Classic rock band Styx performs at Penn’s Peak in Jim Thorpe on March 14
From a press release:
It was announced today that multi-platinum classic rock band Styx will perform at Penn’s Peak in Jim Thorpe on Saturday, March 14 at 8 p.m.
Performing with his own band, founding Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung brought his Grand Illusion 40th Anniversary Album Tour to Penn’s Peak last April. The Styx lineup touring now consists of James “JY” Young (lead vocals, guitars), Tommy Shaw (lead vocals, guitars), Chuck Panozzo (bass, vocals), Todd Sucherman (drums, percussion), Lawrence Gowan (lead vocals, keyboards ), and Ricky Phillips (bass, guitar, vocals).
Tickets, which are $69 for regular reserved seating and $75 for the pit (standing at the stage), go on sale next Friday, Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster outlets, the Penn’s Peak box office (325 Maury Rd., Jim Thorpe), and Roadies Restaurant and Bar (325 Maury Rd., Jim Thorpe). Penn’s Peak box office and Roadies Restaurant ticket sales are walk-up only; no phone orders.
The six men comprising Styx have committed to rocking the Paradise together with audiences far and wide by entering their second decade of averaging over 100 shows a year, and each one of them is committed to making the next show better than the last.
Styx draws from over four decades of barn-burning chart hits, joyous singalongs, and hard-driving deep cuts. Like a symphony that builds to a satisfying crescendo, a Styx set covers a wide range of stylistic cornerstones. From the progressively sweeping splendor that is “The Grand Illusion” to the hunker-down fortitude of all that is the “Blue Collar Man,” from the majestic spiritual love for a special “Lady” to the seething indictment of preening, primping pageantry for pageantry’s sake of “Miss America,” from an individual yearning for true connection as a “Man in the Wilderness” to a soul-deep quest to achieve what’s at the heart of one’s personal vision in “Crystal Ball,” from the regal reach-for-the-stars bravado of “Come Sail Away” to the grainy all-in gallop of that rugged “Renegade” who had it made, the band draws on an unlimited cache of ways to immerse one’s mind and body in their signature sound.
Styx hit its stride with guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw’s first LP with the band, 1976’s “Crystal Ball,” and then they become the first group to score four triple-platinum albums in a row: “The Grand Illusion” (1977), “Pieces of Eight” (1978), “Cornerstone” (1979), and “Paradise Theatre” (1981). Over the ensuing decade, Styx weathered the shifting winds of the public’s musical taste, reconvening for a highly successful 1996 Return to Paradise Tour that was expertly documented on both CD and DVD in 1997.
With a little help from their many friends in Cleveland’s Contemporary Youth Orchestra, “One with Everything” (2006) became a hybrid orchestral rock blend for the ages. And on “The Grand Illusion/Pieces of Eight Live” (2011), the band performed at its peak when tackling every track from a pair of their finest triple-platinum albums back to back. Not only that, but the band rerecorded two discs’ worth of its classic material with much finesse and musculature, aptly known as “Regeneration: Volume I & II” (2011 and 2012). Shaw said, “Now you have something you can take home with you and go, ‘Yeah, that’s the band I saw last night.’”
After more than a decade together on the road, this incarnation of Styx is looking forward to performing as many shows as it can as long as it can.
“It all comes back to the chemistry,” says bassist/vocalist Ricky Phillips. “The legacy of this band will be that it brought joy to millions of people,” notes drummer Todd Sucherman. Observes keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan, “We’ve always tried to explain why this is this happening. It’s obviously a multitude of factors, but the main one is that our show is really good! And if it’s really good, they’re going to come to see it again.”
Styx hopes it’s a wave that never crests. “Every night, we go on that magic carpet ride together,” observes original bassist Chuck Panozzo, who joins the band on tour as often as he can. “Music is this amazing force that comes from a higher place. I’m humbled for this band to have the great success that it has,” says co-founding guitarist/vocalist James “JY” Young. “We just want to keep on doing this,” asserts Shaw. “We want to let life take its course and let this music continue to be the soundtrack to it. And this band will continue to evolve as long as we live and play this music.”
The jig is up, the news is out – the Esprit de Styx is alive and well, and now it’s time to see for yourself. Welcome to the Grand Evolution.
