Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
Spinning Platters’ home of San Francisco has officially reopened from its 15-month Covid-19 lockdown, yet many of its concert venues are taking a cautiously optimistic approach and waiting until August or September to resume operations. In recent months, we grew tired of the waiting and decided to look far and wide to other places in pursuit of a Real. Live. Show.
Our rock & metal photographer has been riding out the latter part of this pandemic in Florida, and noticed that a small amount of shows never really stopped happening there. Lately, as the rest of the country reopens and more nationwide tours are being announced, Spinning Platters got invited to photograph and review a couple of these shows, including rock legends Foreigner (in Clearwater) and Sammy Hagar (in Orlando).
Tommy Shaw, Chuck Panozzo, James ‘J.Y.’ Young, Ricky Phillips, Lawrence Gowan, and Todd Sucherman, otherwise known as rock icons Styx, returned to St. Augustine for the first show of their 2021 summer tour and for their first time performing since March 2020, and Spinning Platters was there!
St. Augustine Amphitheatre sits on the edge of Anastasia State Park, just a half-mile from the Park’s 1,600 acres of unspoiled beaches and nature trails. Not only were humans allowed to attend, several of the Park residents also made it in to the sold-out show. Upon our arrival, there was a rooster casually walking around inside the ticket entrance on the VIP patio. During the second set, a small frog was seen jumping between seats on the floor. A patron chased it down and placed it in some nearby brush outside of the seating area. Apparently, the frog did not have a ticket for the floor…
An hour before the doors opened, a torrential downpour and severe thunderstorm had many wondering if the show would happen. After getting completely rained on as we ran from the uncovered box office to the car, the rain eventually stopped and the gates opened. Spinning Platters was still partially drenched by showtime, but thankfully the camera equipment was not.
The beginning of this tour also coincides with the release of Styx’s new studio album, Crash of the Crown, their first in four years. Although the setlist was full of their classic songs and hits, they still found time to perform four of the new songs, including the first song of the set, which is kind of a bold move. Audiences expecting the set to kick off with the most famous songs had to wait until the end for those!
Banter between songs was generally about how they have not performed in over a year, and have not seen each other, their gear (for Tommy, specifically his “wardrobe case”) and their crew in that time. Tommy also mentioned that they rehearsed at the Amphitheatre for a couple of days before the show. That they haven’t been together for so long was not evident in their performance, as they looked and sounded like they haven’t missed a beat!
Tommy, J.Y., and Ricky were all over the stage, from left to right, and up on the stage platforms above the amplifiers in the back. Lawrence constantly spun his keyboard stand around in circles and jumped on top of the keyboard. Backup guitarist Will Evankovich, a member of The Guess Who and a longtime collaborator of Tommy, was at the back of the stage for most of the show near Todd on the drum riser. Chuck, who is one of the founders of Styx, was noticeably absent from the stage until near the end, when he came out and joined the band for the last four songs.
Styx returns to Florida once more in August in Clearwater, this time to an indoor venue (Ruth Eckerd Hall) where it’s expected that the frog and the rooster will not be in attendance and hopefully the rain holds off so we won’t get seriously drenched before going in!
Click on any photo below for a slideshow of full-size images.
See more photos of all of your favorite Rock musicians at Alan Ralph‘s photo portfolio.
