It’s that time of year for the Seneca Niagara Casino to host their annual outdoor concert series in Niagara Falls. On Friday August 26th, they hosted their first of two this year with Lionel Richie headlining. Richie of course is the American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer who rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores.
There was no opening act, just Lionel Richie performing. The casino had announced this was their largest attended event ever since they started doing these outdoor concerts many years ago. Almost every seat was filled and the general admission section in the back of the lot was packed as well.
It had been a very long time since Lionel Richie has played a show in our area. The last time he played Buffalo was in 2000. The show was scheduled to begin at 8pm but due to a flight delay due to weather in NYC, Lionel was about 80 minutes late arriving. Fans were very eager for the show to start as once they saw his police escort arrive behind the fence, the atmosphere changed and the crowd got louder.
Before Lionel took to the stage the band started with “Overture”, it had many older photos of Lionel throughout his history on the large video display wall panel on the stage. He played all of his top hits along with some Commodores tunes. After the second song “Running With The Night”, Lionel told the crowd a story why he was late tonight. He mentioned that the mayor of NYC was behind him at the airport and if he isn’t going anywhere due to the weather, neither is he.
Lionel and his band were on fire all night, getting the crowd to sing along to every word. Some other memorable songs in his setlist were “Three Times a Lady”, “Hello” and “Brickhouse”. He closed the night with “All Night Long” as his encore.
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