So, was The Mission worth waiting 14 years for? Well… hell, I think it was worth waiting over 30 years for.
Live Review: Styx in Macon, GA Oct. 5
There are few bands with a live performance pedigree as long as the one Styx has created over the past forty years. When the music industry imploded, the members of Styx were savvy enough to create a new business model and sidestep any potential career and financial fallout. Realizing that their fans would be more inclined to hear the band’s greatest hits than to take a chance on new music, Styx began a seemingly never-ending world tour. In truth, the band is just enjoying the sweet life that most rock and roll musicians could only dream of. Styx spends over 2/3 of their year traveling the world and playing their hits live to thousands of audiences made up of eager fans of all ages.
On Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014 Styx brought their “Evening with Styx” show to Macon, Georgia for the first time. Their performance at the Macon Centreplex kicked off with the crunching guitars and pounding rhythm of their opening music, “Drastic Measures” and it’s accompanying light show. As band members Tommy, JY, Todd, Ricky and Lawrence took the stage in the shadows, the audience members leapt to their feet and began cheering the band on. When the intro finished, the stage lights turned on and the band started the night off with “The Grand Illusion.”
The next two hours were filled with most of Styx’s greatest hits from as far back as the song that first launched them into the limelight in 1974, “Lady.” As Lawrence Gowan promised in his interview with Target Audience Magazine, the band made sure to hit all the right notes with their fans. Their stream of hits included “Blue Collar Man,” “Fooling Yourself,” “Too Much Time on my Hands,” and “Crystal Ball.” Almost every album in their history was represented in some fashion, including a verse of “Mr. Roboto,” jokingly played by Lawrence Gowan during his classic rock homage.
Original bassist, Chuck Panozzo, joined the rest of the band for a handful of songs as well. Half way through the night, Styx paid their respects to The Allman Brothers and their connection to Macon, by performing their cover of “One Way Out” off of Big Bang Theory.
Tommy Shaw
Styx even surprised the fans with a few songs not normally played in their live show, including “Lights” from Cornerstone and “Suite Madame Blue” from Equinox. As usual, the main set was closed with the song that Cartman from “South Park” made famous again, “Come Sail Away,” followed by their encore performances of “Rockin’ the Paradise” and “Renegade.”
If you have never seen Styx live, then you are depriving yourself of a truly great rock and roll experience. The next time you see them show up on your local amphitheater’s schedule, do yourself a favor and go. You will be thrust back in time to an era where rock and roll was the go-to formula for Top 40 and seeing a band perform live was the preferred way to have a good time.
Find out when Styx is performing in your area by visiting their website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Gallery: Styx at The Macon City Auditorium 10/5/2014
How I got into THAT band: Styx
Two weeks ago I was given an opportunity to interview Lawrence Gowan, one of the members of the classic-rock band Styx. The group, famous for songs like “Renegade,” “The Best of Times” and “Come Sail Away,” is on tour again this fall and is performing in Macon, Georgia on Sunday, October 5th. The Target Audience Magazine interview with Lawrence can be found here, and focuses on Styx’s seemingly non-stop tour of the world.
I’ve been a Styx fan for over 30 years and can say, without any exaggeration, that their songs were the foundation of what would become my diverse and slightly odd taste in music. My first real interest in Styx can all be traced back to a summer in the 1970’s, before I started fourth grade. A new family had just moved into a neighboring house and their daughter, Karin, was my age and about to start going to the same school. We quickly became friends and thanks to the power of the internet we still keep in touch to this day.
When Karin and I first met, I had an overwhelming obsession for all things “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “Mork & Mindy,” but my musical knowledge was limited to the constraints of the local Top 40 radio station. Karin, on the other hand, was really into music and introduced me to the concept of having a record collection. After a while her bubbling enthusiasm for music, especially Styx, began to rub off on me. She seemed to have every picture of Tommy Shaw (Styx’s guitarist and vocalist) that she could find on display in her bedroom. When Kilroy Was Here was released in 1983, she managed to convince the manager of the local record store, Waxie Maxie’s, to give her the life-sized standee of Mr. Roboto they used to display the album. To say she was a Styx fan is probably the greatest understatement that I can make.
One year for my birthday, my parents gave me an all-in-one stereo system and Karin bought me my very first Styx record. Once I had that stereo I began adding to my music collection by taping my favorite songs off of the radio and saving up to buy records of my own. Of course, if Karin introduced me to a band, I became an instant fan. That said, nothing she introduced me to stuck to my heart as much as the music of Styx.
Styx during the 2013 Midwest Rock N Roll Express – photo by Michael Bradley
I would listen to Styx’s Paradise Theater over and over while I read books or played with my action figures. Eventually I added other Styx albums to my collection, but never delved too far back into their musical history. In fact, until I was a teenager, I preferred Styx’s later albums and didn’t listen to anything earlier than Crystal Ball. Another peculiar quirk of mine was that I had convinced myself that bands only put their good songs on the A-sides of records. I would seldom listen to the B-sides for that reason. So, even though I had a growing Styx collection, I was not listening to half of their songs. It took the release of Kilroy was Here to finally change that misconception.
When Styx was out on their Kilroy was Here tour, I failed twice at convincing my parents to let me attend the concert. My mom just did not feel comfortable with her little boy going to a loud rock and roll show, even if I had an adult with me. I remember very clearly the night that we were in Charleston, West Virginia visiting family and Styx was playing just down the road. I begged and pleaded to go, but to no avail. It was just not meant to be.
Sadly, that was the last tour that the band ever performed with that lineup of musicians. By the time I was finally able to attend a Styx concert (almost 30 years later), original drummer John Panozzo had passed away and Lawrence Gowan had replaced original keyboardist Dennis DeYoung.
I tell you that last story in order to tell you this one:
When I was done interviewing Lawrence Gowan, I told him that same tale of woe. He commiserated with me and regaled me with one of his own. The exact same thing had happened to him when he was a boy. A neighbor had an extra ticket for a rock and roll concert that he desperately wanted to attend. Like my mother, his would not let him attend a rock and roll show at a young age. Instead, she promised that the next time the band came to town, he would be a bit older and she would let him go. The name of that band was The Beatles, and he is still waiting for them to come back to town.
At least my story has a happy ending. A few years ago, when Styx was out on the road with their “Grand Illusion/Pieces of Eight” theater tour, I bought a ticket to their performance at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia. It had taken me almost 30 years to finally see Styx in concert and the opportunity to attend a show in which they played two of my favorite albums in their entirety just could not be missed.
There I was, 41 years old and thinking about all the things in my life that had occurred since Karin introduced me to Styx so many years ago. The lights went down, the band started playing and I suddenly realized that I was there cheering on Styx, literally “from the shadow of the 14th row.”
For more information on Styx and their tour, visit their website.