Styx
Bergen Performing Arts Center – Englewood, NJ – September 25, 2025
Review & Photos – Rebecca Wolf
https://www.instagram.com/rebeccawolfconcertphotos/
On September 25th I arrived at Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, NJ with the high level of enthusiasm that I reserve for my favorite musical artists, Styx being one of those artists. Admittedly, I’ve seen Styx perform quite frequently. However, when it comes to music I live by the saying, “There’s never too much of a good thing.” So, any opportunity I have to be immersed in the experience of a live Styx performance I make it my business to do so. Styx’s music is part of my youth, my musically formative years. There’s almost nothing that thrills me more than being transported back to the 70s and early 80s and recalling memories of my school years. Although the albums Styx have released since the 2000s do not generate the same connections for me, I appreciate hearing this music during live performances, as it’s this music that’s kept the band creating and evolving.
It’s not surprising that Bergen PAC was a sold out performance. It’s a testament to a fanbase that remains doggedly committed, even with the passage of five decades. This fan commitment was exponentially noted just two months prior at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ, when Styx performed as the evening’s headliner (on tour with the Kevin Cronin Band and Don Felder) and packed the venue with more than 10,000 fans. Whether Styx is performing in larger venues, during summer tours with multiple classic rock bands, or in smaller theaters during individual shows, the energy and enthusiasm they bring to the stage never waivers. And, there’s no indications of diminished musical abilities. Rather, the band members continue to play their instruments and sing vocals with the robust skill, dynamic power and colorful flair that’s been their signature over the past half-century.
At Bergen PAC, Styx band members, including James J.Y. Young (guitars, backing and lead vocals), Tommy Shaw (guitars, lead and backing vocals), Lawrence Gowan (keyboards, lead and backing vocals), Todd Sucherman (drums, percussion), Will Evankovich (guitar, backing vocals), and Terence Gowan (bass, backing vocals), emerged onstage with an explosion of brightly colored lights. It’s never a slow start to a Styx performance. The set opened with “Build and Destroy,” a song with a heavy baseline and powerful vocals, from the band’s recently released album Circling From Above. They then segued to a pair of Styx numbers which perfectly exemplify the band’s historical passion and electricity, including “Too Much Time On My Hands,” from 1981’s Paradise Theater and “The Grand Illusion,” the title song from their 1977 album.
While fans were in high-spirits after these exhilarating numbers, an immediate hush fell over the audience as the stage darkened and Gowan was left standing bending his keyboard, illuminated by a single spotlight, flanked by Evankovich (on acoustic guitar) on one side and Chuck Panozzo (bass player/founding member, performing with the band part-time) on the other. Playing the lullaby-like piano intro to Styx’s heart-grabbing ballad “Lady,” Gowan began to sing with beautifully melodic vocals, before the song crescendoed, the stage became bathed in bright lights and the full band joined in to culminate this beloved hit.
Lead vocals are generally traded between Tommy Shaw and Lawrence Gowan for Styx performances. So, it’s a pleasure to hear Young on lead during the fierce, rocking “Miss America, written and sung by Young on The Grand Illusion, which demonstrates that he can still pack a vocal punch. When I attended a Styx performance this summer, Young appeared to be more in the shadows and seemed to gravitated away from the front of the stage and I wondered if he was not feeling at his prime. However, at Bergen PAC that was not the case. Young remained front and center, passionately jamming on his guitar, singing with gusty and performed with theatrical energy.
For anyone who’s seen Styx perform (during the past two decades), it’s clear the band member with the most effusive, joyful energy is Lawrence Gowan. Gowan never remains in one place for very long. While playing keyboard he may be rotating around with the keyboard platform, playing the behind his back, and in some instance climbing atop the keyboard. In other instances, Gowan races about the stage, sidling up to bandmates to sing alongside them, with a mischievous look on his face. This spirted energy must be in some way genetic, as younger brother Terry, who joined the band on bass in 2024, is himself quite the dynamic performer. Terry could frequently be seen jamming on his bass, the neck of the instrument held high in the air, his facial expressions animated and impassioned.
Shaw recently celebrated his 72nd birthday. Looking at and listening to this man perform no one would never guess his age, as he continues to appear and sound like a rockstar. “ The next song is personal to me,” Shaw shared with the crowd. “When the band called me I was living in Montgomery, Alabama. They called and asked if I was available. I came to Chicago and we sang “Lady” and I won the gig. We’ve been singing together ever since then. This is the song I brought with me,” Shaw continued, eliciting cheers from the crowd as he began to sing the beautifully melodic “Crystal Ball,” the song that became the title track of Styx’s 1976 album.
Throughout the hour and a half performance adoring fans eagerly sang along as they rocked to high energy numbers, including “Rockin’ The Paradise,” “Mr. Roboto,” and “Blue Collar Man,” swayed to memories generated by “The Best of Times,” cheered in unison to lyrics from “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” and lost themselves in the soft, nostalgic opening of “Come Sail Away.” As “Come Sail Away” transitioned from a gentle piano ballad to a soaring, rock explosion, powerful guitar jams and dramatic percussions filled the theater and fans passionately sang along to the refrain “Come sail away, Come sail away, Come sail away with me!” It was this energy and enthusiasm that both the band and the audience brought forth for the evening’s last number, “Renegade,” an electrifying, intense anthem, showcasing a fiery, emotional vocal performance by Tommy Shaw.
Regardless of how many times I see Styx perform…there’s never too much of a good thing. So, like the fans who filled Bergen PAC on September 25th and the thousands at PNC Bank Arts Center this past summer, I hope to be there again the next time the Styx tour rolls through my area so I can continue to experience “The Best of Times.”
