Styx and Yes
by JonLybrook on 8/21/11Red Rock Ampetheater - MorrisonYes was a phenomenal treat to see. Both they and Styx had far to many visuals that distracted from the music, but I'm an old fart now I guess, and so, what the hell do I know! Yes should clearly be paying royalties to the estate of Stan Brakhage for all the hand-scratched visual background imagery, while Styx was something of a parody of themselves, attempting to relive the glam rock thing in spite of their teeth whitening, botox, leather pants, and rogane-inspired hairdos. I heard about as much of Styx as I needed to in my teenage years in the 80s and wish we could have left it at that. I really wish I could have seen another 60 minutes of Yes instead ot the self-congratulatory spectacle of Styx paying homage to themselves by dropping names of legendary progressive rock groups with whom they associate themselves, including Yes, King Crimson and others. Rob Reiner must have had Styx in mind when creating the movie "This is Spinal Tap". The shoulder-to-shoulder guitar-hero thing may have been great as an encore, but seeing it in every other piece was something of a joke IMO. Yes was missing Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, but it was still great to see legends Chris Squire and Steve Howe shredding the classic repertoire of Yes with inspired proficiency. The "ringers", who I admittedly did not know, did a great job keeping up and blending in.