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This concert is very unique and so much fun to watch !
I really love the idea of it . It was performed in May 2006.
Styx , veterans of nearly 35 years of performing, joined forces with Cleveland’s Contemporary Youth Orchestra.
Except for the conductor, the Orchestra and Chorus students are all teens, from 13 to 19, and they all look like intelligent bourgeois kids.
While watching this DVD concert, Ray and I were both reminded of the movie “ School of Rock “ with Jack Black .
This is like the real life version of School of Rock.
Something hilarious and fun.
These Orchestra students are all very excited and dancing and performing and looked so much having fun.
This is my second time to see a performance which combines a classic rock group with a classical music orchestra.
The other one I saw was the Japanese classic rock group The Alfee, in which they arranged their own music mixture with classical music such as Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Musorgsky, etc.. and played with a classical music orchestra.
I thought some of The Alfee’s music are similar to Styx and also Kansas and also Rainbow.
That’s one of the reasons I’m naturally getting Styx’s music and loving them.
It’s interesting because it’s unusual to watch, classical music Orchestra playing Rock music.
But this concert is more fun to watch because these young orchestra students were with the classic rock band Styx and they were really excited and while performing they were moving to the music.
And whenever they weren’t playing an instrument, they were dancing to the music. We also enjoyed watching the performances same as everyone in the concert.
Here is the music list they played in the concert,
1. Blue Collar Man ( Long Nights )
2. Lorelei
3. One with everything
4. It don’t make sense ( You can’t make peace )
5. I am the walrus
6. Just be
7. Everything all the time
8. Crystal ball
9. Miss America
10. A criminal mind
11. Too much time on my hands
12. Boat on the river
13. I don’t need no doctor
14. The Styx cyo medley
15. Fooling yourself ( The angry young man )
16. Renegade
Bonus Material :
* 2 Brand new Christmas songs performed by Styx and Cyo, All I want & Ring the bells
* Interviews * Photo slideshow
* Quake Cam
As usual, all their performances are perfection.
For the music, Of course, “ Blue Collar Man “ is fantastic as always.
But one of the reasons we bought this DVD is that it has “ Boat on the River “ and “ Crystal Ball “ in it.
Tommy Shaw was using a different mandolin guitar which looks lovely classic style design.
About “ Boat on the River “ he said “this music is very popular outside of USA, and whatever language we sing it in, people say they feel like it’s one of their own traditional folk music.
And I’m one of the big fans of this music. Because I picture European exotic scenery from the sound and I just love this kind of music.
Another one, “ Crystal Ball “ , was when he was feeling down about how things didn’t seem to be going how he wished for his music career, he was starting to feel like he would just end up working in a bowling alley in his hometown for the rest of his life.
While he was in the middle of composing Crystal Ball, he said he got a call from James Young to audition for Styx.
He ended up completing Crystal Ball as a member of Styx, and this song became the cover and huge hit for Styx’s next album by the same name, Crystal Ball.
He said “ So if you dream, dream big !! “
This story was interesting.
I don’t know why but I always started loving sound of music first rather than lyrics.
So I started reading the lyrics of the song Crystal ball.
It’s quite emotional and I can picture his feeling.
And his emotional feeling is there and I think it got strong power to attract the opportunity he wished.
For other songs, we were both inspired by “ Just be “ and we repeatedly watched it .
We also really enjoyed the Styx and CYO medley of about 18 Styx songs.
It was nice to hear several music I didn’t know and in that scene , many of the students were coming to the Styx stage area and were dancing around the band.
It was really fun to watch.
These students really look like intelligent bourgeois kids who on this night entered a different world from their usual one, into the world of rock music ,and they looked like they are really enjoying.
The Orchestra conductor was unique and something funny.
She was really great.
James Young looked very healthy and his skin looked young. He was 56 years old at that time.
He is aging really well as well. Why I forgot to mention about it in my last post ?
He always looks happy, so it makes us happy as well.
For Tommy Shaw’s fashion, I really loved his black jacket he was wearing for the first song Blue Collar Man, but the concert hall looked like it was hot , so he didn’t wear it after that first song, and he was wearing T-shirt after that.
In this 2006 DVD he looked thin, but somewhat too macho with his arms. Then, four years later, in our other Styx DVD, Tommy Shaw looked too skinny.
My favorite Tommy Shaw so far I’ve ever seen is the present Tommy Shaw, because he looks healthiest and his looks are more balanced all the way.
Not to skinny and not too macho.
Ricky also now looks better and healthier than in 2006, same as Lawrence.
Todd looks always good, he is still young though.
Chuck looked fashionable and looked great in this concert.
For other part, one of the most impressive parts was after the medley of the Styx CYO, there was a part in which only two teenage boys in the Orchestra played cellos ( at least, I think they were cellos ), not accompanied by the rest of the orchestra .
And the music they played reminds us of Camilla Saint Saens style of music which we both love. I’m wondering what is the title of this music ?
It was awesome and the boys who played Cellos were really amazing !
We have already watched many times Styx’x newest live DVD “ The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight “ and this DVD, because Styx performances are really fun to watch besides their music !