rockwriter's Full Review: Arch Allies: Live At Riverport by Styx/REO Speedwa...
This album is a little bit depressing for me. I was never one of those critics who derided the populist sensibilities of Styx and REO Speedwagon . . . in fact, I think it's far more important for a band to consistently connect with its audience than to curry favor with critics, and each of these Midwestern supergroups did that superbly in its heyday, achieving multi-platinum success in the process. And both bands are well-known for consistently delivering high-energy, entertaining live shows. Since both bands hail from Illinois, and have had uncannily parallel careers, pairing up for a concert tour seems like a great idea, and it was. This tour was a big success.
But doing a series of shows together is one thing, and doing a live album together is another. The whole idea behind 'Arch Allies' seems, to me, to be driven by commerce, rather than comraderie. If either one of these bands were playing at its peak, either one would be capable of selling plenty of copies of a live album without piggybacking sales from the other. In fact, Styx had a hugely successful comeback just a few years prior to this with the double live album 'Return To Paradise', which went Gold despite almost no promotion.
Most of the Styx songs on this collection, with the exceptions of "Brave New World", "Edge Of The Century" and "Heavy Water" (and let's face it, those songs aren't the reason you would buy this album), were featured on that album in better-recorded versions that had the extra bonus of featuring the full classic Styx lineup (minus drummer John Panozzo, who sat out the tour due to illness and died before it was complete). If you want to hear classic Styx songs recorded live in new versions, that's the album to buy.
One thing to warn you about 'Arch Allies', the Styx lineup featured here is vastly different from the familiar lineup, and in fact features only two full-time members of classic Styx. Bass player Chuck Panozzo maintains a part-time status with the band, and guests on a few tracks here, but honestly, so what? This is not a very bass-driven band, and replacing him doesn't make any audible difference in the sound to the average listener.
Unbelievably, though, the main difference is that, in the time between recording the reunion studio album 'Brave New World' and heading out on this tour, Tommy Shaw and James "JY" Young decided that since Styx founder Dennis DeYoung was too ill to tour, they would simply replace him and move on. Since DeYoung was the primary hit songwriter and lead singer of most of Styx' familiar catalogue, as well as a peerless keyboardist, replacing him makes a tremendous amount of difference.
On the Tommy Shaw songs like "Blue Collar Man", "Renegade" and "Too Much Time On My Hands", this band sounds for the most part like Styx, but even on "Fooling Yourself", written and sung by Shaw, the original recording was so dominated by Dennis DeYoung's intricate keyboard work that Shaw avoided playing it during his solo career, saying that he had a hard time finding any keyboardist who COULD play it. Although DeYoung's replacement, Lawrence Gowan, is a talented keyboardist himself, this still doesn't sound like Styx fans know it should.
As for the rest of the songs, Gowan, a huge star in his native Canada, is an expressive singer and multi-instrumentalist, and there's really nothing wrong with his performances on DeYoung's "The Grand Illusion" or "Lady", except for the undeniable fact that he's not Dennis DeYoung. As a result, these songs don't sound like Styx so much as they sound like a very talented Styx cover band. As has been noted elsewhere, it's not as if there's no talent in the current Styx lineup . . . you'd be hard-pressed to find this much individual talent in any other single band. It just isn't really Styx.
And on a final, bizarre note, "Edge Of The Century", the title song from 1991's Tommy Shaw-less partial Styx reunion, is sung here by its original author, Glen Burtnik. In 1991 Burtnik was Shaw's replacement in Styx, and in fact sang "Renegade" and other Shaw songs live on tour back then to mixed reviews. Now he's back in Styx, replacing bassist Chuck Panozzo most of the time, playing guitar the rest. He sings "Edge Of The Century" here, a song most Styx fans don't really care anything about, back in the band now with the same guy he once replaced. I almost wonder if they didn't tap Burtnik to rejoin simply because he'd been in Styx before, so that his presence might add just a little bit more legitimacy to this bastardized Styx. Now they are able to say that four out of six members are Styx members, but sincerely, if you discount part-timer Panozzo and perpetual also-ran Burtnik, it's an undeniable fact that the only real Styx members in this "Styx" are Shaw and JY.
I might have given them some grudging respect if they'd had the class to change the name of the band to something like the Shaw Young Band, and shown a willingness to be judged on the merits of what this current lineup can do, but I can't respect the decision to go out and continue to rape the Styx name and legacy against the will of its founding member. Styx without Dennis DeYoung is like the Beach Boys without Brian Wilson . . . they can go out and just replace people one-by-one, ad hoc, and keep touring and playing recycled hits on package tours every year, and eventually they'll become the same sort of sad self-parody that the Beach Boys have been for many years. They're well on their way with 'Arch Allies'. Let's hope it doesn't come to that for Styx. I'd almost like to see DeYoung win his current lawsuit against this imposter band for copyright appropriation, and put this lame horse out of our misery.
REO Speedwagon fares much better than Styx on this album. The group remains mostly intact, and honestly, lead singer Kevin Cronin has never sounded better. About the only criticism I have - and it's a big one - is that lead guitarist Gary Richrath is no longer with the band. There's nothing wrong with Dave Amato, who fills in admirably, but for those REO fans who remember the glory days of the band's breakthrough live album 'You Get What You Play For', well, these aren't them. There's plenty of good music in REO's set, but little that hasn't been recorded in better live versions elsewhere. Good, but not essential listening by any means.
The craziest thing of all about this very strange record is that each band joins the other for a version of a classic hit. There is a Styx version of "Blue Collar Man", and then a version in which Styx is joined by REO. There is an REO version of "Ridin' The Storm Out", and then a version in which they are joined by Styx. Now, this was probably very exciting live, in the heat of the moment, to see unfold in front of you, but to hear played back on an album it's just a waste of time. How many versions of the same (already repackagd) hits do you need in one place? It's just a stupid idea whose time has apparently come with 'Arch Allies'.
To sum it all up, I'll quote Styx guitarist James "JY" Young, who rather haughtily defended the "new Styx" by saying, "There's no deodorant like success." To which I reply, "And nothing stinks like the flop sweat of public desperation."
There are 20 hits from 2 classic rock legends on this legendary collaboration. Recorded live at the Riverport Amphitheatre in St. Louis, MO during the...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.