Bet you didn't know Cleveland had its own orchestra, never mind a youth version.
This 171 piece teenage orchestra and choir, led by conductor (and prime mover behind this collaboration), Liza Grossman, really know how to rock.
I confess to having misgivings when I read about this venture, but it's an absolute blast. Band and orchestra perform as one, with everyone clearly enjoying every moment.
The sound mix is as good as I've heard on a live recording. Time and money were very obviously spent on this ninety minute concert, showcasing seventeen songs, two of them brand new and several being performed live for the first time.
For the uninitiated, the current Styx lineup is: Tommy Shaw, James Young, Lawrence Gowan, Todd Sucherman and Ricky Phillips.
Styx have such a rich and varied back catalogue, filled with great Pomp rock, AOR, and some of the harder stuff, so it's easy to focus on what's been left out rather than what's been included. What's been excluded at this gig is anything (except one co-write) written by the band's erstwhile colleague, Denis DeYoung. No surprise there.
What's in is a roof raising, rafter bending rendition of '
I Am The Walrus', the Lennon and McCartney song they covered on the recent '
Big Bang Theory. Gowan takes lead vocal here and lifted by the rising swells of woodwinds and strings he really flies.
'One With Everything', seemed a pretty song and no more from the
'Cyclorama' album, but was adopted as the concert's theme song. You can see why. Band, orchestra and choir blend seamlessly, creating a massive, operatic performance, bringing out and hammering home the melodic nuances and lyrical echoes that weren't quite so apparent before. It comes early on and is a hard act to follow. But classy songs like
'Crystal Ball', '
Miss America' and '
Blue Collar Man' stand tall in any company. Augmented by enthusiastic orchestral cosmetic surgery, they seem like songs in the first flush of youth once again.
Lawrence Gowan gets a couple of deserved solo spots. The first singing his marvellous (if a trifle sinister) solo hit. '
A Criminal Mind'. The second covering Humble Pie's classic
'I Don't Need No Doctor', for which the orchestra downed tools and just went with the flow. A magical moment, even if Gowan's silky voice doesn't quite match the song's lyrical ethic.
Two new songs come mid-set.
'Just Be' and '
Everything All The Time'. Neither is particularly striking at first glance, often the case with Styx songs, though the latter grows on you quickly.
Rock band with orchestra is hardly an innovation. But it's seldom been done better.
Maybe it's the fact that this is a youth orchestra. Great players all, vibrant with energy and enthusiasm. It could be that the band, without realising it, just felt they had to compete.
Rating: 7/10Written by
Brian Tuesday, March 13, 2007
