Review: REO Speedwagon, Styx deliver tight sets at PCCC
Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2010 10:48 pmReview: REO Speedwagon, Styx deliver tight sets at PCCC
Featured Business » .By BRIAN MACKEY (brian.mackey@sj-r.com)
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Feb 26, 2010 @ 03:15 AM
Make a list of things about Springfield that will never change, and classic rock’s hold on local audiences would have to be near the top.
Thirty years and two months after playing the Prairie Capital Convention Center when it was brand new, REO Speedwagon headlined a four-hour concert with Styx and .38 Special Thursday night at the venue. Officials said 5,300 attended the concert.
Kevin Cronin, who has been with the band since 1972, reminded the audience that REO Speedwagon had been around for years before a series of ’80s power-ballads brought great commercial success. The group spent its earliest days as the house band at the Red Lion Inn in Champaign, where they had a harder rock ’n’ roll sound.
Much of REO’s 78-minute set bore that out, with screaming guitar lines and driving beats propelling songs like “Roll With the Changes” and “Ridin’ the Storm Out.”
Yet the best moments came with those pop hits: “Keep On Loving You,” which the group got out of the way by placing it second on its set list, and “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” the official soundtrack of couples skate at the roller rink, circa 1985.
Cronin was a striking presence: his famously fluffy mop of hair has been cut short, but its silver color reflected almost as much light as his bright white shirt.
If the “I Love the ’80s” vibe was ever in doubt, there were subtle reminders throughout the evening. Both Styx and REO, for example, used the two-bass-drum set-up, and each separately deployed a double-neck guitar for at least one number. Neither instrument is very popular with bands of a younger vintage.
.38 Special’s opening set was relatively brief: at 43 minutes, the band resorted to a medley toward the end of its set, which included a mercifully shortened version of the softest of their rock hits, 1989’s “Second Chance.” (It’s telling that after a decade of mainstream rock hits, “Second Chance” was .38 Special’s only single to make it on the adult contemporary chart, where it hit No. 1.)
Saving their best for last, they ended the set with “Caught Up in You” and “Hold on Loosely.”
Styx went on at 8 p.m. sharp, opening with “Miss America” in front of a psychedelic video screen that spanned the width of the stage.
Like REO Speedwagon, much of the band’s set favored the group’s hard rock roots, with only an occasional synth-pop gloss. That’s likely because the two band members who have been there the longest — Tommy Shaw and James “J.Y.” Young — seem to favor the harder rock cuts from the group’s catalog.
The works most identified with founding (and now former) member Dennis DeYoung — synth-pop, soft rock and Broadway-minded songs such as “Mr. Roboto” and “Show Me the Way” — were largely absent from the set.
That could be because DeYoung, Shaw and Young had an acrimonious break-up in the late 1990s, resulting in a lawsuit and a countersuit that eventually meant DeYoung, when playing solo, may only claim to be performing “the music of Styx.”
Not that it mattered Thursday night.
At the risk of offending the gods of authenticity — and with all due respect to DeYoung — keyboardist-singer Lawrence Gowan sounded good singing the soaring vocal lines his predecessor made famous.
“Are you sure he’s not original?” a guy standing near me asked his date.
Gowan has “only” been with the band since 1999, but his exuberant performance of “Come Sail Away” was the highlight of the night — the one song just about everyone in the audience seemed to know and sang along with from start to finish.
An energetic showman clad in a black suit with a skinny silver necktie, Gowan stood atop his keyboard, then spun it around — it was mounted on a rotating stand — situating it so the audience could see his electro-magnificent solos.
Aside from a cover of the Beatles “I Am the Walrus,” released on a 2005 album, the newest song in Styx’s 82-minute set was “Too Much Time on My Hands” from 1981. Everything else was first recorded in the 1970s.
Most of the other songs — including “The Grand Illusion,” “Lorelei” and “Crystal Ball” — showcased Shaw’s and Young’s status as guitar heroes.
But as with REO Speedwagon, the biggest reaction was for the lighter songs, in Styx’s case, “Come Sail Away.”
The ballads were popular, but it looked like fewer than 100 people raised cigarette lighters for the torch songs. It’s hard to believe that many people have quit smoking — indeed, it looked like most were simply more interested in taking pictures with their phone cameras.
Some things may never change, but you never know.
Brian Mackey can be reached at 747-9587.
