Shawn Conner

Oct. 6, 2022, Abbotsford, B.C.—The other night, I drove out to Abbotsford with a friend to see Styx.

The band is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Coincidentally, or not, last year I took it upon myself to do a deep-dive into the Chicago group’s back catalogue. The reasons were threefold.

First, to discover what I’d missed the first time. Second, to make peace with my adolescent self, the punk-loving teen who hated Styx and everything that the FM-radio favourite stood for, from “corporate” rock to coke-snorting programmers and those inescapable power ballads. The third was, well, that I needed a project to keep me occupied and blogging.

Thankfully, the musical exploration turned out not to be as arduous a process as I’d anticipated. I discovered a few hidden (to me) gems and grew to appreciate the glorious pomposity of (some of ) the arena-sized hits.

In short, I found my inner Styx fan: a teen working-class hesher hanging out in the high school parking lot and discussing the real meaning behind “Mr. Roboto.” So I was well-primed for the hour-plus journey into the sticks to see Styx at Abbotsford Centre.

Rockin’ the Abbotsford (Centre)

Perhaps the first thing you should know is that this was no small undertaking. Yes, I was able to procure comped tickets thanks to my interview with keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan for the Vancouver Sun.

But it was also a long drive on a workday, and though the journey gave the whole thing a sense of adventure, the drive back to the city after the show would be a heavy dose of reality. Also, you’d think people would be falling out of the trees begging me to let them accompany me, but this was not the case. Finally, my friend Mike volunteered to be the fall guy.

Actually, I probably could not have asked for a companion better-suited to the journey. First, he still has CDs, which is all my car stereo plays. Second, Mike loves his classic rock, he does, and the show was a classic-rock fan’s dream.

Nancy Wilson’s Heart

Following a long drive made even longer by the 1997 Frank Zappa compilation Have I Offended Someone?,* a stop at Field House Brewing and a bite at a Brown’s Social House, we ambled over to Abbotsford Centre. Opener Nancy Wilson’s Heart was finishing Wings‘ “Band on the Run” when we took our seats.

Now, I must interject here to say that, as a teen, I was a much bigger Heart fan than I was a Styx fan. I grew out of this thanks in part to airy-fairy albums like Dog and Butterfly and also due to my discovery of the Clash. I’ve grown to re-appreciate them however as an iconic and pioneering band from the Great Pacific Northwest. Also, for an ’80s power ballad, “These Dreams” is a pretty good song.

All hail Kimberly Nichole

This iteration features guitarist Nancy Wilson sans sister Ann. Instead, Kimberly Nichole is filling in on lead vocals for the older Wilson. Ann might have a more distinctive voice, but Nichole—a Seattle native and Season 8 finalist on The Voice—matches her in the ability to knock homers to the cheap seats.

She also exuded a confident sexiness. Nancy did the talking between songs—her explanation of the origin of the Zeppelin-esque “Mistral Wind” could use retooling—and sang lead on some verses and back-up on the choruses. Mostly though she reminded us of what a great riff-meister she was in the band’s heyday with hard-driving hits like “Crazy On You” and “Barracuda.”

Still, it was a surprisingly ego-less affair, with the Heart songs barely outnumbering the covers. Besides “Band on the Run,” NW’s H played another Wings/McCartney joint, “Let Me Roll It,” and ended with Led Zeppelin‘s “Rock and Roll.”

The lineup also included guitarist Ryan Waters, drummer Ben Smith, bassist Andy Stoller and keyboardist Dan Walker.

Which Styx is this Styx?

And then, the headliner.

Speaking of different configurations, any discussion of Styx circa 2022 needs to note that this version of the band is not the same as the one that released four back-to-back multiplatinum albums between 1977-1983. That Styx was fronted by Dennis DeYoung, the vocalist/keyboardist who sang and wrote many of the band’s biggest hits. This Styx is fronted by Gowan, the Canadian singer/songwriter/keyboardist who had a hit in this country with his 1985 album Strange Animal. He was asked to join in 1999, after opening some shows for the band.

