CALIFORNIA ROCK NEWS

BOSTYX made their live network television debut on AXS TVs World’s Greatest Tribute Bands to a packed audience at the Whisky-a-go-go.

Selected by host Katie Daryl to perform on AXS TV’S World’s Greatest Tribute Bands, BOSTYX  faithfully reproduces the music of two amazing American classic rock icons – BOSTON and STYX.  These bands have influenced tons of bands that came after them – both in rock and some other more unexpected genres as well. 

David Victor has recorded and toured with BOSTON and has enjoyed chart-topping success along the way.    David joined BOSTON for their 2012 and 2014 U.S. and Canadian tours, and was recently featured as lead vocalist on BOSTON’s #1 single “Heaven On Earth” from their 2013 album “Life, Love & Hope”.    

In his BOSTYX role, David handles lead vocals and guitar for the Boston portion of the show (R.I.P. Brad Delp) and Tommy Shaw’s vocal parts for the STYX portion.  David Victor’s handling of the incredible guitar playing as well as singing the parts from both bands with two of rock’s greatest tenors make him a very capable, qualified and unique musician.

BOSTYX Drummer and co-lead vocalist Glenn Jost handles the lead vocals of Styx co-founder Dennis DeYoung, backing alto /harmony vocals, drums and percussion throughout the show.   

This dynamic duo does double duty with lead vocals and instrumentation throughout the show and the playing of the rest of the band makes the music soar.

Lead, rhythm and acoustic guitar virtuoso and singer Roby Duron harmonizes with Victor on the guitar and provides great backing vocals to help achieve the signature sound of both bands. 

Keyboardist Victor Bender is an amazing talent (check out this video) and does a great job replicating the STYX piano and keyboard parts of Dennis DeYoung and Boston.

Along with bassist Manny Aguirre, who is a tenor, they all work together to create the lush harmonies of both bands without any backing tracks for these great anthems with dynamic vocals and guitar harmonies like they should be played.

Boston and STYX actually co-headlined on a tour together in 2008 and introduced a new vocalist for Boston that the group’s mastermind, Tom Scholz, discovered on YouTube by chance when he mistook a tribute to Brad Delp by a Home Depot credit manager as being Brad’s actual vocals while his wife was checking out the clip on the internet.   The rest is history…

Both bands just came off tour, so fans of both groups were treated to an excellent performance of both band’s songs in a live setting.

Leading up to the show, STYX posted about this show on their FACEBOOK AND Twitter page, and Dennis De Young mentioned it as well.

SET LIST/ SHOW RECAP

Katie Daryl came out and introduced the band to a capacity crowd and the show started rocking.

“Rock & Roll Band” is from the debut album “BOSTON” released in 1976.  This is the song that Boston almost always opens their shows with, so it was the perfect way to kick off the show. 

“Well we were just another band out of Boston On the road to try to make ends meet Playin’ all the bars, sleepin’ in our cars And we practiced right on out in the street.”

The excitement in the room was electric and from the first note on, the band rocked the music of Boston and Styx.

Glenn Jost took over on lead vocals for Styx’s ballad, “Lady”, which was released in 1973, and only caught on as a hit a while later and ended up charting at #6 on the Billboard Top 40 in 1975. 

Playing drums and singing lead at the same time is not easy, but Jost managed to be 2 parts of Styx at once.

“More Than A Feeling” – Boston’s first single off their debut album and is their biggest hit to date and completely fired up the crowd.  

As a testimony to the song’s complexity, the verses are in the key of D major while the chorus is in G major. The song is in compound AABA form and BOSTYX Pulled it off without a hitch.   David Victor hit the highs and the band rocked, as witnessed by the enthusiastic live crowd.    “Peace of Mind” was the third and final single from Boston’s debut album.   Bostyx rocked this song live.  With the great vocals and jamming guitars, there were plenty of smiles throughout the Whisky.

