Styx: The Grand Illusion and Pieces Of Eight Live

This is a shout-out to my fellow Styx fans; I've been one since the late '70s. Having just watched their new blu ray, I'll have to tell you, it puts them another notch higher in my admiration of the band.

They boldly developed a rather original tour idea for 2011: performing their classic multi-platinum '70s albums The Grand Illusion and Pieces Of Eight live in their entirety. I saw another favorite group of mine, Cheap Trick, perform via DVD, the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in it's entirety a few years ago. It was great, but it wasn't their original material. 

Styx' starts the show with side one of The Grand Illusion. Before the band breaks into the title cut-- projected on the overhead screen above the drums--a teenage boy (circa 1978) is shown walking up to the turntable (remember those?) in his bedroom and shuffles through the stack of LPs (those too?) to find The Grand Illusion.  He takes the record out of the sleeve and places it on the turntable, lifts the arm, places it on the outside edge of the spinning disk as Tod Sucherman, Styx' current drummer, counts off the song. Of course, as side one ends with "Miss America," the young boy on the video screen flips the record over to start side two, and so on...

What a great concept! My buddy Gary Sadler saw them during this very concert tour in Florida last year, and was fortunate enough to meet the band backstage. 

Tommy Shaw still looks like a kid. Believe it or not, James "JY" Young turns 63 this year...what? Dennis DeYoung left a few years back, and with Lawrence Gowan taking his place on keys and vocals, I don't really miss him. Ex-Babys bassist, Ricky Phillips,  does a great job holding down the low-end of things, along with occasional guitar duties. Chuck Panozzo, the original bassist who left for a period of time because of an illness, makes a few cameo appearances on the 4-string throughout the show.

The extras on the disc are also pretty cool. The tour manager and the rest of the support crew are interviewed, giving an up-close look at what goes on back stage (the "G-rated" version, anyway!).

Styx fans need to snag this disc. I also highly recommend the blu ray Styx did a few years back with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra.  Both are filled with great instrumental and vocal performances. Drummer Tod Sucherman will leave you exhausted by the end of each disc...he's phenomenal!