Styx Tribute - Grand Illusion

[eclipse]

We recently debuted our Styx tribute show, Grand Illusion, in Cleveland, and I wanted to get some feedback from fellow Styx fans regarding our set list.

We know that it's hard to please everyone. You have the hard-core fans that want to hear the more obscure "good" tunes, and then you have the others who only know the radio hits. With only so much time in the show, it is hard to work both in. Plus with the Styx split, you have the whole Tommy/Dennis issue (gosh, has it really been 20 years?). While I haven't seen Styx live in 2 years, I did see DDY this summer at the Cleveland Rib Burnoff, and I was amazed that it was actually a ROCK SHOW!!!! While he may be a little, um, theatrical, the guy hasn't lost his chops. Of course, he included the hits like Mr. Roboto (ugh), Babe, and Lady, he did a killer version of Castle Walls and a great a capella version of Show Me The Way. All in all, a very impressive performance. While I do like some of the new Styx (Waiting For Our Time is great, although it sounds more like Damn Yankees than Styx), our Styx tribute, Grand Illusion, sticks to more of the old material. And of course, the nice thing about a tribute is that we can do the Tommy tunes AND the Dennis tunes. However, to this point, we haven't reached an agreement on any of the "new" material.

The playlist from our last show (clocking in at a little under 2 hours)

GRAND ILLUSION
STATE STREET SADIE/A.D. 1928
ROCKIN THE PARADISE
LORELEI
BABE
CRYSTAL BALL
RENEGADE
FOOLING YOURSELF
SNOWBLIND
LADY
LIGHT UP
I'M O.K.
TOO MUCH TIME
MAN IN THE WILDERNESS
BLUE COLLAR MAN
MISS AMERICA
MR. ROBOTO
COME SAIL AWAY
PRELUDE 12
SUITE MADAME BLUE
BEST OF TIMES

So, no new tunes, but plenty of good music......

Thoughts?

[StyxCollector]

I would hope your setlist is more than that and you can vary songs. If not, you won't get a lot of repeat business. Having done a Rush tribute band, we would always try to mix it up. We never played the same show twice. Sure, you have a few songs that are always in the set (i.e. CSA will always be in), but your deep tracks aren't so deep. Outside of "I'm OK" and a full "Man In The Wilderness", you do what either Styx or Dennis does.

IMO in a set that long, you should do more deep cuts than two. You're pandering to a casual fan (which you have to do no matter what, hence a core of recognizable songs which arguably make up 60 - 80% of the set), but you need a few real chestnuts to get the die hards to really like you and/or come back - stuff Styx or Dennis doesn't do. Give them a reason to love you and want to come back. We played stuff like "Hemispheres", "A Farewell to Kings", etc., in addition to the war horses ("Tom Sawyer", "Spirit of Radio", etc.). People liked it.

I'm sure the audience overall loved what you did but longer term, that set isn't going to buy you favors since at some point, it will be the die hards who are going to want to see you more than the casual fan.

[eclipse]

I would hope your setlist is more than that and you can vary songs. If not, you won't get a lot of repeat business. Having done a Rush tribute band, we would always try to mix it up. We never played the same show twice. Sure, you have a few songs that are always in the set (i.e. CSA will always be in), but your deep tracks aren't so deep. Outside of "I'm OK" and a full "Man In The Wilderness", you do what either Styx or Dennis does.

IMO in a set that long, you should do more deep cuts than two. You're pandering to a casual fan (which you have to do no matter what, hence a core of recognizable songs which arguably make up 60 - 80% of the set), but you need a few real chestnuts to get the die hards to really like you and/or come back - stuff Styx or Dennis doesn't do. Give them a reason to love you and want to come back. We played stuff like "Hemispheres", "A Farewell to Kings", etc., in addition to the war horses ("Tom Sawyer", "Spirit of Radio", etc.). People liked it.

I'm sure the audience overall loved what you did but longer term, that set isn't going to buy you favors since at some point, it will be the die hards who are going to want to see you more than the casual fan.

Thanks for the feedback! You are correct in the the first show was geared toward the more casual fan (we have about 8 Styx tunes in our cover band rotation so we started there). The following songs are on our next "to do" list.

