Please don’t stop the music! There are still loads of acts on the road so we compiled a few critical reviews for your reading enjoyment. This week’s collection includes write-ups of Lynyrd Skynyrd in Syracuse, N.y.; J. Cole in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Bryan Ferry in Los Angeles; and ZZ Top in Salt Lake City.
Michael Duffy – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Bright House Networks Amphitheatre, Bakersfield, Calif.
Lynyrd Skynyrd @ New York State Fair in Syracuse, N.Y., Aug. 27 – “The show was energetic, yet intimate, and thanks to Van Zant’s repeated-but-personalized appeals to the crowd, there will never be a Lynyrd Skynyrd show exactly like this one again, like this afternoon was a secret shared among you and more than 25,000 of your friends.” – Jacob Pucci / The Syracuse Post-Standard
J. Cole @ Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., Aug. 2 – “’Neighbors’ – a song about a neighbor who got J. Cole’s home swatted after alleging it was a drug house—got the biggest applause, with a large portion of the audience chanting along to the hook’s resigned angst. J. Cole was far from sullen, though: It was his realistic joviality that gave his hour-and-a-half set its spark.” – Brian Josephs / Spin
Bryan Ferry w/ the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra@ Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug. 26 – “Working with the Bowl Orchestra for almost the entirety of Saturday’s 80-minute set, Ferry might finally have found the musical manor to which he was born.” – Chris Willman / Variety
ZZ Top @ Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, Utah, Aug. 31 – “The band plowed through 18 songs in a fun yet straightforward manner that featured few — if any — stage effects but did deliver the might-as-well-be-trademarked synchronized leg wobbles, hand movements and other coordinated contortions between bearded frontmen Billy Gibbons (guitar, vocals) and Dusty Hill (bass, vocals) that are always a humorous element of the ZZ Top live experience.” – Doug Fox / Daily Herald