I saw Styx with the youth symphony orchestra in Cleveland. Here are my thoughts.
Following in the footsteps of other bands, Styx did a little show with an “orchestra” and chorus. I don't mean to mock the youngsters, they are quite talented, but I noticed that the trend for rock groups performing with classical entities have been doing it with youth ones. Is there a reason for this? Do the grown up orchestras take a pass? Are the youth orchestras the only ones asking? Who's doing the asking? In the case of Styx, it was the youth orchestra musical director. I think she really just wanted a chance to hug Tommy. : )
My overall reaction isn't too dissimilar from my reaction to Metallica's turn at this. I have previously shared with those that asked that I didn't understand the point. It defeats the purpose of having the orchestra if the boys in the band are going to have their stuff turned up so loud you can't hear the orchestra anyway. It wasn't that Styx was so loud you couldn't hear the kids, it was just that there are so many opportunities in Styx music to really expand the sound in this environment. They didn't make much of an effort to take advantage of this opportunity.
When I saw Collective Soul's run at this I really liked how they pretty much handed the keyboard stuff over to the orchestra. Dean Roland only walked over to the keyboards once, maybe twice. I liked the “new” sound of “Heavy” with the orchestra doing the synthesizer part. They had a nice section in the middle where “Pretty Donna” was just the orchestra, “Youth” was just Ed on an acoustic guitar with a cellist from from the orchestra, and wrapped up with “Crown” being sung by Ed with only the orchestra backing him up instrumentally. All awesome.
Apparently, Styx wasn't going to have any of that. It was like Gowan said “But if we let the orchestra do the keyboard stuff, what am I gonna do?” My screwball analogy is that this would be like getting Eric Clapton to play with you and then having him stand over on the side and just play along with the rhythm guitar.
I only recall 1, maybe 2, “moments” where the kids were up front and center. The orchestra did the opening for “Miss America” and a girl got to show off on violin for a bit. Come on, let the kids have fun, give them their moments in the spotlight.
My best guess as to a reason why things went the way they went was that this may have been a relatively speaking last minute thing. I got the impression that they had their set list from their tour and they didn't want to deviate from it. There was too much new stuff. It's kind of hard for the director to work on arrangements for songs she's never heard before.
There was another thought that crossed my brain that kind of ties into this. Obviously, at some point the kids had to listen to Styx, specifically the original recordings. Did the director feel like apologizing to the kids? Did she go “I'm sorry we aren't going to get to do this with Dennis DeYoung.” I am 99% sure this would have come out better had he been involved. And, the kids would have had the experience of working with the real genius behind well over 50% of Styx's success.
There were two top items that I couldn't believe.
There was a choir to go with the orchestra. Uhmm, do you think the a cappella opening for “Renegade” would be an outstanding point for letting the choir take over? Tommy must have felt differently. The boys in the band sang it just like always. Not a peep from the choir.
WHERE WAS “COME SAIL AWAY”? Is there some outstanding legal thing with Dennis that precludes them from doing that song anymore? That song screams to be done under these conditions. UGHHH!!!
Other assorted observations:
JY was clean shaven. He kind of looks like Jack Nicholson in his Joker makeup. : )
Tommy was wearing bell bottoms. Did he buy those recently, or did he pull them out of the back of his closet? : )
They can't/won't/didn't do “Come Sail Away”, but they did “Lorelei” with JY singing. That was different.
Gowan's rotating keyboard was making me dizzy. : )
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