Rock fans ride the storm out with Styx, REO Speedwagon

If you love rock 'n' roll, the weather doesn't matter.

It was like that for the estimated 4,500 people who braved an ice storm to attend a Thursday night concert by 1970s-'80s rock bands REO Speedwagon and Styx at the Show Me Center.

Taking the stage first at 7:37 p.m., Styx kept much of the audience on their feet as they powered through familiar hits.

Front man-guitarist Tommy Shaw bounced all over the stage, kicking up his white sneakers and applying his clear-as-a-bell tenor to songs like "The Grand Illusion."

Keyboardist-singer Lawrence Gowan showed equal energy, sounding identical to his piercing original version of "Lady."

Through "Come Sail Away," "Too Much Time on My Hands" and others, the five-piece group with Chicago origins elicited cheers as loud as the applause.

REO Speedwagon, first organized in Champaign, Ill., was to follow Styx with hits like "Keep on Loving You," "Can't Fight This Feeling" and "Take It on the Run."

"Cape Girardeau, thanks for coming out in this crazy weather," Shaw said. "For that, we're going to have a rock 'n' roll party tonight!"

Along with Gowan's dexterous keyboard work, Shaw harmoniously "twinned" on guitar with original Styx axman JY Young.

The diminutive entertainer asked the crowd to display their Bic lighters, or in lieu of that traditional affirmation of unanimity, "Your cellphone lights!" and it appeared more than half the crowd complied.

Coming in from the sleet, Gary and Becky Peters of Cape Girardeau were pleased the weather-toughened Midwest bands had gone through with the show.

"I haven't seen REO since we went to Southern Illinois University for our senior trip," said Becky Peters, who graduated from Jackson High School in the 1980s. "I'm just glad they didn't cancel."

Gary Peters, a Notre Dame High graduate, said they were not anticipating any particular songs, chuckling, "I think they'll all sound familiar."

Mark and Janice Eddleman had driven an hour from Dongola, Ill., for the double-headliner show.

"My niece gave us tickets for Christmas," said Janice Eddleman, a child of the '80s who was seeing both bands for the first time.

"I like all their songs, and I don't even know what they look like," she said. "I just listened to them on the radio and had their records."

"We always listened to rock 'n' roll music in the day," said her husband, a late 1970s graduate. "Those songs still bring around old memories."

John Graham and Joy Lawrence, a Sikeston, Mo., couple, had reunited a year ago with memories of having been eighth-grade sweethearts. And the 1975 high-school grads are big Styx fans, though they'd never seen the group live.

"I have a lot of Styx albums," Graham said. "It wouldn't have mattered if there was two or three feet of snow. I still would have gone."

"Every time I hear them, the world goes away," Lawrence said.

Pertinent address:

1333 N. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, MO