The Can't Stop Rockin' Tour, featuring REO Speedwagon, Styx, and .38 Special hit Starlight last night. The tour is what all classic rock tours should be, essentially -- it billed itself as "All Hits, All Night." No new stuff, no solo material to make the guitar player happy -- just the hits. The show delivered what your average classic rock audience wants, presenting all killer, no filler. The performers, as well as the audience, weren't concerned with being cool. You had denim-jacketed frontmen acting goofy with one another, and well-coifed and made-up women dancing just as silly as the 14 year-old girls in the row in front of them.
I imagine that if Styx had been able to convince Dennis DeYoung to rejoin the band, they'd have headlined. As it was, REO Speedwagon did, and played the same set they've been knocking out every other summer for the past couple of decades. The stage show was fantastic, and the place was lit up like a Broadway musical -- kind of appropriate considering the number of touring Broadway productions that hit Starlight every summer. Kevin Cronin was remarkably energetic, and constantly engaged the audience. Every act did, really. I'm sure the patter was canned, but every frontman over the course of the evening managed to seem sincere when they talked about how much they loved Kansas City or what a good-looking crowd there was out there.
REO Speedwagon set list
Don't Let him Go
Take It On the Run
Keep Pushin'
Golden Country
Can't Fight
Poor Man
Fly
Back On the Road
Keep On Lovin' You
Roll With the Changes
Ridin' the Storm Out
Can't Stop Rockin'
Cronin was pretty much the only frontman whose voice seemed unchanged by years on the road. Styx has Tommy Shaw, whose voice is in good shape, but without Dennis DeYoung, so many of those really high level notes aren't going to get hit. Still, Styx knocked the hits out one after another. "Too Much Time On My Hands" was followed by "The Grand Illusion." Evidently "all hits" included other people's hits, too -- Styx knocked out both a cover of the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" (albeit "Styx-ified," as Shaw put it) as well as "Sweet Home Chicago." "Come Sail Away" was, of course, just one massive sing along, as was "Foolin' Yourself," which preceded it.
The band managed to put on a pretty good stage show themselves, aided by an amazing rotating keyboard, which managed to be cool and avoid dreaded "keytar" comparisons. There was a nice touch about a quarter of the way into the set when Shaw did a lovely intro to "Crystal Ball," talking about how he came to join Styx, and that if you're ever worried, "just keep your antenna up."
Styx set list
Miss America
Too Much Time On My Hands
Light Up
I Am the Walrus
Crystal Ball
Suite Madame Blue
Foolin' Yourself
Come Sail Away
Sweet Home Chicago
Blue Collar Man
Wanted Man
The only negative to Styx's set, near as I could tell, was that there was no "Mr. Roboto." Now, I know it's pretty played out -- but it's a hit. And I heard a LOT of folks saying they wanted it. That's a pretty great setlist, but it is rather incomplete without Kilroy's anthem.
Openers .38 Special didn't really have to worry about disappointing anyone. It's slightly cruel to say this, but I don't think anybody really expected them to really bring the house down or show up the headliners. They did an admirable job, but it's not like Donnie Van Zant is the Van Zant brother everyone wants to hear, you know? They were smart, though; they opened with "Rockin' Into the Night," knocked out a couple more rockers, and then did all their midtempo '80s stuff as a medley. Don Barnes intro'd the medley by asking the audience, "Anybody remember the '80s? Really? We don't. I was just asking if anybody else did," before launching into songs like "Teacher, Teacher," "Second Chance," and "Like No Other Night." They ended with "Caught Up In You" back to back with "Hold On Loosely," thus going out on a high note.
.38 Special setlist
Rockin' Into the Night
20th Century Fox
Back Where You Belong
Wild-Eyed Southern Boys
Fantasy Girl
Medley: Teacher, Teacher / Stone Cold Believer / Like No Other Night / Second Chance
Caught Up In You
Hold On Loosely
Really, this is exactly how every single classic rock band should do their tour. Three bands, all of whom share an audience, but diverse enough to where you're not getting the same three-chord bar band riffs all night. They all play the hits, nothing new, and keep the sets short and tight. Honestly, this was probably one of the best ways to spend a nice night I can think of. The weather was gorgeous, the sellout crowd was more than happy to help out when someone like Don Barnes of .38 Special had a little trouble carrying the notes, and there were tons of slightly drunk middle-aged men and women boogieing just out of synch with the music. A fine time.
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Just a comment about your comment on Kevin Cronin's voice being unchanged by years on the road..... I gotta correct you on that one, just check out youtube videos from the 80s and early 90s, then check out the new stuff - totally different. And as KC himself explained to me in London last year, he has had to drastically alter his vocal style on some of the songs (Take it on the Run was as example) just to be able to hit the high notes he once found easy.
Just a thought.
Lee
Who are they without the mega homo Dennis DeYoung?...He sang the mega hits Babe, Lady & Suite Madam Blue for contradiction's sake.
I have seen Styx several times since 2001 and the only time they have included Mr Roboto was a short snippet of it in a long medley of songs and it was like 5 seconds of it.. The setlist mostly is like this..they just usually open with Blue Collar Man instead of Miss America
First of all, Styx never wrote a song called Sweet Home Chicago... Second, Dennis Deyoung hardly hit high notes, he sang the deepest part for lady and baby. Terrible Article.
Dude! The only negative was not hearing Mr. Roboto? How about them not performing Babe?!? That was one of their biggest hits.
James Young is HUGE. Looks like that dude from Star Trek the Next Generation (who played Lurch in the Addams Family).
They may also have played Renegade. It seemed like one long-ass jam.
Execellent concert with an excellent write up. I would have like to hear Styx's do Babe, but maybe without DeYoung, they couldn't. Also wasn't their last song, Renegade?
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