Return and Report Styx at the new Peppermill Concert Hall

[shaka]

I wasn't going to go to the show but it turns out that my friend Mark is close friends and neighbors with a gentleman hamed Doug Fox who Styx has asked to write articles on their behalf. Once Mark found out about my Styx fandom he invited me to go with them to the show as special guests of Styx. Doug writes for the Daily Herald and I'm sure many of you have read his articles.

It was an awesome experience. Styx's tour manager was extremely nice to us. We were invited to the soundcheck and it was great. It was just us and Styx. We spent over an hour listening to them work through some songs. This experience was a testament to the professionalism of the band. They have played these songs hundreds of times and still take the time to hone them and make their performance better. On an interesting note I got to see JY try out a new piece of gear. It was the synth he uses near the drum kit. The new synth is a Roland V-Synth and along with the usual synth parts JY was using it to help sing the vocal harmonies during the bridge to Everything All the Time. The way it works is that a microphone is plugged into the synth and JY sings into the mic. The synth has a vocodor that harmonizes to what JY is singing into it. JY plays the harmony notes he wants the synth to reproduce on the keyboard. You can create very realistic harmonies this way. It was cool to watch him mess around with it. It's also cool to see Styx stay up on the very latest in music technology.

After soundcheck we hung out for a bit and then they let everone else in. We had about an hour to wait so I went up to the mixing board and noticed Gary Loizzo sitting around waiting for the show to start. I struck up a conversation regarding the production of the show. He was cool and answered every question I threw at him. This was very interesting for me as a former musician and mixing engineer.

The show was great. The Peppermill Concert Hall is one of the best concert venues I've ever been to. Styx played for an hour and a half. I do not have the set list. One memorable thing about the show was the guy next to us who was air drumming every drum part. It turns out that he was a college buddy of Todd's when they were at Berkeley.

After the show they took us back stage to a meet and greet. It turns out the journalist I was with is very friendly with the band so they all took time to come over and talk to us. Well, except Tommy who wasn't at the meet and greet. I of course quizzed JY and Ricky on their equipment. Every single one of them was cool. Nothing was hurried or forced. It was great to meet JY who was one of my early guitar influences. It was backstage that we figured out that the air drumming guy was Todd's buddy. I chatted with him a bit and it turns out that he had come in from LA where he is a session drummer. He's a cool guy and we discussed him drumming on a pending project of mine.

After a bit the tour manager (I wish I could remember his name because he was just about the nicest fellow I've ever met) grabbed the three of us and took us back to Tommy's dressing room. Now THAT was a thrill. I felt a little self conscious because they weren't letting anyone else back there. I'm not sure why Tommy didn't participate in the meet and greet but he was a little hoarse so it's possble he's fighting off a cold or something. He was as nice as you'd imagine and chatted with us until it was time to leave. He is very proud of Bid For Green and made a point to tell us about it. He also spoke to us about the possibility of Influence 2. Doug made me tell Tommy how I was first exposed to Styx when I was eight years old. I was embarrassed of course but it turns out that Tommy likes that stuff. At the end I asked Tommy for an autograph for my nephew who is a sixteen year old Styx freak. He got me a promo photo that all the band had signed along with a few guitar picks. My nephew is on cloud nine.

For all you tech weanies it turns out that the amps you see on stage aren't live. They are just props. JY and Tommy both have stereo 4x12 cabs offstage in isolation cabinets. These cabinets are mic'd and are what you hear out of the house P.A. JY uses a Soldano Preamp through a VHT power amp. Tommy uses a Marshall TSL series amplifier. During souncheck there were several times when they turned the house PA all the way down. At this time all you could hear were Todd's drums and their unamplified voices singing. The band could still hear everything over their in-ear monitoring systems so they just kept playing.

All in all it was a very satisfying trip. Thank you Styx for making my year!

[stabbim]

I do not have the set list.

I do.

Blue Collar Man
Grand Illusion
One With Everything
Lady
Lorelei
I Am The Walrus
Man In The Wilderness
Crystal Ball
Fooling Yourself
Miss America
Come Sail Away
Everything All The Time
Renegade

First time I've seen a Styx show from up close in a long time. It was a lot of fun, especially once the stage front started getting crowded and, uh....demonstrative. Todd handed me one of the "green" bags at the end of the night --- perhaps he was amused by my air-drumming or somesuch.

Didn't have the best vantage point for sound, but I thought the band played well. I was a disappointed that we didn't get Midnight Ride or SMB, but casino shows do tend to be a little shorter. MITW (screams and all) and OWE were fab. There was a funny moment early on where LG forgot that the set list had been slightly re-jiggered and launched into "Lorelei" ahead of schedule. Cool new double-guitar intro to "Renegade" -- it's turned into quite the epic production over the past little while, eh?

After a bit the tour manager (I wish I could remember his name because he was just about the nicest fellow I've ever met)

George Packer.

[shaka]

That's the guy!

I didn't notice any Tommy Shaw disinterest either. Seemed to me that he was having a lot of fun up there.

[Everett]

George Packer.[/quote]

I thought it was charlie brusco?

[styxfanNH]

George Packer.

I thought it was charlie brusco?[/quote]

George is their road manager