THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140090
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 53 lines
If Saturday's Styx-Kansas double header proves nothing else, it was that ol' Bob Seger was right when he said rock 'n' roll never forgets.
Those two war-horses aren't a radio staple in the grungy 1990s, but that didn't matter to the small - 8,500 would be a charitable estimate - but vociferous crowd at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater.
Touring for the first time in 13 years, the reunited Styx - veteran pop/rockers from Chicago - received a welcome once reserved for returning astronauts.
Make no mistake, Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James Young, and brothers Chuck and John Panozzo can still be as self-inflated and bombastic as ever.
They didn't, however, sell millions of albums for nothing.
Saturday night found them preaching to the converted.
The band hasn't put out an album since 1983's ``Kilroy was here''; in fact, they reunited just for this 50-date summer tour.
That was fine by diehards in the audience.
They didn't come for new material; they came for the hits. And over the course of two hours, Styx obliged.
Entering to a flood of spotlights and the 20th-Century-Fox fanfare, the band launched into ``Rocking the Paradise.'' That was followed by a rousing ``Blue-Collar Man,'' one of Shaw's first contributions to the band, then ``Lady,'' Styx's first big hit.
That 1973 ballad brought out the cigarette lighters and had the audience singing along.
From there it was a trip down memory lane: ``Too Much Time on My Hands,'' ``Snowblind,'' ``Crystal Ball'' (which started with a neat 12-string acoustic guitar intro by Shaw), ``The Grand Illusion,'' ``Fooling Yourself'' and ``Pieces of Eight.''
Styx put on a good show. The stage was done up with red velvet curtains and marbleized risers, appropriate for what's being called ``The Return to the Paradise Theatre Tour.'' Big hair and guitar solos were back in vogue.
Kansas - from Kansas - got the evening off to a lively start. Helped immeasurably by the pinpoint jams between violinist David Ragsdale and guitarist Richard Williams, they faithfully re-created such orchestrated hits as ``Point of Know Return,'' ``Dust in the Wind'' and ``Carry on My Wayward Son.''
Kansas has rarely left the concert circuit since 1970.
The band's one-hour set went over so well the audience called them back for a three-song encore. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
GARY C. KNAPP
Styx's Tommy Shaw gets the crowd rockin' with ``Blue-Collar Man,''
during a concert at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater. Kansas, another
band from the '70s, opened the double-header Saturday night. by CNB