Don't Let It End
Superstars
Sing For The Day
Queen Of Spades
Why Me
Mademoiselle
Castle Walls
Great White Hope
Lights


With two other projects (our cover band, Eclipse, and our Journey tribute, Escape), we will only be doing this show once a month or so at varous locations, but we will still attempt to vary the set lists so that it isn't always the same show.

If you (or anyone else) has any suggestions for additional inclusions, please feel free to suggest them here and I will take them back to the other guys.

[StyxCollector]

Don't Let It End
Superstars
Sing For The Day
Queen Of Spades
Why Me
Mademoiselle
Castle Walls
Great White Hope
Lights

Of these, Dennis does CW and DLIE. QoS both Styx and DDY have dragged out on occasion. Some of the others have been done medley-style, but not in whole recently. I'm surprised you don't do any fan favorites like "Best Thing" or some other WN-era stuff. It's a shame Dennis only did it really at the Lost Treasures show - it was good. Other ones which the casual fan may not know but would like since they're uptempo/rock would include "Midnight Ride", "Born for Adventure", and "Put Me On".

For the die-hards, sticking to pre-Cornerstone is the safest bet. I'm not sure songs like "Lights" or "Why Me" are going to get you repeat business from the die-hards. Good to have, but not stuff I'd do often. We had the same issue in the Rush band; too much mid-period (i.e. the keyboard years) can turn people off even though Rush themselves ignore most of it live.

As I said, I'd up the nugget factor in your set. Obviously if you're doing two hours you have a lot more latitude, but if you're doing an hour, it should be at least two songs of the 8 - 10 you'll do. You do run the danger of pandering too much to die hards at the expense of alienating the casual fan; we constantly had requests for songs.

I don't miss doing the hassle that came with doing a tribute band at all.

[LordofDaRing]

I would figure most people going to a tribute show are not casual fans and would love to hear some of the non hits: This Old Man, Ballerina, Sing for the Day, etc.

[LordofDaRing]

I would figure most people going to a tribute show are not casual fans and would love to hear some of the non hits: This Old Man, Ballerina, Sing for the Day, etc.

[eclipse]

Excellent responses from both of you, thanks. I would think the same thing. Yet if you go see Styx or DDY it is rare for then to go "off the board". I like the idea of doing a few different lesser-known songs at each show and rotating them in and out of the set lists. Trying to figure which ones, though.....

The "old-timers" in our band are seriously avoiding any of the "new" stuff (which is what, 25 years worth now?) - lol

[Toph]

We recently debuted our Styx tribute show, Grand Illusion, in Cleveland, and I wanted to get some feedback from fellow Styx fans regarding our set list.

We know that it's hard to please everyone. You have the hard-core fans that want to hear the more obscure "good" tunes, and then you have the others who only know the radio hits. With only so much time in the show, it is hard to work both in. Plus with the Styx split, you have the whole Tommy/Dennis issue (gosh, has it really been 20 years?). While I haven't seen Styx live in 2 years, I did see DDY this summer at the Cleveland Rib Burnoff, and I was amazed that it was actually a ROCK SHOW!!!! While he may be a little, um, theatrical, the guy hasn't lost his chops. Of course, he included the hits like Mr. Roboto (ugh), Babe, and Lady, he did a killer version of Castle Walls and a great a capella version of Show Me The Way. All in all, a very impressive performance. While I do like some of the new Styx (Waiting For Our Time is great, although it sounds more like Damn Yankees than Styx), our Styx tribute, Grand Illusion, sticks to more of the old material. And of course, the nice thing about a tribute is that we can do the Tommy tunes AND the Dennis tunes. However, to this point, we haven't reached an agreement on any of the "new" material.

The playlist from our last show (clocking in at a little under 2 hours)

GRAND ILLUSION
STATE STREET SADIE/A.D. 1928
ROCKIN THE PARADISE
LORELEI
BABE
CRYSTAL BALL
RENEGADE
FOOLING YOURSELF
SNOWBLIND
LADY
LIGHT UP
I'M O.K.
TOO MUCH TIME
MAN IN THE WILDERNESS
BLUE COLLAR MAN
MISS AMERICA
MR. ROBOTO
COME SAIL AWAY
PRELUDE 12
SUITE MADAME BLUE
BEST OF TIMES

So, no new tunes, but plenty of good music......

Thoughts?

