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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > March > 07 > Entry
Review: Styx at the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo
Styx was a band that was truly reviled back in the day. Punk-adoring elitists like David Wild, Robert Hilburn and Lester Bangs threw invective upon invective at them, yet they sold a remarkable 54 million albums.
Nowadays the press ignores them, but Styx are still plying their trade on summer package rock tours, making a bundle in the process, and giving the 40-plus brigade something to cheer about.
The band’s Thursday night concert at the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo really was all about how it once was; before “no-talents” like the Ramones, and later the ghastly White Stripes, gave rock ‘n’ roll a frontal lobotomy. For the Styx fans in attendance it was about the majesty and pomp of it all and, for one night at least, the elite critics could take their “realism,” their “minimalism” and their “credibility” and, well, shove it.
Songs like “Blue Collar Man,” “Grand Illusion,” “Fooling Yourself” and “Lorelei” were delivered with style and the fans lapped it up, as if they’d been transported to a time where rock made sense to them once more. They cheered their returning heroes on passionately for the hour or so performance and why shouldn’t they?
Despite a puzzling cover version of “I Am The Walrus” this “new” lineup of Lawrence Gowan, Austin residents Ricky Phillips and Todd Sucherman playing behind the remaining old-guard of James “JY” Young and Tommy Shaw gave it their all. Sure, it might have been served with a little ham and cheese, but that didn’t matter.
This Styx show may not be remembered in the annals of rock history, but this audience were hugely entertained and left deliriously happy.
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By Marc
March 7, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this
“…before ‘no-talents’ like the Ramones, and later the ghastly White Stripes, gave rock ‘n’ roll a frontal lobotomy.”
What? Was that supposed to be polemic?
By Durgal
March 7, 2008 4:42 PM | Link to this
Polemic or not the reviewer is pretty much right, those bands are/were total crap!
STYX RULE BABY!