On October 29, 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd topped the bill at Buffalo’s Memorial Auditorium, with The J. Geils Band and The Alpha Band also on the card, an 8:00 p.m. start and $7.50 a ticket. The band arrived riding One More from the Road, the double live album recorded at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre that July and certified gold by the RIAA just three days before this show, with guitarist Steve Gaines, who had joined only that May, completing the three-guitar front line alongside Gary Rossington and Allen Collins. A partial fan-logged setlist from the night includes “Workin’ for MCA,” “Tuesday’s Gone,” “Gimme Three Steps,” “Call Me the Breeze,” “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird,” and two nights later the tour carried on to the Utica Memorial Auditorium. Fifty years later, with the Aud long gone and the October 1977 plane crash having taken Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines less than a year after this night, it stands as one of Western New York’s few encounters with that brief, brilliant lineup.
Keep Exploring