Boston/ Styx
8-17-08
Verizon Amphitheatre

There's nothing better than following a hearty meal of Panda Express with some Boston and Styx, and that's exactly what I did on Sunday the 17th. These bands have been touring together for a couple months, now, and people have had nothing but good things to say. There was a lot of hype in the air, and I, for one, was really looking forward to Boston, and hoping maybe they'd play "Something About You".

As I walked into the stadium there was a huge backdrop of a staircase. On this staircase was a Styx logo, standing tall, and there was music playing through the speakers, but soon this all came to a stop. There was a pulse of lights, the crowd roared, and the amps that filled the stage glowed with the word "Styx" projected upon them. Bits and samples of songs played through the speakers as the band took the stage to the clapping of an excited crowd. Lawrence Gowan, the current replacement for Dennis DeYoung, manned the keyboards and they bellowed out the deep synthesizer intro to "Blue Collar Man", a fantastic opener. It was followed almost immediately with the title track of their most famous album, 1976's The Grand Illusion . For the crashing guitar chords at the beginning over the synthesizer, Tommy Shaw utilized the famous Pete Townshend move, the windmill. Lawrence's singing on the song was great, and almost made you not miss Dennis. At the end of the song, JY and Tommy harmonized a cool little guitar riff to create a different, yet cooler, ending. Another synth-filled song filled the air, next, as Tommy shed his leather jacket (who wouldn't in that heat?) The exciting Equinox track, "Lorelei", was played and then Tommy greeted the crowd.

Shaw played a shining blue ES-335 for "Too Much Time On My Hands, and he changed one of the pre-choruses to say "Is it any wonder I'm not the governor of Georgia?" which it was followed by a cheer. He also changed one of the verse lyrics from "I've got dozens of friends, and the fun never ends, that is, as long as I'm buying" to "…that is, as long as Todd's buying". This was a nod to their current drummer, Todd Sucherman. The song was awesome, and ended with a "double-time" ending as Tommy, Ricky, and JY stood in a line at the front of the stage. All the while, Lawrence was spinning wildly around with his keyboard that swivels. After this song, it was announced that they were going to play a song about this great country, "Suite Madame Blue". It featured Tommy on a cool twelve string guitar and Lawrence wailed the lyrics from mini-staircases on each side of the stage.

Following "Suite Madame Blue", Tommy came out with an acoustic guitar and started speaking to the crowd. He talked about how he had written songs that were good at the time, served their purpose, and then he moved on. However, he said, the president called him and asked him to bring back a specific one. After a few moments of silence, he explained that the president didn't call, but that he WAS asking for it. Then, he began to play my favorite Styx song, the anti-war "Man In The Wilderness. However, he only played the first acoustic part, which left me a little sad when he stopped. Explaining that he had been writing the next song when he didn't know what he was doing with his life, he started to play the title track of the first Styx album to feature him, "Crystal Ball". Following "Crystal Ball", Tommy introduced the band, and then introduced one extra, the original bassist, Chuck Panozzo. Chuck came out to a cheering audience, and they played the classic, "Fooling Yourself", which was performed wonderfully. Lawrence even did the keyboard solos behind his back. Tommy ran into a problem, though, when a string on his acoustic broke and he had an electric brought out to him, altering the sound of the guitar on the song.

"Fooling Yourself" ended, and Todd went into a drum solo which led to another track off of Grand Illusion , "Miss America", featuring James Young on vocals. His vocals on this song weren't up to their usual standards, and seemed a bit rough and choppy. It still had some cool parts, like when the band stopped playing when JY sang the line, "…they all stop, to look at you…" A piano solo followed this 1977 track, and Lawrence entertained the crowd with a call-and-response. He sang the first line of a well known chorus or verse of a song and the crowd responded with the next one. These songs included; "Black Dog", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "War Pigs", and "Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2". He claimed that he wanted to do "More Than A Feeling", but the band coming after them does that one a lot better. He then sang the first line of the chorus to "Come Sail Away" and the crowd erupted as he walked over to the piano, again, and played the delicate intro to Styx's most famous song. During the verses, a spotlight shone on a backdrop made to look like the moon. Chuck Panozzo, by the way, was playing on this one, too. When the song came to the heavier part, Lawrence stood on top of his piano and belted the lyrics from there. Then, before we knew it, the song was over, and the lights went off, and stayed off, signaling an encore.

The band came out, again, as the lights stayed dark. Tommy took center stage and began to solo with the spotlight upon him. His bluesy solo led right into a solo by Young who turned it back over to Tommy, and it went back to JY again. Then, Tommy began to sing the familiar first lines of "Renegade" against the pounding bass drum and the crowd went crazy. This jammed out version of "Renegade" included multiple guitar solos, Lawrence taking photos of the band members and crowd, and Chuck still pounding away on his bass, despite his health problems. When the song ended, the band left the stage as a video outro of the Styx logo played on the big screens.

