcity of the crowd; commenting that “I guess tonight will be an intimate affair” or something to that effect. When their set began at 7:30 the crowd may have been pushing 1,500 spectators. While the attendees were few, the ones that came enjoyed the band in a steady rain for the majority of the set. Obviously, the highlight was their 2023 anthem “Rich Men North of Richmond”, a song that resonated with millions of Americans from every sort of background that are fed up with being sold out by the suits in Washington, D.C. However, if you haven’t dug into the rest of their catalog yet, you are sorely missing out. Songs like “Cobwebs and Cocaine”, “Ain’t Gotta Dollar”, “I Want To Go Home”, and “I’ve Got To Get Sober” as well as a cover of Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” were all highlights as well as many more. These are the types of songs that I mean when I say real country. These are the types of songs and the type of music that depict the kind of struggles that those rich men North of Richmond know nothing about. The band concluded their set with “Rich Men North of Richmond” and had three minutes left of stage time when it concluded…so they played it again, much to the delight of the rain soaked yet raucous crowd. Normally, they would also include a cover of “Free Bird”, which was requested from the crowd but Anthony quipped that “someone else had to play that one tonight.”
At 9 o’ clock it was time for the event’s headlining act, the iconic Lynyrd Skynyrd, to make their first appearance at Crew Stadium and their first visit to Columbus since 2012 when they opened the city’s Columbus Commons venue in downtown. That show was the first time that I was able to officially review this legendary group and photograph them as they toured in support of their Last of a Dyin’ Breed record. As they have every time that I’ve been fortunate enough to see them (I believe last night was #12 since the 2006 tour with 3 Doors Down and Shooter Jennings), they brought their best effort. This was my first time seeing them since the passing of guitarist Gary Rossington last spring, and while Damon Johnson has mighty big shoes to fill, he served admirably and the band is now able to continue on and keeping some of the greatest music ever written alive and relevant in the live setting. I’d imagine that by the time that Skynyrd took the stage that the crowd had probably reached a few thousand strong and the rain held off for the rest of the night. The Jacksonville band played their pretty standard 14 song set and while there weren’t many surprises, I imagine it is nearly impossible to find the perfect set list unless they were going to play until 3 a.m. Alas, they wrapped up around 10:30, sounding as good as ever. I hope that at some point Columbus gets another shot to see this band before they hang ’em up for good. If I don’t get a chance to see them again, I was glad to be there throughout the years. They always made sure to “play it pretty” for Cincinnati, Columbus, Cuyahoga Falls, Toledo, and Dayton in all of the different venues that I saw them play. Not only did I get to see them all of those times, the supporting acts that they’ve brought out on the road has also been the stuff of legend: Hank Williams, Jr., ZZ Top, Bad Company, 3 Doors Down, Justin Moore, Shooter Jennings, Black Stone Cherry, Blue Oyster Cult, The Marshall Tucker Band, and .38 Special are just some of the groups that I’ve also seen along the way as a touring partner of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band.
Rock Lives Here 