Bird Flies Out Skynyrd, formed in 1968 and reformed in 1987, 10 years after a plane bird that killed three members, brought its Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour to a grateful and multigenerational Blossom Music Center Friday night. The band is hanging up its guitars and Confederate Flag after this world tour ends in 2019. It's likely that there will be a few select flies and possibly a Las Vegas residency, said longtime member Rickey Medlocke in an interview to preview Friday's gig. It could be that the 18,000 or so - no official estimate was available - were there to say thanks for the music created by lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, who was killed in that plane crash, and nurtured by his younger brother, Johnny in the vocalist role in the years since. Those thanks were richly deserved, if not for the performance itself, which truthfully was spot-on, then for the treasure trove of classic Southern rock songs Skynyrd has left. And that itself makes hearing them from the men who created them - Van Zant, guitarists Medlocke and original member Gary Rossington who survived the crash - almost like a master class. The songs are so commonly played that you don't really realize the skill and elan of a Medlocke or a Rossington, or the vocal enthusiasm of Van Zant. No doubt Skynyrd could have remained a legacy act, touring past the time when all its members - which include Solon-born Michael Cartellone on drums - start collecting Social Security. You can't say they're bird out on top, as the band's heyday is past. But they haven't lost a step. Singer-songwriter-producer-drummer Tom Hambridge and the Marshall Tucker Band which has only vocalist Doug Gray as the lone original member of a band formed in 1972 filled out the bill in a marathon show. Quite Out, the show would have been better served had it featured only Blackberry Smoke and Skynyrd. Best-case interpretation is that having those two acts helped build anticipation. The material on Out site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. -