STYX
"Ocean City Jellyfish Festival"
Ocean City, Md. On The Beach
Saturday, June 22nd, 2019

I have to start by saying this was definitely my first time ever shooting a concert in a sand-pit. As anyone who went to the show knows, the stage was built right on the beach on the North side of the Pier.
 
STYX is:  Tommy Shaw (acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin and vocals), James “JY” Young (electric guitar and vocals), Todd Sucherman (drums and percussion), Ricky Phillips (bass guitar and vocals), Lawrence Gowan (piano, organ, synthesizer and vocals) and on occasion, one of the last original founding members, Chuck Panozzo on bass guitar.

The band took the stage at 8:15 pm and played a 90-minute set of pure Rock n’ Roll. They opened with “Gone Gone Gone" from their latest album, The Mission, released on June 16th, 2017. Phillips was perched atop a platform right behind Sucherman’s drum kit with the rest of the band on the main stage. Next, they went right into "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)". Then Young asks the crowd, “How many of you have been with us for the whole ride?” To which most everyone in attendance cheers. Then he asks, "how many are seeing Styx for the first time?" which gets a light crowd cheer. Then he asks the older crowd if they remember the Grand Illusion album, and after a huge cheer, he says that album sold more than 6 million copies and 1 million of those with 8-tracks, and bets that, hopefully, some in the crowd still have them.

From that album the next song was "The Grand Illusion" after which Gowan gets his vocal duties back for "Lady". Next, Young asks the crowd to wave their cell phones in the air to go along with the next song "Light Up."  It was really cool that the air was illuminated along with our pier and boardwalk lights on a perfectly clear-sky night. Another one off of The Mission album, “Radio Silence", was played before it was time for Young to sing "Miss America", with a hard rocking edge to his most popular song.

After a band-intro by Shaw and Young, Shaw says to the crowd, "Ocean City, Maryland. Jellyfish Festival, we hope there will be many more;” as they go into "Rockin' the Paradise', "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" and "Too Much Time on My Hands." The crowd was really fired up, double clapping along with the song as Shaw led them with the clapping. Now Gowan asks the crowd if anyone had seen the Queen movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" and gets a nice applause from the crowd and says that he saw it and liked it very much, saying that Freddie Mercury was a big influence in his singing. So, onstage alone at his piano, he played a snippet of the song "Bohemian Rhapsody". After saying what a perfect night for this next song, he asks, “Does everyone see that sign boat on the ocean out there?” He was referring to our local sign boat that rides up and down the coastline displaying all kinds of announcements on the digital screen. With that said, he launched right into "Come Sail Away" and the crowd went nuts, singing along word for word. That ended the first set.

After a short break, Gowan returned to the stage and began to play "Mr. Roboto", with the rest of the band joining in, and one of their other famous songs never played live onstage until this 2019 Tour. Then with just a spotlight on Shaw, he began singing, "Oh Mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law." The rest of the band then kicked it into high gear for the night’s closer "Renegade." The band came together at the front of the stage to throw picks and drumsticks and give their farewell bows and hand waves before exiting the stage - an exciting end to a great show.

Styx are not on a full summer tour like years past but they do have some scattered shows around our area with a little road trip. These guys are great performers and give 110% every night they play; so if you get the chance, go see them live. Since the show I have run into quite a few locals who were there and they said they enjoyed it very much. It was good to hear that! Let’s do this again!