In a monologue about the band’s origins, Gowan didn’t mention his predecessor. Apparently, there is some bad blood between the rest of Styx and DeYoung. The monologue served to introduce to the stage Chuck Panazzo who came out to play bass on a couple of songs. Along with his twin, drummerJohn (who died in 1996, at 47), Panazzo was a founding member of the group. The one original original member of the lineup is James “JY” Young; hotshot guitarist and hitmaker Tommy Shaw, who is still in the band, joined in 1976.

To be sure, one bonus of not having DeYoung fronting the group is that the set was free of “Babe.” The song, from the 1979 album Cornerstone, is the group’s only #1 hit and the kind of power ballad that gives power ballads a bad name.

Crash of the King

Also on this tour is bassist Ricky Phillips, member in good standing since 2003, and longtime drummer Todd Sucherman. Sucherman predates Gowan by four years. A powerhouse behind the kit, Sucherman amazed my friend Mike, also a drummer. Will Evankovich added a third guitar and brought the median age onstage down to about 60.

Evankovich produced and co-wrote the band’s latest album, last year’s Crash of the King. Someone (Gowan?) boasted that the record went to number 1 on the Billboard rock chart, and why not? With their biggest hits behind them, the group is still putting out new music, and if they can chart with their 17th studio release, good for them.

But the old pros knew what everyone came for. Besides the two-minute harmony-laden opener “The Fight of Our Lives” and, later on, Crash’s title track—a respectable prog-y rocker—and a brief solo piano instrumental from 2017’s The Mission, the band stuck to the hits.

Light Up Everybody

The setlist was heavy on tracks from the band’s historic late ’70s-early ’80s run: “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” the title track to “The Grand Illusion” (more relevant than ever, as Gowan noted in our interview, due to social media’s effects on our lives), “Fooling Yourself (Angry Young Man),” “Rockin’ the Paradise,” and “Too Much Time On My Hands.” Introducing the latter, Gowan reminded us that the 1981 video was played in the first hour of MTV.**

“Lady” and “Madame Blue” revelled in ’70s power ballad excess. “Light Up,” an arena-rock anthem if ever there was one, didn’t in fact inspire many people in the 7,000-seater (which was a little over half-full, I’d say) to light up. It must have been way more defiant when smoking a joint could get you 20 years in a U.S. federal prison.***

“Rocket Man”? Really?

Throughout, Gowan proved himself a master showman, a flamboyant dandy who seems to have borrowed many of his stage moves from Gene Wilder‘s Willy Wonka. He seized the day with a rendition of his 1985 hit “A Criminal Mind” and a mostly solo rendition of Elton John‘s “Rocket Man.”

The set ended with the only way it could, a full-throttle “Come Sail Away.” For those of us waiting for “Mr. Roboto,” a song you either love, hate, love to hate or hate to love, we were rewarded in the encore. (The encore’s other song was “Renegade,” an outlaw-rocker that I have as much use for as Bon Jovi‘s “Wanted Dead or Alive.”)

The only thing stopping me from buying a T-shirt was the price ($50), the only thing stopping me from buying a tour poster was the lack of wall-space.

And so ends my journey, at least in this life, on the river Styx.

Addendum

After my deep-dive into the band’s history last year, recounted over several blog posts, I’m grateful I had the opportunity to both interview Mr. Gowan and to see the band live.

I feel like I fully came to appreciate a rock group that I had mostly contempt for, leftover from my adolescence. Earlier this year I also saw Peter Hook and the Light. While it was a nostalgic thrill to see and hear, for the first and probably last time, a band perform the first two Joy Division albums in their entirety, I had to wonder at all that teenage angst that I’d once revelled in. Where did it all go, and what use had it been?

Styx fans, then and now, probably don’t suffer under any such conflicts. For them, the songs sounded as great now as they did then. And what’s wrong with that?

Today, at least, I can love both “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Light Up.” My world is richer for it.

Footnotes

* As a half-joke, I’d suggested to Mike that he bring along some Zappa CDs. I’d never listened to much, but his fans seem to be evangelical about his genius. Perhaps musically this is the case, but lyrically—well, let’s just say that here’s a song that hasn’t aged well.

** A once-popular television channel devoted to music videos. Loved/hated by Generation X.

***Totally made-up numbers. I’m not interested enough to look up the actual prison sentence. I suspect it varies from state-to-state anyway.