Copyright 2010 The State Journal-Register. Some rights reserved
I thought Froy would really like this review.
Featured Business » .By BRIAN MACKEY (brian.mackey@sj-r.com)
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Feb 26, 2010 @ 03:15 AM
Make a list of things about Springfield that will never change, and classic rock’s hold on local audiences would have to be near the top.
Thirty years and two months after playing the Prairie Capital Convention Center when it was brand new, REO Speedwagon headlined a four-hour concert with Styx and .38 Special Thursday night at the venue. Officials said 5,300 attended the concert.
Kevin Cronin, who has been with the band since 1972, reminded the audience that REO Speedwagon had been around for years before a series of ’80s power-ballads brought great commercial success. The group spent its earliest days as the house band at the Red Lion Inn in Champaign, where they had a harder rock ’n’ roll sound.
Much of REO’s 78-minute set bore that out, with screaming guitar lines and driving beats propelling songs like “Roll With the Changes” and “Ridin’ the Storm Out.”
Yet the best moments came with those pop hits: “Keep On Loving You,” which the group got out of the way by placing it second on its set list, and “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” the official soundtrack of couples skate at the roller rink, circa 1985.
Cronin was a striking presence: his famously fluffy mop of hair has been cut short, but its silver color reflected almost as much light as his bright white shirt.
If the “I Love the ’80s” vibe was ever in doubt, there were subtle reminders throughout the evening. Both Styx and REO, for example, used the two-bass-drum set-up, and each separately deployed a double-neck guitar for at least one number. Neither instrument is very popular with bands of a younger vintage.
.38 Special’s opening set was relatively brief: at 43 minutes, the band resorted to a medley toward the end of its set, which included a mercifully shortened version of the softest of their rock hits, 1989’s “Second Chance.” (It’s telling that after a decade of mainstream rock hits, “Second Chance” was .38 Special’s only single to make it on the adult contemporary chart, where it hit No. 1.)
Saving their best for last, they ended the set with “Caught Up in You” and “Hold on Loosely.”
Styx went on at 8 p.m. sharp, opening with “Miss America” in front of a psychedelic video screen that spanned the width of the stage.
Like REO Speedwagon, much of the band’s set favored the group’s hard rock roots, with only an occasional synth-pop gloss. That’s likely because the two band members who have been there the longest — Tommy Shaw and James “J.Y.” Young — seem to favor the harder rock cuts from the group’s catalog.
The works most identified with founding (and now former) member Dennis DeYoung — synth-pop, soft rock and Broadway-minded songs such as “Mr. Roboto” and “Show Me the Way” — were largely absent from the set.
That could be because DeYoung, Shaw and Young had an acrimonious break-up in the late 1990s, resulting in a lawsuit and a countersuit that eventually meant DeYoung, when playing solo, may only claim to be performing “the music of Styx.”
Not that it mattered Thursday night.
At the risk of offending the gods of authenticity — and with all due respect to DeYoung — keyboardist-singer Lawrence Gowan sounded good singing the soaring vocal lines his predecessor made famous.
“Are you sure he’s not original?” a guy standing near me asked his date.
Gowan has “only” been with the band since 1999, but his exuberant performance of “Come Sail Away” was the highlight of the night — the one song just about everyone in the audience seemed to know and sang along with from start to finish.
An energetic showman clad in a black suit with a skinny silver necktie, Gowan stood atop his keyboard, then spun it around — it was mounted on a rotating stand — situating it so the audience could see his electro-magnificent solos.
Aside from a cover of the Beatles “I Am the Walrus,” released on a 2005 album, the newest song in Styx’s 82-minute set was “Too Much Time on My Hands” from 1981. Everything else was first recorded in the 1970s.
Most of the other songs — including “The Grand Illusion,” “Lorelei” and “Crystal Ball” — showcased Shaw’s and Young’s status as guitar heroes.
But as with REO Speedwagon, the biggest reaction was for the lighter songs, in Styx’s case, “Come Sail Away.”
The ballads were popular, but it looked like fewer than 100 people raised cigarette lighters for the torch songs. It’s hard to believe that many people have quit smoking — indeed, it looked like most were simply more interested in taking pictures with their phone cameras.
Some things may never change, but you never know.
Brian Mackey can be reached at 747-9587.
Copyright 2010 The State Journal-Register. Some rights reserved
I thought Froy would really like this review.
I know everyone had a great time at the show.Thanks Chowall 
