Styx Sets Five More Concert Dates for Pending 2025 Tour
· Ultimate Classic RockStyx continues to build its 2025 tour slate with five nights at the Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas' Venetian Resort. They'll be performing 1977's The Grand Illusion in its entirety for the first time.
Tickets for these newly announced shows start at $45 plus fees and go on sale at 10 a.m. PT this Friday, Sept. 20. They'll be available at Ticketmaster.com, VenetianLasVegas.com, in person at the Venetian Resort box offices, or by calling (702) 414-9000 or (866) 641-7469. See the complete list of shows below.
Pre-sale for Styx fan club members begins at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday, Sept. 18. Presale for Venetian Rewards members and Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers then begin at 10 a.m. PT on Thursday, Sept. 19. These separate pre-sales end later that night, at 10 p.m. PT on Thursday, Sept. 19.
READ MORE: Top 10 Styx Songs
Styx has been a stalwart in Las Vegas for years now, memorably performing shared dates a decade ago with Eagles great Don Felder. The new Venetian Resort concerts follow continuing Styx shows through November. They'll play two stand-alone dates in December, both in Oklahoma. The 2025 tour then unofficially begins with three Florida concerts in January before they head to Nevada.
Listen to Styx's 'Fooling Yourself' Live in Las Vegas
How 'Grand Illusion' