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By Larry Kart Well, Saturday night at the Rosemont Horizon it all worked-the move, the stage show and the music itself - as it did not during Styx's first attempt to bring their ambitious "Kilroy Was Here" production back home to Chicago in late April, when problems with a film projector forced a cancellation of the opening-night concert after a 90-minute delay. In case you've been living in another galaxy in recent months and consequently are unfamiliar with "Kilroy Was Here," it is the brainchild of Styx's keyboard player and chief songwriter Dennis DeYoung. A kind of pocket rock-opera set in the near future, "Kilroy" tells the story of a world in which rock-and-roll has been banned and forced underground by an organization called the Majority for Musical Morality, which is led by a charismatic politician, Dr. Everett Righteous. Styx, of course, has been hassled a bit in the real world by similarly inclined souls who believe that the group's albums, when played backward, emit satanic messages. As outlined in the slickly produced, 15-minute film that began the concert, the focus of Righteous' anger is rock star Robert Kilroy (DeYoung). |
Framed on a murder charge by the Majority for Musical Morality and sentenced to a prison ship moored in Montrose Harbor (a rather charming tribute to Styx's Chicago-area origins), Kilroy finally escapes by disguising himself as one of the Majority's neo-Japanese robots and hustles off to (where else?) the Paradise Theater, where he makes contact with a young rock rebel, Jonathan Chance (played by singer-guitarist Tommy Shaw). Kilroy and Chance, the older and younger generations of rock, agree that "the modern man" has a "guitar in hand" and vow, in "Don't Let It End," to fight against Dr. Righteous and his repressive thought-police-the goal being "to try to keep rock-and-roll alive" and "shake-it, shake-it, baby. 'cause it feels so right." Aside from the politics of all this and the high level of musical craftsmanship involved, hwat was interesting about "Kilroy" was the way DeYoung's theatrical framework heightened Styx's impact. After the film ended and the shift was made to live performance (a recreation of the concert during which Kilroy is framed for murder), the first tune began with a freakout guitar solo from James "J.Y." Young, which was powerful in itself but even more effective because it took place within a dramatic context. | At any moment one expected the neo-Hitlerian brownshirts of Dr. Righteous to stage their reprise of the Reichstag fire, which among other things made the audience a double participant in what was going on - cheering the band because it was playing so well but also sharing in Kilroy's side of the battle. Unfortunately that aspect of the show dissipated after a while, as the dramatic illusion was allowed to dribble away and Kilroy and friends became good old Styx, doing such favorites as "Lady," "Suite Madame Blue" and "Best of Times." Also contributing to the loss of theatrical impact was the appearance, just before intermission, of Dr. Righteous himself (played by Young). As far as stagecraft goes, this bit was just fine, but from a musical point of view one wondered why Righteous' harangue about the evils of "sex and drugs" was just another piece of rock-and-roll. If the scene were to have its proper dramatic effect, surely Dr. Righteous should have adopted a more reactionary musical style, though what style to choose from might have been a problem. Lawrence Welk? Wayne Newton? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir? Whatever, "Kilroy" certainly wowed the crowd and demonstrated that, within a mainstream context, Styx has as much skill and enthusiasm as any band around. |