Styx in Texas - Review
Posted: Tue May 18, 2004 1:43 amDid anyone see Styx in Texas this past weekend? Was it that disappointing like in this article or was it because this reporter wasn't a Styx fan?
Posted on Sun, May. 16, 2004
Peter Frampton still has crowd loving his way
By Stefan Stevenson
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
DALLAS - Frampton comes alive ... again.
OK, that may sound cheesy, or cliche, but Friday night at Smirnoff Music Centre, Peter Frampton's performance before 8,335 proved that classic rock artists whose careers peaked in the 1970s don't have to affect rock-star poses and coast on style-over-substance nonsense.
Frampton turned classic rock into classy rock during his 1 1/2-hour set preceding Styx, which we'll get to later.
Although he's far removed from 1976 -- when he was the biggest thing in the rock world and a 16 magazine pinup boy -- he can still rip through a guitar solo with delight in his face. His blond mane has thinned to a mature buzz cut, and the jumpsuit he used to wear on stage has been replaced with a conservative, button-down shirt and slacks.
That wouldn't amount to squat if his music hadn't grown with him. It has.
He played the hits -- Baby, I Love Your Way, Show Me the Way and (I'll Give You) Money, which sounded better than ever with that ominous bass line. But he was also impressive on some new songs, including Not Forgotten and I Need Ground from the album Now, which sounded as good, if not better, than the hits everyone sang along to.
Do You Feel Like We Do, which stretched 13 minutes, contained those moments that classic rock radio has been spotlighting for nearly three decades -- the electronically modulated voice-box device and the huge guitar solo that closes out the song.
He closed with The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which was written by the late George Harrison and included Eric Clapton on lead guitar. It was a classy, sentimental nod to two guitar heroes. By the end of his set, you expected nothing less.
Styx -- sans Dennis DeYoung -- followed and seemed silly in comparison with Frampton. Tommy Shaw and James Young, along with newer bandmates, posed like superheroes as they appeared, in silhouette, on a ramp at the back of the stage before busting into Blue Collar Man.
Whether it was Shaw's Townsendlike windmill, DeYoung replacement Lawrence Gowan's antics with a revolving keyboard or drummer Todd Sucherman's enormous set of drums (seriously, two bass drums?), it was straight out of Spinal Tap. And the sound was muddled and too bass-heavy to boot.
An ill-advised medley lumped a selection of '70s and early '80s hits, including Mr. Roboto, into a laborious hodgepodge of melodies and snippets of lyrics from 18 different songs. As soon as you recognized a song, it had morphed into a different one.
Plenty of faithful Styx fans sang along to every word and ate up the histrionics, but even some of them seemed confused during the medley.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan Stevenson, (817) 390-7341 sstevenson@star-telegram.com
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainmen ... 179.htm?1c
Posted on Sun, May. 16, 2004
Peter Frampton still has crowd loving his way
By Stefan Stevenson
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
DALLAS - Frampton comes alive ... again.
OK, that may sound cheesy, or cliche, but Friday night at Smirnoff Music Centre, Peter Frampton's performance before 8,335 proved that classic rock artists whose careers peaked in the 1970s don't have to affect rock-star poses and coast on style-over-substance nonsense.
Frampton turned classic rock into classy rock during his 1 1/2-hour set preceding Styx, which we'll get to later.
Although he's far removed from 1976 -- when he was the biggest thing in the rock world and a 16 magazine pinup boy -- he can still rip through a guitar solo with delight in his face. His blond mane has thinned to a mature buzz cut, and the jumpsuit he used to wear on stage has been replaced with a conservative, button-down shirt and slacks.
That wouldn't amount to squat if his music hadn't grown with him. It has.
He played the hits -- Baby, I Love Your Way, Show Me the Way and (I'll Give You) Money, which sounded better than ever with that ominous bass line. But he was also impressive on some new songs, including Not Forgotten and I Need Ground from the album Now, which sounded as good, if not better, than the hits everyone sang along to.
Do You Feel Like We Do, which stretched 13 minutes, contained those moments that classic rock radio has been spotlighting for nearly three decades -- the electronically modulated voice-box device and the huge guitar solo that closes out the song.
He closed with The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which was written by the late George Harrison and included Eric Clapton on lead guitar. It was a classy, sentimental nod to two guitar heroes. By the end of his set, you expected nothing less.
Styx -- sans Dennis DeYoung -- followed and seemed silly in comparison with Frampton. Tommy Shaw and James Young, along with newer bandmates, posed like superheroes as they appeared, in silhouette, on a ramp at the back of the stage before busting into Blue Collar Man.
Whether it was Shaw's Townsendlike windmill, DeYoung replacement Lawrence Gowan's antics with a revolving keyboard or drummer Todd Sucherman's enormous set of drums (seriously, two bass drums?), it was straight out of Spinal Tap. And the sound was muddled and too bass-heavy to boot.
An ill-advised medley lumped a selection of '70s and early '80s hits, including Mr. Roboto, into a laborious hodgepodge of melodies and snippets of lyrics from 18 different songs. As soon as you recognized a song, it had morphed into a different one.
Plenty of faithful Styx fans sang along to every word and ate up the histrionics, but even some of them seemed confused during the medley.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan Stevenson, (817) 390-7341 sstevenson@star-telegram.com
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainmen ... 179.htm?1c
