Styx and Yes Rocks the Crowd at Verizon

Multi-platinum rock band Styx and the world’s most quintessential progressive rock band Yes rocked the crowd at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park in nearby Alpharetta Thursday night.

Having had the pleasure of seeing Styx a half of dozen times during my teen years and catching one show of Yes in the mid-1990s, I was pleasantly entertained and satisfied by the electric performance of both bands.

Styx headlined Thursday night's concert opening with "Blue Collar Man" to a welcoming crowd. From that point on it was an energized, foot stomping show to the finish.

Tommy Shaw (vocals, guitar), was in top form in his singing, playing and physical appearance. The 57-year-old guitarist did not slow down, pouring out his energy and creativity throughout the show and his band mates proved to be an equal match. Joining Shaw on stage were James “JY” Young (vocals, guitars), original bassist Chuck Panozzo, Todd Sucherman (drums), Ricky Phillips (bass), and Lawrence Gowan (vocals, keyboards), who replaced the band's original lead singer, Dennis DeYoung.

For their second song, Gowan immediately wooed the crowd with "The Grand Illusion" and belted out some of the band's biggest hits, "Suite Madame Blue," "Lorelei" and dedicated "Lady" to all the "Georgia Peaches."

Other Styx favorites included "Man in the Wilderness," "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)," "Miss America," and "Too Much Time On My Hands" much to the crowd's delight, which had many singing along and clapping their hands in sync.

At one point during the show Shaw set up the scene for the next song by telling the crowd, "...if anybody had given me a crystal ball and said–some day, not too far from here, you'll be a little older, but you'll be on this stage and in front of this crowd, I would have said that thing is broken." It was no surprise what would be their next song. The harmony reached on "Crystal Ball" was almost equal to the 1976 album version.

The band exploded in sound with their finale, "Come Sail Away" and returned for one encore with "Renegade."

Early in the show Shaw confidently told the crowd, "we came here to give you a rock show," and they loudly did.

Many of the concertgoers I spoke with were clearly there to see Styx, but from what I saw, the crowd gave Yes a warm reception as the band played many of their hits from the '70s.

As the other co-headline band on this summer tour, Chris Squire (Yes founder/bassist) said on the Styx official Web site, “We are excited to have STYX on tour with us. I consider them to be in the vein of Yes and the cutting edge of prog-rock in America."

I was not disappointed with Yes' performance as I was happy to hear many of my favorites, including "Yours Is No Disgrace," "I've Seen All Good People" and their 1983 number one song, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" from the album 90125.

The band ended their show with their 1973 breakthrough hit, "Roundabout," probably their most well-known song.

The Yes band lineup includes: guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire, drummer Alan White, lead singer Benoit David, who replaced longtime Yes front man Jon Anderson in 2008 and they reunited with keyboard player Geoff Downes for this tour.

During this tour Yes is also promoting their new album, "Fly From Here," just released on Tuesday, July 12.

The acoustic opener for Styx and Yes was Shane Alexander, a singer/songwriter and guitarist from Los Angeles. Even though it was a short set (he played four songs, three that came from his 2010 release Mono Solo) Alexander was a crowd pleaser. He told Cumming Patch that he feels blessed to be part of this tour.

"I had some good friends, in both Styx and Yes' teams and they went to bat for me and so it's a real blessing for me to be here," Alexander said. "And I definitely want to go on record and say both bands are super nice, they have been so kind, they are really wonderful."

The "Progressive U.S. Tour" will continue for a few more weeks concluding on Aug. 3 in Mountain View, California.