I am a bit confused - you mentioned that you sang SMTW acapella, but it is not in the set list. I think you HAVE TO HAVE SMTW - there are a lot of people who associate a lot of meaning with that song. DDY took it out of his set list briefly because he had some throat problems (evidently it is hard to sing) and his fans bombarded his website with requests for him to put it back in.

I think it depends on who your target is - You have most of the big hits except for Don't Let It End (poor DLIE, it always gets forgotten - for a single that went to #6), you I think you are targeting the mainstream. IF that is the case, you should keep all the big hits, probably drop I'm OK for DLIE. If you want to add a few more "Big hit/recognizable" songs to the list you could do DY's HIgh Enough and DDY's "Desert Moon" - then you have all the top 10s covered.

Of course if you are targeting the Styx freaks that populate this board then ignore everything I said and do a set that includes Young Man, Mr. Christopher, Lord of the Rings, Lonely People, Just Get Through This Night, and World Tonite...

[eclipse]

We recently debuted our Styx tribute show, Grand Illusion, in Cleveland, and I wanted to get some feedback from fellow Styx fans regarding our set list.

We know that it's hard to please everyone. You have the hard-core fans that want to hear the more obscure "good" tunes, and then you have the others who only know the radio hits. With only so much time in the show, it is hard to work both in. Plus with the Styx split, you have the whole Tommy/Dennis issue (gosh, has it really been 20 years?). While I haven't seen Styx live in 2 years, I did see DDY this summer at the Cleveland Rib Burnoff, and I was amazed that it was actually a ROCK SHOW!!!! While he may be a little, um, theatrical, the guy hasn't lost his chops. Of course, he included the hits like Mr. Roboto (ugh), Babe, and Lady, he did a killer version of Castle Walls and a great a capella version of Show Me The Way. All in all, a very impressive performance. While I do like some of the new Styx (Waiting For Our Time is great, although it sounds more like Damn Yankees than Styx), our Styx tribute, Grand Illusion, sticks to more of the old material. And of course, the nice thing about a tribute is that we can do the Tommy tunes AND the Dennis tunes. However, to this point, we haven't reached an agreement on any of the "new" material.

The playlist from our last show (clocking in at a little under 2 hours)

GRAND ILLUSION
STATE STREET SADIE/A.D. 1928
ROCKIN THE PARADISE
LORELEI
BABE
CRYSTAL BALL
RENEGADE
FOOLING YOURSELF
SNOWBLIND
LADY
LIGHT UP
I'M O.K.
TOO MUCH TIME
MAN IN THE WILDERNESS
BLUE COLLAR MAN
MISS AMERICA
MR. ROBOTO
COME SAIL AWAY
PRELUDE 12
SUITE MADAME BLUE
BEST OF TIMES

So, no new tunes, but plenty of good music......

Thoughts?

I am a bit confused - you mentioned that you sang SMTW acapella, but it is not in the set list. I think you HAVE TO HAVE SMTW - there are a lot of people who associate a lot of meaning with that song. DDY took it out of his set list briefly because he had some throat problems (evidently it is hard to sing) and his fans bombarded his website with requests for him to put it back in.

I think it depends on who your target is - You have most of the big hits except for Don't Let It End (poor DLIE, it always gets forgotten - for a single that went to #6), you I think you are targeting the mainstream. IF that is the case, you should keep all the big hits, probably drop I'm OK for DLIE. If you want to add a few more "Big hit/recognizable" songs to the list you could do DY's HIgh Enough and DDY's "Desert Moon" - then you have all the top 10s covered.

Of course if you are targeting the Styx freaks that populate this board then ignore everything I said and do a set that includes Young Man, Mr. Christopher, Lord of the Rings, Lonely People, Just Get Through This Night, and World Tonite...

Don't be confused, Toph. I mentioned that DDY did SMTW a capella, not us. We are considering all of our options right now. Don't think we plan on any DDY solo stuff. Then we would have to to Damn Yankees, Shaw/Blades, etc.

[Rockwriter]

I would figure most people going to a tribute show are not casual fans and would love to hear some of the non hits: This Old Man, Ballerina, Sing for the Day, etc.

