Styx

 

This is a "music week" for us.  It started on Tuesday, with playing out with Mark and Ron.  Wednesday night: Styx.  Friday night: Tower of Power.  Tuesday night: Chicago.

Last night, at the Celebrity Theater was Styx.  This has been one of our favorite bands since the 70s.  The band I played with in the 70s, Stinger, used to cover a lot of Styx songs.  For those not familiar, Styx features great harmonies, masterful hard-rocking guitar and keyboards.  They have gone through some personnel changes over the years, but the original sound remains.  They had a long list of hits through the 70s and 80s, and, in my opinion, it is beyond me that they have not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  But, I digress.

Their show last night was outstanding...

 

The show opened with a singer/songwriter from Boston, accompanied by another guy on guitar...

 The music was good, but the crowd was here to see Styx.  The guy had an endearing presence, and seemed truly grateful to be making a living playing music.

The venue was packed - Styx is playing last night and tonight, both concerts sold out...

 Before any of the music started, a guy from Celebrity Theater came out, told the crowd about upcoming concerts (we'll be back here again on Tuesday for Chicago), then they auctioned off a guitar with signatures from Styx on it, proceeds going to St. Mary's Food Bank.  It sold for $12,000... to an obvious Styx fan... the opening bid was $1.

Celebrity Theater is an interesting venue: the stage is in the middle, and it rotates, making every seat in the place good.  While that crowd shot above looks huge, the seats furthest from the stage are only 75' away.  Seats are snug (think: airline coach), but it is only for a couple hours.  We did wander over, around, and down to wait in line to get Joan a T-shirt.

And then, nearly an hour after the advertised show time, Styx came on...

 They started with Grand Illusion, then played several of their hits.  Followed by the obligatory "new songs"... then back to more hits.

Tommy Shaw (above) and James Young (below) are the core guitar powerhouses in the band.  Their playing is truly awesome, and they both sound as good as ever (vocals and guitar).

 Lawrence Gowan (on keyboard and vocals, left above) replaced Dennis DeYoung about 30 years ago.  Not an easy position to come into, because DeYoung was the driving force for the band in the 70s and 80s, until "creative differences" split the band up for a while.  DeYoung wanted to take the band in "musical theater" direction, Tommy Shaw and James Young wanted to keep the band hard rocking.  Gowan does a good job in taking on the DeYoung personna on keyboards and flashy appearance.

At one point in the show, the PA went out... the band continued on, where you could hear mostly the drums.  No idea if that was planned or not, but they didn't miss a beat.

Gowan did a solo thing on piano.  Chuck Panozzo (the original bass player) was brought out several times during the show; not sure if his bass was even on, since the other bass player (Gowan's younger brother) was there through the whole show.  One of the very cool things about "theater in the round" is the opportunity to see every angle - drummer Todd Sucherman is an animal on the drums (with Styx since 1997).  This is a good line-up.

 

The band came back for an encore, featuring Mr Roboto and Renegade.  It was a good hard-rocking concert, with an enthusiastic audience.

We have seen Styx several times before; first time in the 70s, in Rapid City, SD.  The next time was in the same venue (Rapid City Civic Center) in the 80s, when the band was promoting Mr Roboto.  I considered that time as the beginning of the end for the DeYoung era, which just seemed like weird rock theater to me.  Once Styx reformed with Gowan in place of DeYoung, the back was back to their hard rock, high harmonies roots.  This is the 4th time we've seen them, and the playing and vocals was as good as ever.