MR

"Yet while old peers like Styx and Asia have resigned themselves to playing between pig races and hot-dog-eating contests at county fairs, Rush is still able to pack major sheds."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... =printable





Aidin Vaziri insults STYX, and STYX fans
Hello Friends,

Over our long and wonderful career we've survived many an irate, uninformed writer's sarcastic words, but the article I read today deserves your attention and perhaps even a response to the writer. It's not even an article about STYX, but about our friends RUSH, whom we respect and admire and who are STYX fans themselves.

See paragraph seven: "Yet while old peers like Styx and Asia have resigned themselves to playing between pig races and hot-dog-eating contests at county fairs, Rush is still able to pack major sheds."There is a lot that's insulting about this paragraph. For example, that playing fairs and festivals in front of thousands of music fans is something to be ashamed of, and that you are somehow tainted if you play there or if you attend as a fan. Just so you know, major acts go to great lengths to be considered for these venues, many of which are not near a major amphitheater. He must not have consulted Pollstar to see just what STYX has been up to over the past few summers or he would have not been so quick to insult us all. It's also clear that he has no idea what goes on at a STYX concert these days.If you want to read the entire article, scroll down. I've pasted it below.

Here is a copy of the e-mail our manager just sent to Aidin. Please feel free to send your own comments to this poor misguided writer who owes it to his readers to be a little better informed.

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"For your information Styx co-headlined major shed and Arena tours with Journey and REO Speedwagon and most recently with Peter Frampton in the past few years. Since 2000 they have continually placed in Pollstar magazines top 50 tours every year. In addition to this their touring includes various fairs and festivals across the nation where they play to tens of thousands of fans at the same venues that some of the biggest artists of today’s music also perform. Styx enjoys playing these events and judging from the attendances our fans enjoy going to them. None of these events are held “between pig races and hotdog eating contests.” Maybe if you were more in touch with these types of events and the clientele that attends them, and probably read your articles, you would not write such uninformed articles to your readers.

Cheers,

Charlie Brusco"
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If you would like to respond, and please do, send your comments to:

chronfeeback@sfchronicle.com

attention: Aidin Vaziri

Central support mechanism that kept this group running is now missing.

Funny, I seem to remember this mechanism beginning to malfunction right around Cornerstone and ultimately having to be replaced after many failed attempts to repair it.