For my money personally, those are all great choices, except for some reason Styx could never make "Ballerina" come off live and dropped it, so I don't know if another group could make it work or not. Hard to say. That whole song kinda hinges on those outro guitar solos, otherwise it just kinda sits there. "This Old Man" would be great, and so would "Jennifer". How about something like "Mother Dear"? Or if you want to go with an alternate track from a bit later, "Double Life" or "Haven't We Been Here Before". From CYCLO you could do something like "These Are The Times" if the demand is there, that would fit in with the earlier material.

Is there any YouTube video of this?

Best of luck.


Sterling

[eclipse]

I would figure most people going to a tribute show are not casual fans and would love to hear some of the non hits: This Old Man, Ballerina, Sing for the Day, etc.

For my money personally, those are all great choices, except for some reason Styx could never make "Ballerina" come off live and dropped it, so I don't know if another group could make it work or not. Hard to say. That whole song kinda hinges on those outro guitar solos, otherwise it just kinda sits there. "This Old Man" would be great, and so would "Jennifer". How about something like "Mother Dear"? Or if you want to go with an alternate track from a bit later, "Double Life" or "Haven't We Been Here Before". From CYCLO you could do something like "These Are The Times" if the demand is there, that would fit in with the earlier material.

Is there any YouTube video of this?

Best of luck.


Sterling

No video yet, but we do some of the songs within our Eclipse set list, so I hope to have some footage shortly.....

[kansas666]

I would figure most people going to a tribute show are not casual fans and would love to hear some of the non hits: This Old Man, Ballerina, Sing for the Day, etc.

Sing for the Day wasn't a hit?

I like the setlist. Too bad STYX or Denny can't pull it off.

I saw the tribute band "Light Up" in Milwaukee and just before they came on they played Cartman's "Come Sail Away" on the P.A. This really got the crowd in the mood and let everyone know that this thing shouldn't be taken too seriously.

[froy]

[quote="eclipse"][quote="Rockwriter"][quote="LordofDaRing"]I would figure most people going to a tribute

Here is your setlist
Try it

William Tell Overture lead into
Born For Adventure
Suite Mademoiselle
LORELEI
CRYSTAL BALL
Nothing Ever Goes as Planned
Lights
You Need Love
LADY
FOOLING YOURSELF
LIGHT UP
I'M O.K.
MAN IN THE WILDERNESS
In The World Tonight
Midnight Ride
Pieces of 8
Great White Hope
Renegade
Castle Walls
PRELUDE 12
SUITE MADAME BLUE
COME SAIL AWAY

Bottom line
Do the songs the 2 bands are not doing
There is more of a buzz than just coping them
Sure do some hits but kill them with the rarities.

[Jana]

Do you have any plans to come down to Florida and do shows in the future?

[eclipse]

Do you have any plans to come down to Florida and do shows in the future?

Since we all have jobs and we just do this for "fun", the initial plan is to travel up to a 5 hour radius from Cleveland. Of course, with wind chills near zero, I would love to be in Florida right about now.

Hopefully we will have some video footage available in the near future.

[MCM]

Do you have any plans to come down to Florida and do shows in the future?

Since we all have jobs and we just do this for "fun", the initial plan is to travel up to a 5 hour radius from Cleveland. Of course, with wind chills near zero, I would love to be in Florida right about now.

Hopefully we will have some video footage available in the near future.

Come to Pittsburgh! We've got plenty of bars!!

[eclipse]

Do you have any plans to come down to Florida and do shows in the future?

Since we all have jobs and we just do this for "fun", the initial plan is to travel up to a 5 hour radius from Cleveland. Of course, with wind chills near zero, I would love to be in Florida right about now.

Hopefully we will have some video footage available in the near future.

Come to Pittsburgh! We've got plenty of bars!!

Would love to! Email me a list (with contacts if you have them) to styxtribute@gmail.com.

[yogi]

I would want to hear Born For Adventure, Half Penny/Two Penny, Young Man, World Tonight, All In A Days Work, Queen Of Spades, Castle Walls, Put Me On, Lights, On My Way, Little Suzie & Everything Is Cool.

[Phreakboy]

I'm in Cleveland. I would have loved to come to the show.
When is the next show date ?

[eclipse]

I'm in Cleveland. I would have loved to come to the show.
When is the next show date ?

Eclipse is playing at Sly Fox this Friday, 12/12. While this is not the tribute, we incorporate a heavy dose of songs from both our Styx and Journey tributes into the show.