You are currently viewing STYX at Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts

STYX at Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts

If you needed some good music to start off your New Year you were in the right place Sunday night at Steven Tanger Center featuring Styx live in concert. This was there third show on their 2023 tour CRASH OF THE CROWN. Styx is an American rock band from Chicago formed in 1972 and have been going strong ever since. Fifty-one years of performing. WOW how incredible.

Styx was the only band on the bill. They started off the night with “The Flight of Our Lives”, “Blue Collar Man” and “The Grand Illusion”. Lawrence Gowan (vocals, keyboards) stopped to tell us about a surprise guest. Little did we know it was the original bassist, Chuck Panozzo. That being said the band started playing “Lady” which Panozzo played bass on. Gowan who is surprisingly funny telling a few little jokes in-between songs. Gowan is also known for his spinning keyboard which he rotated dozens of times throughout the night.

The stage was set up on two levels. Stairs on both sides leading up to the top. The bottom of the stage has four LED screens that changes lighting colors throughout the night. Fog machines on the top level and a big screen on the back which has the Styx Crash of the Crown logo. The venue is set up like a theater. It has upper and lower seating and can fit up to 3,000.

.

As the night rolls on the band takes a twenty-minute intermission after an hour of playing. All that spinning and jumping around on the keys and going up and down to the top of the stage who wouldn’t need a break.

The band comes back out just as strong as they did in the first set playing “Red Storm”, “Suite Madame Blue “and “Sound the Alarm”. During the second set they brought back Panozzo. Panozzo played three songs with them, “Fooling Yourself”, “Lost at Sea” and ‘Come Sail Away”. The band sounded amazing. Tommy Shaw’s voice is still spot on. Tommy and Lawrence still have plenty of energy and they bring that to the stage.

As the night winds down the band closes it out with an encore playing “Mr. Roboto” and “Renegade”. Everyone stood, sang and cheered. What a night it was. Styx is made up of top-quality musicians that gave us two hours of music. Playing older songs to newer songs. Styx is still a must see band so put them on your radar. Last, let us not forget the guitar drawing at the end of each show.

As they have been in the past years, Rock to the Rescue—spearheaded by Tommy Shaw’s daughter, Hannah and is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded by the band, whose mission is to build strong, healthy communities through the support of grassroots organizations across the country—will continue to research local nonprofit organizations and pick one to see if they are interested in volunteering to help the band sell $10 tickets for a drawing to win a signed STYX guitar at the shows. They give these organizations a percentage of the sales as their way of supporting their cause and thanking them for supporting the band’s cause.