Old Cliches

[DarrenUK]

I have often wondered why bands always use the same old rhetoric when playing live.......Will JY still be buying ? Will Dennis still have his dream and will they still come true, will Dennis be telling us how many years he has been married or to not believe in TV or movie stars, will Jy still try and convince us that The Devil had nothing to do with this next song....both DDY and Styx are guilty of repetitiveness......time to change the record guys.

[sadie65]

Depends on your point of view. From the band's perspective, as well as Dennis, they probably assume that most people seeing them don't see them all the time, so the jokes and stories seem fresh for those fans. That we diehards know the schtick pretty much by heart isn't who they are targetting.

[classicstyxfan]

That's one way to look at it Sadie....but there's a school of thought in many businesses that "repeat customers are what keep a company in business" and should be given special consideration.

If that is true in Rock and Roll, and I suspect there is SOME truth in it, a little variation would be nice !

on the bright side, at least they arent Kevin "Kronin's" really looooooooooooooooooooooong repetitive stories !

[Zan]

That's one way to look at it Sadie....but there's a school of thought in many businesses that "repeat customers are what keep a company in business" and should be given special consideration.

If that is true in Rock and Roll, and I suspect there is SOME truth in it, a little variation would be nice !

I've been to plenty of STYX shows where the guys took consideration to the "regulars." Mostly in the form of inside jokes or comments. For example, one show in orlando, Glen came out wearing a shirt that said RAJAH in HUGE letters. About 8 people got the joke, 3 of which were on stage with him. There was also a time when Tani was blowing bubbles onto the stage and Tommy began to recite one of his lines and stops dead in his tracks and shouts! "Bubbles! Don Ho's in da house!" Then he looks over at Tani and me and says, "Or is that some other heaux?" (another joke that about eight people got). It was awesome.

Then there was that time when Tommy ran into Helen at the casino hours before the show and told her that if she could find him the lyrics to "On My Way," (he does have that rock star memory), he would play it that night. Talk about a lunatic (not Tommy)! LOL! I never thought Helen was going to stop running around scrambling for lyrics! Sure as sh*t, they played it. To top it off, Tommy wrote about it in one of his notes the following week.

It's not that they DON'T break things up a bit sometimes, it's that it's not an everyday occurance. They have a show to put on, plain & simple. They do try to reinvent the stale jokes every once in awhile to keep it "fresh" in the eyes of the few that actually see them more than once a year, but I'm sure they're more concerned with the choreography and sound than whether or not the guy in row 5 is tired of hearing "I've been married for thirty three, thirty four, thirty five... years." Oh wait, wrong show.

You get the point. LOL

[gr8dane]

33,34 ,35 years.At least the numbers change every year to keep the material fresh and up to date.

[Zan]

33,34 ,35 years.At least the numbers change every year to keep the material fresh and up to date.

Too bad everyone's asleep by then.

I'll tell you what - The last DDY show I saw (Ok, the ONLY DDY show I saw), I really enjoyed his story about seeing "Exorcist" and about "seeing him before he's dead." LOL

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Zan says:

Too bad everyone's asleep by then.

I'll tell you what - The last DDY show I saw (Ok, the ONLY DDY show I saw), I really enjoyed his story about seeing "Exorcist" and about "seeing him before he's dead." LOL

Here's the deal, obviously Dennis doesn't perform a ton of concerts year after year. The dates are USUALLY scattered all over the country, so majority or 98% of most of his concerts are being seen for the first time. Also the same 98% of the people attending these concerts aren't sitting on the internet reading every detail of the concerts or even have a clue of the jokes. So for most people at the Dennis shows, it's new material.

At the Rockford concert, when Dennis was telling his jokes, Froy was saying it with him word for word - LOL then you know you went to too many shows - LOL

When I took my Dad and brother to the show in NYC, they never heard the jokes and thought that they were the funniest things they ever heard - LOL Especially the Tony Bennett one - LOL

When I took my Mom to the Milwaukee show, she never heard the cheese and porn stories that I just previously heard at the last few Milwaukee shows.

