By Dave Parsons
When you have been making music for as long as Styx has, the only real dilemma is what songs to play, and which ones to leave out. At Tuesday night’s tour stop at People’s Bank Theater in Marietta, Ohio, Styx covered 4- or 5-decades worth of records, touching on the biggest hits and crowd pleasers in a set ending right at 2 hours.
Opening with “To Those” from the 2021 release “Crash of The Crowns”, the band came on stage with a pace that rarely slowed as the show moved on. With a riser the length of the stage, 5 large fog machines reaching to the “Styx” sign above the drums and the trademark moving keyboard, there was plenty of sights to go along with the sounds of classic Styx songs such as “Blue Collar Man”, “The Grand Illusion” and “Miss America.”
I don’t want to give the impression that they were relying on stage gimmicks for the power of the performance. Each of the 6 musicians took their solos, and most took turns singing leads, that would put them on level with bands half their age.
As they headed for the finale, an 8 minute version of “Come Sail Away”, it was more and more evident that these guys just like playing music with each other. Further evidence of this was on the encores of “Mr. Roboto”, and “Renegade” as they traded off leads, and grinned with the innocence of a 20 something garage band, or just genuinely happy to still be doing it all that well at this point in their lives and careers.
Styx Setlist:
1 To Those
2 Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)
3 The Grand Illusion
4 Lady
5 Reveries
6 Light Up
7 Crash Of The Crown
8 Lorelei
9 Miss America
10 Happy Birthday for Ricky Phillips
11 Crystal Ball
12 Rockin’ The Paradise
13 Our Wonderful Lives
14 Fooling Yourself (Angry Young Man)
15 Suite Madame Blue
16 Too Much Time On My Hands
17 Khedive
18 Lost At Sea
19 Come Sail Away
Encore:
20 Mr. Roboto
21 Renegade
