Styx draws thousands on fair's final night

At the final night of the 153rd SEMO District Fair, as most children were riding the Tilt-A-Whirl or running through the funhouse, just as many, if not more, adults packed the grandstand to be rocked by Styx.

Saturday night, the band played the same stage and filled the same seats as REO Speedwagon did the year before. In 1999, the two Illinois bands recorded the live album "Arch Allies" in St. Louis.

Fans converged Saturday on Arena Park to relive their youth and pass on the music to the next generation.

Fair board member Pete Poe was pleased with the turnout.

"There's 2,500, 2,800 people here, easily," he said. "I've seen fans here from Minnesota and Ohio. They're fans who follow them everywhere they go. The band posted this date on their website before we could announce it."

Poe said those fans and many more inundated fair organizers with phone calls and e-mails wondering "if they were really going to be here."

At 8:08 p.m., guitarists Tommy Shaw and James "J.Y." Young, keyboardist Lawrence Gowan, bassist Ricky Phillips and drummer Todd Sucherman took to the stage and instantly brought the grandstand to its feet with the opening notes of "Blue Collar Man" and for next 90 plus minutes busted out such classic hits as "Lady," "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)," "The Grand Illusion," "Too Much Time on My Hands" and "Crystal Ball."

CHUCK WU ~ cwu@semissourian.com Tommy Shaw of Styx flicks a guitar pick at fans Saturday during the band's performance at the Semo District Fair.

Styx was introduced by Real Rock 99.3's evening host Kirby Ray. "I grew up on Styx, and I was proud to introduce them," Ray said.

Some were less familiar with band. Danielle McGuire, 24, Cape Girardeau, admitted to not knowing much about the band, but her brother, Adam Wiley, 20, of Marble Hill, Mo., said Styx is better than today's musical acts.

"They're awesome, and today's bands sound nothing like this," he said.

As confetti was shot during the last notes of "Come Sail Away," Chris Martin, 47, of Scott City said, "I started liking them in the '80s, probably before then. I've got all their stuff ... on cassette. Remember those?"

She said that while her husband, Troy, prefers country music, in their 19 years of marriage he has developed a taste for Styx and other arena rock bands.