Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Styx’s high-energy performance is back

Who: Styx

When: 8 tonight and Saturday

Where: Luxor

Tickets: $60 to $90; 262-4400

Styx, one of the prototypical arena rock bands of the '70s and early '80s, plays tonight and Saturday at the Luxor as part of the Spotlight Series.

The group was noted for such hits as "Lady," "Come Sail Away," "Babe" and "Mr. Roboto," and built its reputation on high-energy live performances.

The band's roots run back to Chicago in 1961, when brothers Chuck and John Panozzo formed the Tradewinds. The band morphed into Styx, went through a prog-rock phase and finally settled into a signature sound of big rockers and power ballads. Creative differences broke up the band in the mid-1980s, but it reunited in 1996 and has been touring since.

Guitarist James "J.Y." Young, who joined the original Styx lineup in 1970, said there was a time when the band - like most rock groups - avoided Las Vegas like the plague.

"Imagewise, when rock bands considered themselves the total counterculture, they avoided Vegas," Young said from his room at the Luxor. "This is going back into the early '70s, the days of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme and what have you.

"We played the Aladdin in 1977, our first time here, and we never came back after that for a long time. They didn't have a room big enough for us. We outgrew that room at the Aladdin. We could do multiples (a run of shows) at the Los Angeles Forum and multiples at Chicago Stadium and multiples at Madison Square Garden, so Vegas got bypassed."

But with the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Billy Joel and others now performing here, attitudes among rock musicians have changed.

"You have the biggest names in the business saying Vegas is OK. The place has become the party destination for those who are old enough to have been Styx fans," Young said.

Styx returned in 1996 to perform at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as part of its reunion tour. They sold out and have been coming back since. The band plays about 100 concert dates a year and continues to write and record, even as it remains deeply ingrained in the pop culture.

Fans such as actors Jack Black, Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler frequently refer to the group in their films. TV shows such as "The Simpsons," "Sex in the City," "Scrubs" and "South Park" often mention the group or play its music.

Over the decades, Young has noted the changes in the industry.

"The minute (music) was committed to a computer language, the rest of the evolution was inevitable," he said. "It doesn't take that much to take that which is a file, press it onto an optical disc and transmit it over the Internet. It's Al Gore's fault."

Change, he said, is inevitable.

"Every business has to evolve whether you like it or not," he said. "That is the only constant in our careers. It boils down to: What can't be downloaded or reproduced is a great live concert, and Styx has always prided itself in being at the top of its game onstage."

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