Todd S. comments on length of current set

[Grotelul]

Love the wussy comment.....

From his website...

Look, I'm not thrilled with the length. It's not a matter of 7 songs but rather the length of 50 minutes we have. Come Sail away and Renegade together are almost 20 MINUTES right there. Think about it. Those have to be in the set. This tour is really to get in front of 10,000 plus people who think of Styx as a wussy band and would never spend a penny to see us---and we rock their friggin' heads off in the time we have. There are about 15 shows or so where it's just DL and us, so we'll play longer. When we're on our own we'll play longer but the set length is ALWAYS determined by the buying promoter.

Todd

[DarwinNebraska]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

[stabbim]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

Compared to the version of the band that put out Cornerstone, he is.

[DarwinNebraska]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

Compared to the version of the band that put out Cornerstone, he is.

Ummmmmm... no.

[stabbim]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

Compared to the version of the band that put out Cornerstone, he is.

Ummmmmm... no.

Ummmmmm... yes.

Hell, compared to Cornerstone-era Styx, Tommy Tutone = Megadeth.

[rajah2165]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

I've never seen a band try so hard to be something aren't..It really is quite pathetic...Oh yeah we are this intense heavy metal band...

No you play a bunch of noise and have 1 good vocalist now.. Noise does not equal rockin..

All this "We are a heavy metal band" crap makes me think they are trying to overcompensate for something...

[rajah2165]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

Compared to the version of the band that put out Cornerstone, he is.

That would be the only Styx album to ever receive a Grammy nomination...

Yeah it was horrible.

[styxfanNH]

I don't recall Styx referring to themselves as a heavy metal band. They refer to themselves as a rock band. The only ones referring to them as a heavy metal band is those trashing them on this board. If you define rock as heavy metal, you must define ballads as rock

[stabbim]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

I've never seen a band try so hard to be something aren't..It really is quite pathetic...Oh yeah we are this intense heavy metal band...

No you play a bunch of noise and have 1 good vocalist now.. Noise does not equal rockin..

All this "We are a heavy metal band" crap makes me think they are trying to overcompensate for something...

Please to be citing an instance of any member of Styx referring to the band as "heavy metal."

That would be the only Styx album to ever receive a Grammy nomination...

Yeah it was horrible.

Grammy, Shmammy. Didn't say it was horrible, by the by.

[Grotelul]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

Compared to the version of the band that put out Cornerstone, he is.

That would be the only Styx album to ever receive a Grammy nomination...

Yeah it was horrible.

Do you like every record that is nominated for a Grammy?

[froy]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

Compared to the version of the band that put out Cornerstone, he is.

That would be the only Styx album to ever receive a Grammy nomination...

Yeah it was horrible.

Do you like every record that is nominated for a Grammy?

Every Styx cd I do.

[blt man]

JY has called Styx a "hard rock" band in interviews I have read. That term is open to interpretaion.

[styxfanNH]

JY has called Styx a "hard rock" band in interviews I have read. That term is open to interpretaion.

I know about the "hard rock" band quote, but it doesn't equate to a Heavy Metal band in any veign as Megadeth.

Still looking for the heavy metal band quote though.

[blt man]

Still looking for the heavy metal band quote though.

How much free time you got?

[Grotelul]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

Compared to the version of the band that put out Cornerstone, he is.

That would be the only Styx album to ever receive a Grammy nomination...

Yeah it was horrible.

Do you like every record that is nominated for a Grammy?

Every Styx cd I do.

My point being..just because it was nominated for a Grammy does not make it a great or good record. Popularity=quality? I think not.

[styxfanNH]

Still looking for the heavy metal band quote though.

How much free time you got?

I'm on vacation until September

[yogi]

Does anyone know if Styx is somehow squeezing Just Be, Yes I Can, Never Say Never, She Cares, Sing For The Day, Boat On The River, Lonely School, Little Girl World,, Just Fell In, Ever Since The World Began or Waiting into their set with Def Leppard??

I Know my brother told me that they played The Bigger They Are The Harder They Fall, See Me Now, Friendly Advice, Maggie, and they opened with Toys For American Boys.

This was when they played the longer Jack In The Box Steak & Cheader show. He said that Todd even did a 20 minute drum solo wrapped in lettuce.

As I stated on another 'Assembly Line' he has never been a huge Styx fan but he has always loved Tommy & JY's solo stuff.

[rajah2165]

Todd thinks he's in Megadeth.