NOW on the other hand, you have Carrot Styx and their never ending tour. They play city to city that are close together, they usually come back to the same cities when they start the next lag of the tour. It's usually the same set list, depending on how much time they can play. It never ends.............

By the way, is JY still buying at these shows?

What was the topic again?

[bugsymalone]

I think any performer relies on a comfort zone of stage patter. Certainly Dennis does, but I have seen him 5 times now and at each show he has thrown in some ad libs that always surprise and delight....well, me, for sure.

So I hear some of the tired ones, certainly, at every show, but there is always something new he throws in that is unexpected and clever.

Bugsy

[Zan]

NOW on the other hand, you have Carrot Styx and their never ending tour. They play city to city that are close together, they usually come back to the same cities when they start the next lag of the tour. It's usually the same set list, depending on how much time they can play. It never ends.............

By the way, is JY still buying at these shows?

What was the topic again?

You know, I let a lot of these little "things" slide (and there are waaaay too many), but I'm just not in the mood today. LOL

Will you find ANY excuse to rag on STYX?
(I emphasize it because that is the name of the band, you see.)

Yeah, yeah, Denny's wonderful - "carrot" STYX sucks, all because he plays a handful of shows and they play constantly. They should be more considerate of their bathwater drinker fans. Forget the fact that he has more time to work on new "joke material," whereas STYX is a lot "busier" working. What's your point? They both tell cheesy jokes that get stale for those of us who can recite them from memory. Why it's excusable when DDY does it and not when STYX does, escapes all transoms of logic and reason.

FTR, I complimented him on two of his stories, and Denny's been telling us how long he's been married since the beginning of time! Not only is it OLD, it falls under "WHO THE FRIG CARES?" (for me, that is)

grr!!!

[Zan]

I think any performer relies on a comfort zone of stage patter. Certainly Dennis does, but I have seen him 5 times now and at each show he has thrown in some ad libs that always surprise and delight....well, me, for sure.

So I hear some of the tired ones, certainly, at every show, but there is always something new he throws in that is unexpected and clever.

Bugsy

EXACTLY. Thank you, Bugsy.

[sadie65]

As I said before, BOTH Dennis and Styx are playing to audiences that as a rule don't see as many shows as we diehards do. Both are guilty of keeping some schtick in a little too long. Big deal. They are all professionals who ad lib when they can, rely on tested material that gets them results as well.

Denny isn't exempt from fault (personally I too am a little tired of hearing how long he's been married), at least not in my book.

Having seen the band recently, I don't see that they are any different than Dennis in terms of their schtick. Not a bad thing, as long as you remember, they aren't focusing their shows on us diehards. And yes Classic, I work in the gift industry, I know about doing something special for the repeat customer. And both Dennis and Styx do occasionally throw in something for those fans. Both Bugsy and Zan made the point better than I.

What other topic shall we bruise each other with now?

[SuiteMadameBlue]

I'll have to find that bathwater article again.

[Zan]

Zan says:

Why it's excusable when DDY does it and not when STYX does, escapes all transoms of logic and reason.

Because in "my world" Dennis made STYX and I will stick up for him. As for Carrot Styx there are things that they are currently doing that's just not right in this industry just to hurt a few people. I'll leave it at that. It burns me how low people can go. That's why I'm on a Carrot Styx kick.


Zan says:

You know, I let a lot of these little "things" slide (and there are waaaay too many), but I'm just not in the mood today. LOL

I've been letting a lot of the little "things" slide too these past few weeks, but I'm just not in the mood today either!!! LOL

I'll have to find that bathwater article again.

By all means. It brings you so much joy! And if you're going to allude to "stuff you know," then feel free to post them along with your sources. Otherwise, it's nothing more than gossip as far as I'm concerned. The passive-aggressive game is getting old.

[Zan]

Zan says:

Why it's excusable when DDY does it and not when STYX does, escapes all transoms of logic and reason.

Because in "my world" Dennis made STYX and I will stick up for him.

Like I said, it has NOTHING to do with the "schtick" at all. You just wanted a reason to rag the band. Point.