My review of the Boston/Styx concert

I will start with Styx (and keep this as brief as possible).  First of all, I love Tommy Shaw.  Seeing him was the highlight of their performance for me (that and the Renegade encore).  The other guy, James Young, who is apparently referred to as “The Godfather of Styx” is pretty crazy looking, and he makes some strange faces.  Overall, they did a good job, and surprisingly, I recognized every song they played.  I was very sad that they didn’t play Mr. Roboto, but I didn’t really expect them to.  I imagine it’s pretty embarrassing for them, and DDY probably has some crazy copyrights.  The new guy on keyboard, Lawrence Gowan, was pretty interesting, and enjoys spinning his keyboard around (it was on a swivel) and playing with his hands behind his back.  Ok, done.  On to Boston!

Well, first of all, there are lots of new members to report.  The only “super original” member was Tom Scholz.  Next in seniority is Gary Pihl, on guitar.  Then, there was Michael Sweet, on lead vocals and guitar, Jeff Neal on drums, and the lady bass player, Kimberley Dahme (quite busty…sorry, I had to say it).  My favorite part of this story is Tommy DeCarlo, who they brought in for lead vocals.  He is certainly no Brad Delp, but he was definitely entertaining.  If you don’t know his story, here it is:  he was an average joe, working at the Home Depot, who was a huge Boston fan.  He recorded videos of himself singing Boston songs, and even wrote a song after Delp’s suicide last year, which caught the attention of Tom Scholz, who asked him to join the tour.  Please click the Tommy DeCarlo link above and check him out before you read on.  Ok, so the best thing about the whole concert (besides the encore of Foreplay/Long Time) was watching Tommy DeCarlo perform.  First of all, he came out in a Boston t-shirt, tucked in to a pair of dad jeans, with white tennis shoes.  He has a 90s cream puff hairstyle and a goatee.  He seemed quite out of place relative to the others, who had the old, skinny cracked out rocker look (which I enjoy).  The reason he was so fun to watch is that he is a huge nerd, and did moves like the “thumbs up,” the “come and get it” and the “you, yeah you” repeatedly. He was very excited, and at one point, even pointed to his Boston shirt, as if he couldn’t believe he was actually on stage with Boston (which he probably can’t).  Anyway, it was not unlike watching Carlton in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air trying to dance with Will’s friends.  His vocals were pretty good, but the new group did not manage to capture the magic of the original.  I just kept waiting for that awesome moment, and it never came.  I was, however, super impressed with Tom Scholz.  His organ playing (Hammond M-3 according to my dad) made me very happy;  I love that guy.  P.S.  Tom also gave a shout-out to The Home Depot, because they are “lending” DeCarlo to Boston.  Ha!

Ok, that’s it.  Hopefully, it wasn’t too boring (if you made it this far).