Compared to the version of the band that put out Cornerstone, he is.

That would be the only Styx album to ever receive a Grammy nomination...

Yeah it was horrible.

Do you like every record that is nominated for a Grammy?

Every Styx cd I do.

My point being..just because it was nominated for a Grammy does not make it a great or good record. Popularity=quality? I think not.

I don't think you understand Grammy awards. Grammy's aren't about popularity or you would have the biggest selling albums always winnng grammy's - that isn't the case. In fact, there have been many album that did not garner lots of sales but still won Grammy award.

[rajah2165]

Love the wussy comment.....

From his website...

Look, I'm not thrilled with the length. It's not a matter of 7 songs but rather the length of 50 minutes we have. Come Sail away and Renegade together are almost 20 MINUTES right there. Think about it. Those have to be in the set. This tour is really to get in front of 10,000 plus people who think of Styx as a wussy band and would never spend a penny to see us---and we rock their friggin' heads off in the time we have. There are about 15 shows or so where it's just DL and us, so we'll play longer. When we're on our own we'll play longer but the set length is ALWAYS determined by the buying promoter.

Todd

Todd - here is some simple math for you buddy...Nix the 6 minutes over the top guitar solos on Renegade and Come Sail Away and then you have room for 2-3 more songs.. but wiat then you couldn't "rock their friggin' heads off".

[DarwinNebraska]

JY has called Styx a "hard rock" band in interviews I have read. That term is open to interpretaion.

I know about the "hard rock" band quote, but it doesn't equate to a Heavy Metal band in any veign as Megadeth.

Still looking for the heavy metal band quote though.

Nobody said "heavy metal"... "Megadeth" was used as sarcasm to illustrate the absurdity of the "rock friggen heads off" comment.

It's funny that Todd, a guy that wasn't a part of the significant era of Styx, feels the need to lob grenades at it every chance he gets.

What did Dennis ever do to him, by the way, for the guy to have such obvious disdain for him?

I really think he'd be better served not bashing in the press, after all he is one day he is likely going to find himself playing drums for the guy again... if he is lucky.

[styxfansite]

JY has called Styx a "hard rock" band in interviews I have read. That term is open to interpretaion.

I know about the "hard rock" band quote, but it doesn't equate to a Heavy Metal band in any veign as Megadeth.

Still looking for the heavy metal band quote though.

Nobody said "heavy metal"... "Megadeth" was used as sarcasm to illustrate the absurdity of the "rock friggen heads off" comment.

It's funny that Todd, a guy that wasn't a part of the significant era of Styx, feels the need to lob grenades at it every chance he gets.

What did Dennis ever do to him, by the way, for the guy to have such obvious disdain for him?

I really think he'd be better served not bashing in the press, after all he is one day he is likely going to find himself playing drums for the guy again... if he is lucky.

Everytime I saw Todd's name mentioned in an interview with Dennis, Dennis never said one bad word about him. I think there is a "Dear Todd" on his page on this subject. Todd says that as far he knows Dennis has never said anything bad about him, or something on those lines.

[stabbim]

That is my goal, to re-establish us as ...a hard rocking bunch of guys that every now and then can have Tommy Shaw sing a sensitive song and people know that we can rock with the very best of them.

I think that's a pretty fair assessment.

[stabbim]

Nix the 6 minutes over the top guitar solos on Renegade and Come Sail Away and then you have room for 2-3 more songs..

True. It's not like the headlining shows where they need two big drawn-out finales.

[kipthekid]

while Styx certainly doesn't have Metallica like "street cred" in the hard rock/metal millieu, they certainly rock 'harder' - not necessarily "better" - than Styx post Pieces of Eight did.

I don't think it's necessarily "better." I may be one of the view old-time Styx die-hards who AGREED with the OVERALL direction (not certain songs - Babe, First Time - were not and are not high on my list - "Never Say Never" and "She Cares" aren't either) they went in with Cornerstone. The band was getting "older" - "prog rock" pretentions were getting outdated. Adding horns and bit more of a "jazz/blues" feel to their music expanded their repetoire quite nicelessly. I for one believe that DDY did some of his best song-writing/tune smithing on Paradise Theater. He went off the reservation on KWH, did "ok" for the most part on Edge (could have lived without "Carrie Ann" - that's the self-indulgent DDY that I'm not a fan of) and contributed two strong tunes (IMHO) on BNW ("Goodbye to Roseland" and "Great Expectations" - I know alot of people didn't like the latter, but I thought it was a terrific song and, along with Roseland, the two best songs on the album. I could have lived without the others he contributed).

