Stray Cats vs Styx CLOSED

Stray cats were a cool gimmick band. Wasn't that Setzer, too? Very talented guy, But Styx gets my vote.

 

Yes I saw. I guess gimmick was a bit harsh, but they were the only kind of old-time sounding revival act on the radio at the time.

 

Setzer is indeed a fantastic talent; unfortunately rockabilly- like country and blues- gets very tiresome by song #7 for me (that's true of most formulaic genres for me, and probably why iPods were such an enormous success). I am an album-oriented listener, and while Stray Cats was great when I was teen riding around in a dune buggy I can't get through an entire Setzer album now. That fact that I get annoyed at guitar wankery doesn't help either.
But then there's Styx. Some good songs early on in their first three albums, and then they hit their stride with three great albums in Pieces Of Eight, The Grand Illusion and Paradise Theater. Then they crash and burn in a most horribly painful and embarassing fashion. You know that Walberg movie "Rock Star" where the heavy metal singer quits to take up Irish dancing?... Styx is the whole band taking up Irish dancing with a side of medieval lute mistreling. In striped leotards. With daisies.
I felt bad for Tommy, James, Chuck and John because they were the hapless crew being held hostage by a delusional captain chasing a white whale. Mutiny should've happened halfway through the Kilroy sessions but they were weighed down by all that teenage girl money that came from Cornerstone's "Babe"- the song that spawned an entire decade of crooning black ladies drowning in chorused Rhodes pianos and Lexicon reverbs. It should be a law that every time a KISS FM syndicated station plays a Rhodes intro, a boxer punches Dennis DeYoung in the face. I don't know how many times per minute that is nation wide but it should be enough to get the point across.
No, I'm gonna have to go the 2000 FLA route and let my chad hang for this one.

 

I could've gone either way on this one. Voted SC because I figured they were the underdog.

 

They have righted the ship, if it makes you feel any better. Their mostly original lineup that tours is pretty much a classic rock outfit now, and the Mr. Roboto will never be heard from them.

They are a great live show, still.