The two cover songs are followed by two brand new, previously unreleased songs, "Just Be" and "Everything All the Time". "Just Be" is a beautiful Shaw ballad that I remember from the concert I attended, but it sounds much more majestic here with the full orchestration. "Everything All the Time" starts off as a rather uninspired Damn Yankees leftover, until it breaks into the gorgeous harmony vocal section that featured the CYO chorus. This was immediately followed by a short, scene-stealing drum solo from the incredible Todd Sucherman, which propels the song to a strong finish.
Shaw introduces "Crystal Ball" with a story about how he wrote the song while playing in a bowling alley lounge with a bunch of his high school buddies, wondering if his life might only amount to working at said bowling alley, and then, out of the blue, James Young calls him up and asks him to join Styx. After a rocking run through of "Miss America", which features the chorus singing a few bars of "Here she comes, Miss America", Gowan introduces one of his old solo songs, "A Criminal Mind", which first appeared on his 1985 album Strange Animal, and was later covered by Styx on their 2003 album 21st Century Live. This is a beautiful piano ballad that is bolstered wonderfully by Shaw's mandolin, and the string section of the CYO. They must have wanted to throw Gowan a bone for phasing out most of the De Young classics that he used to get to sing.
After a blazing performance of the Paradise Theater smash hit, "Too Much Time on My Hands", Shaw strapped on his mandolin one more time for the folksy "Boat On The River", which Shaw observed, "outside the U.S., this may be our biggest song ever, because every country that re-recorded it, sounded like their own folk song in their language." That's funny, I don't recall ever hearing any Italian or German versions of this song, but I'll take his word for it. His version is pretty damn cool though, and is certainly one of the few highpoints of their Cornerstone album.
"I Don't Need No Doctor", which was originally made famous by the English hard rock band Humble Pie, is the hardest rocking number in this set, especially since the orchestra just laid down their instruments to stand up an dance. This version fell a little flat for me though, because Gowan's silky-smooth voice was a poor match for the song I most associate with Steve Marriot's gruff, cigarette-scarred vocals. Give the song to JY instead. Another highlight of the show was the "Styx CYO Medley", which touched on every album from Equinox ("Midnight Ride") to Kilroy Was Here ("Heavy Metal Poisoning").
Article comments
1 - Gator
This is truly a magnificant DVD. I rushed out and bought it as soon as I learned of the Youth Orchestra & Chorus. These youngsters are marvelous. Liza Grossman is doing a wonderful job with these young adults, she is super! STYX made a very wise choice in performing with the orchestra. James Young and Tommy Shaw are very gifted composers, players and vocalists. The new lineup is killer. Amazing musicians and performers. I've been playing for some 30 years and I'm getting up there in age. I love to see the bands I grew up with still rockin' strong. This is not just a nastalgia tour selling on an old name. This is a serious performance that is a must for your collection. As powerful as the performance was, they all appeared to be having a blast, very relaxed, very excited...not "stuffy shirt" or over concentrating. Not to forget the sound engineers...anyone who has actually ever had to mix period knows how tedious it can be. The engineers did an excellent job with over 150 microphones to keep track of. My Bose system played in 5.1 gave me a remarkable mix. Everything was present, nothing overbearing, really fine good clean flat response. Improper sound engineering can break even the best performance. The engineering on this DVD allows the performance to shine. Excellent concert, grab this DVD!
2 - lowell watts
at a time when our school is cutting out the music program, it did my heart good to see that some folks still understand the importance of the arts for our children.