As far as the short set list is concerned, no matter how one "spins" it, warming up for Def Leopard for 45-50 minutes is a HUGE fall from grace compared with where they were in 1997. This is not an indictment of their overall stage show - I think it's tremendous. I don't like LG's vocals AT ALL (he simply can't sing DDY's songs) but I LOVE his keys and his energy. When Glenn was with the band, he also added tremendous showmanship and solid vocals while Tommy Shaw has matured into, in my view, a master rock song writer. While DDY will come up with tunes that are "magical" and without peer, Tommy is far more consistent IMHO. The problem is, the "new Styx" has over-exposed themselves and have dilluted the Styx brand to the point where the "non-fan" views them as a state fair-hopping dinosaur act. If they're happy, that's great - but they have, in my view, besmirched the image of a band that RULED America in the late '70's and early '80's. A gazillion produced live albums, a "what's the point" album of cover tunes, and taking any and all gigs offered to them.

[DarwinNebraska]

Very well put Kip... I agree with a lot of what you said.

I'd beg to differ about the Tommy consistency part though.... I think his output has been somewhat lackluster since he's rejoined the band.

Case in point... I hadn't listened to Cyclorama in a long time so I decided to play it from start-to-finish last night to put it in perspective against the Dennis stuff I've been listening to. Probably the first time I played it virtually all the way through without skipping stuff or fast-forwarding.

I really think there is only one *good* Tommy song on the whole disc and that's "One With Everything". The rest of the tracks he sings are really just unmemorable filler tunes IMO. I'd even go as far to say that the Gowan tunes are better and more interesting even though I don't particularly care for his voice and they don't sound anything like classic Styx.

I was surprised just how much that album is "all over the map" soundwise. It really sounds like a collection of solo works. Considering BNW was not really a cohesive album, due to the various issues, I really expected them to work extra hard to make this come off as a "group project" and I really just don't hear that.

First off, the drastic differences between the Gowan songs vs. the rest of the tracks is startling. You don't hear any similar keys in many of the tunes and then the Gowan tunes start and right away they're piano centric. Were these largely finished songs he had in the can already and just brought to Styx to use? Sure sounds like it to me.

An then you have the Glen tune, which really sounds like a Blink-182 song more than a Styx song. Not a terrible song, but just so out of place for this band. I don't like it as a Styx song.

IMO, there are two stand-out tracks... and not surprsingly they are the most classic Styx-like on the album... "These Are The Times" and "One With Everything". "Captain America" isn't bad either. If the rest of the album would have been in a similar vein, I really might have dug it... seriously.

[styxfanNH]

Todd - here is some simple math for you buddy...Nix the 6 minutes over the top guitar solos on Renegade and Come Sail Away and then you have room for 2-3 more songs.

Common Ground,

I think everyone on this board would agree with that statement .

[ratcity10]

The problem is, the "new Styx" has over-exposed themselves and have dilluted the Styx brand to the point where the "non-fan" views them as a state fair-hopping dinosaur act. If they're happy, that's great - but they have, in my view, besmirched the image of a band that RULED America in the late '70's and early '80's. A gazillion produced live albums, a "what's the point" album of cover tunes, and taking any and all gigs offered to them.

Perfectly stated. They should lay low for a while. Maybe they need the dough....

[blt man]

First off, the drastic differences between the Gowan songs vs. the rest of the tracks is startling. You don't hear any similar keys in many of the tunes and then the Gowan tunes start and right away they're piano centric. Were these largely finished songs he had in the can already and just brought to Styx to use? Sure sounds like it to me.

Dennis' tunes were also often piano centric and most previous Styx albums had songs that were very different in style. But, in those days there were 3 writers and 3 singers. The problem with Cyclorama for me is that you have 4 writers and 6 singers which makes it difficult to have a consistent sound.

[DarwinNebraska]

The problem with Cyclorama for me is that you have 4 writers and 6 singers which makes it difficult to have a consistent sound.

Are you counting Billy Bob Thornton?

That was a *great* idea.

[blt man]

The problem with Cyclorama for me is that you have 4 writers and 6 singers which makes it difficult to have a consistent sound.

Are you counting Billy Bob Thornton?

That was a *great* idea.

Yes, and Brian Wilson. Ultimately those songs are just filler and the CD could have done without them.
I would have liked another One With Everything type song - it really is a great Styx song.