About 30 minutes after Styx finished, it was dark and a curtain covered the stage that Boston was about to take. There was a drone blasting through the speakers as the lights went off and an MC announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen...just another band out of Boston!" The curtain fell to reveal the mastermind behind Boston, the man who mixed those famous first albums in his basement, Tom Scholz, and the new Boston, as their instrumental version of the "Star Spangled Banner" played. This led straight into a song featuring Tom on lead vocals, "I Had A Good Time", which revealed the mixing problems that must have been going on, because you could barely hear Tom singing, and some instruments you couldn't hear at all. This led right into "Rock and Roll Band" which, due to the sound problems, was rather weak, but still good. So far, Styx had had Boston beat. That is, until the sound problems were fixed and the band whipped out the classic, "Peace Of Mind". Although this song is played all the time, it never gets old to me, it's just such a fresh song. It featured new singer, Michael Sweet (of Stryper fame) singing the verses and Tommy DeCarlo (of Home Depot fame) singing the choruses. During the solo, the big screen closed in on Tom and his Les Paul adorned with a Mighty Mouse sticker. Following "Peace of Mind" was a short "It's Been Such A Long Time" (not to be confused with "Foreplay/ Long Time") leading into a favorite off of Third Stage , "Cool the Engines".

Tommy's energy really picked up during the next song, "Feelin' Satisfied" off of my favorite Boston album, 1978's Don't Look Back . Just like Arnel Pineda is to Steve Perry, Tommy DeCarlo is to the late Brad Delp. His voice was spot-on for this performance and sounded fantastic. The song ended with an accapella "ooooh are you feeling satisfied?" DeCarlo asked the crowd if they were feeling satisfied and waited for a short cheer before the whole band went into "Don't Look Back". The back up vocals to this song were great from everyone singing them, but bassist Kimberley Dahme's voice stood out from the others - in a good way. Although there was a slight mess up in the last verse when Tommy forgot the lyrics, the song was amazing. As the song came to a close I really hoped they'd go into "The Journey" then into "It's Easy" like on the album because that would have just been awesome. What I got was even better though. For every concert I go to, there's a song I hope that a band plays, which they normally never do because it's not a greatest hit. So, my night was made when Tommy sang the high "ooh's" over a slow intro before my favorite Boston song, "Something About You" kicked into full force. Sweet sang the verses and DeCarlo took over for the choruses and it was just fantastic. After this highlight of my night, Tom thanked the crowd for coming out and talked about how grateful he was for Styx joining them, while Gary smiled in his Grand Illusion t-shirt. Scholz then said they were going to do something off the third album, and the band played "Amanda" with DeCarlo's vocals taking center stage. "Amanda" came to a close and Tom manned the keyboards for a soaring rendition of "The Launch" while the lights shone upon the amps, like stars.

"The Launch" ended with some strobe lights and a cool intro to the band's most famous song, the first song off one of the essential albums of the 70's, "More Than A Feeling". This song featured Gary Pihl playing his electric on some parts but, on others he used an acoustic guitar on a stand. This classic song about classic songs, came to a halt with an abrupt tapping solo leading into an instrumental jam off the song. After this one ended, Sweet talked to the crowd and dedicated the next one to Brad Delp. He introduced the next song, "To Be A Man", which featured some really good lead vocals by Michael. After this one, the band played the "Walk On Medley" off of Walk On , of course. The band then announced they were going to play a song that they hadn't played in almost 20 years. They played the famous slow song off of the debut album, "Hitch A Ride", with Kimberley on lead vocals for the first verse, and then Tommy took over for the rest of the song. Tom played an acoustic for this song, and the keyboard solo. Gary had a double neck guitar and an acoustic on the stand. This mellow song was followed up by one full of energy. DeCarlo showed the most energy of the night during the closing song of Don't Look Back, "Don't Be Afraid".

After "Don't Be Afraid" ended, Tom manned the keyboards and began to play what anyone who saw Tom on a keyboard would want him to play, "Foreplay", which was jammed out and longer than usual, inevitably followed by "Long Time". With Tom on keyboards, Gary assumed lead guitar duties and did a great job. However, both Pihl and Scholz had an acoustic on a stand near them. The song was performed amazingly, and the band left the stage. When they came back for an encore, Tom thanked the audience again and introduced the members of Boston. He then announced they were going to play one more song, a song he and Brad wrote a long time ago, and he asked the audience to sing loud enough for Brad to hear. For their last song of the night, Boston played a classic off their first album, "Smokin'", and I'm sure that Brad was looking down proudly upon them as they played those last chords to the song and left the stage, leaving the audience in a frenzy.

-JJ