This song happened to be covered by Stryper in 1999 (AXS TV WGTB multi-show alum Kenny Metcalf was the original keyboardist of Stryper and lead vocalist of Stryper Michael Sweet was also a touring member of BOSTON after Delp’s untimely passing) and Tom Scholz actually played on the track and live.  

Next up was “Renegade” by STYX from their 1979 hit Pieces of Eight”.  With the up-tempo time changes and the jamming of the band, this song also got the crowd going wild.    

“Renegade” is usually the closing song at STYX concerts, but with all the hits of both bands it was played rather early on in the set.

 “Too Much Time on My Hands” – from 1981’s “Paradise Theater” reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and almost topped the rock charts.   BOSTYX did great in rocking the vocals and the unmistakable synth and bass lines.    The lyrics in the song are great – “I’ve got nothing to do and all day to do it, Well I go out cruising, but I’ve no place to go and all night to get there””… and one of the best verses ever: (funny video, too)

”Well, I’m a jet fuel  genius –  can solve the world’s problems without even trying I’ve got dozens of friends, and the fun never ends That is, as long as I’m buying”

Many people were transported back to an earlier time on that one. 

“Smokin’”, which was a B-side to “More Than A Feeling” and, along with MOST of the songs on the Boston debut, credited with helping sell millions of copies of the album and basically created the framework for what is known as classic rock radio.     ”We’re gonna play you a song, a little bit of rock-n-roll You gotta let yourself go, the bands gonna take control.Were gettin’ down today- Well pick you up and take you away Get down tonight”

With the groovy keyboards and cool boogie feel the crowd definitely “got down” for that one.

Metal legends ANTHRAX actually recorded a decent version of this song when they released an album of covers last year, NIRVANA even sort of paid tribute to this Boston song in concert in 1992.  The song was also featured in the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) video game series.

“The Best Of Times” was the first single from “Paradise Theater” and it reached #1 in Canada and #3 in the US.    As the closer to their main set, BOSTYX definitely finished strong with this classic song.

The song was the first single from “Paradise Theater” and it reached #1 in Canada and #3 in the US.

At the songs conclusion, Katie Daryl came out on stage and announced the commercial break.

   ENCORE

BOSTYX returned for their encore with two more STYX songs and a great closer from Boston.

The encore started with “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)” — the first single from “Pieces of Eight”.    

“Keeping my mind on a better life….. where happiness is only a heartbeat away Paradise, can it be all I heard it was? I close my eyes and maybe I’m already there”

“Come Sail Away” is the lead single from Styx’s incredible album from 1977 – “The Grand Illusion”.  It’s one of their biggest hits and landed at #8.     

“Foreplay/ Long Time” was BOSTON’s second released single.   “Foreplay was the first song Scholz ever recorded.   Oddly enough, this song has been covered by Phish and Rascal Flatts in electric, bluegrass and up-tempo country versions. 

The encore for the studio audience was “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)”- another hit off of “The Grand Illusion” – a fantastic way to end a spectacular hour plus show of classic rock gems, although the telecast did cut off a little earlier than the viewers at home would have liked. 

Someone at the show made a good point in saying that this is a true progressive rock song.  With the 7/4 time, an unusual meter for a pop song. and the second solo, as the song fades out, is performed in 6/8 time. 

These clearly aren’t easy bands to replicate the music of in a live setting, but the musicianship of all the members made this an incredible show that truly paid tribute to two of the best bands in rock and roll.   

BOSTYX is currently on a national tour through next year and definitely picked up many new fans during tonight’s LIVE television performance.

WEBSITE www.bostyx.com
FaceBook  https://www.facebook.com/Bostyx
Twitter https://twitter.com/bostyxtribute 

4 AXS TV Tributes remain in Season 4:

November 11 a tribute to Pearl Jam
November 18 a tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd
November 25 a tribute to Blondie
December 2 a tribute to Neil Diamond

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