Guitar Gear Forum

I am an unashamed fan of all the old arena rock stuff like Styx, Kansas, Tot, Journey, etc.

Just came across this live vid of Styx and MAN the tones are awesome! I know there's some studio majik and all but what a performance as well.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8tFmGxHKEE[/video]

There may be some studio magic on that video, but the wife and I went to Kansas in a theater a couple years ago and that was some INCREDIBLE live tone. The mix was brilliant too. And they were playing with one of the local orchestras backing them up. Can't be easy to pull mixes like that with that much instrumentation going on live in that moment.

it's interesting, because as much as I dig the music... i LOATHE styx's recorded guitar tone on their studio releases. LOATHE.

Mike LX-R wrote:it's interesting, because as much as I dig the music... i LOATHE styx's recorded guitar tone on their studio releases. LOATHE.

Even Renegade and Too Much Time on my Hands? I'm not a huge Styx fan, but those songs rock out.

Ry Manchu wrote:

Mike LX-R wrote:it's interesting, because as much as I dig the music... i LOATHE styx's recorded guitar tone on their studio releases. LOATHE.

Even Renegade and Too Much Time on my Hands? I'm not a huge Styx fan, but those songs rock out.

I liked the recorded tones just fine as well.

Ry Manchu wrote:

Mike LX-R wrote:it's interesting, because as much as I dig the music... i LOATHE styx's recorded guitar tone on their studio releases. LOATHE.

Even Renegade and Too Much Time on my Hands? I'm not a huge Styx fan, but those songs rock out.

Don't get me wrong. All of the music in most of Styx's songs is just freaking awesome. I enjoy it a lot. But I just simply do not like their recorded guitar tones. Especially on the solos. It doesn't dissuade me from enjoying the music as a whole. Great musicians, for sure. Don't hate me bros.

nightflameauto wrote:There may be some studio magic on that video, but the wife and I went to Kansas in a theater a couple years ago and that was some INCREDIBLE live tone. The mix was brilliant too.

Did they do Play the game tonight? Kansas play casinos around here once in a while but I'm too lazy to track down their current set list.

Speed Bag wrote:

nightflameauto wrote:There may be some studio magic on that video, but the wife and I went to Kansas in a theater a couple years ago and that was some INCREDIBLE live tone. The mix was brilliant too.

Did they do Play the game tonight? Kansas play casinos around here once in a while but I'm too lazy to track down their current set list.

Don't remember them playing that one. Most of the set was the ridiculously popular stuff and some of their random eighties "we're almost hair metal" stuff. Which set my wife all atwitter and me all .

Never really could get too much into Styx.
Too much Keyboard in the mix and always felt as though they suffered from the whole "Wuss" Lead singer thing.
(Heavy Rock Band always being mellowed down by a thier Non-Hard rock singer/songwriter)

What does Dennis DeYoung do these days anyways?

That said, I actually watched an hour of the posted clip.
Still cool to watch, band sounded great and indeed some great guitar tones, especially Tommy Shaw's Lead tones with the 335's

Mesa/Kramer wrote:What does Dennis DeYoung do these days anyways?

He played at the Shooting Star Casino recently, which is about 100 miles from me. That's all I got.

Went to see Styx recently, who for some reason were playing a very small theater here. We got excellent seats & they killed it live.

I've seen Kansas more times by accident (they were on the bill with other bands i went to see, or at local festivals I attended) than on purpose, but they are damn good live too. They were playing here (and I missed it ) with the Orlando Youth Symphony Orchestra. They toured the US and got local youth symphonies to learn the songs and play on stage with them. Very cool Idea, and I give them props for working with kids

Must have been epic. Here's a sample of them with a full orchestra

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9KdyBoEmXE[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlwoHWjzqWw[/video]

DoubleBarrel wrote:Went to see Styx recently, who for some reason were playing a very small theater here. We got excellent seats & they killed it live.

I've seen Kansas more times by accident (they were on the bill with other bands i went to see, or at local festivals I attended) than on purpose, but they are damn good live too. They were playing here (and I missed it ) with the Orlando Youth Symphony Orchestra. They toured the US and got local youth symphonies to learn the songs and play on stage with them. Very cool Idea, and I give them props for working with kids

That's the tour I saw them on with the wife. They even pulled somebody up to do a violin duel/passed back and forth solo with the band. It was a truly amazing show.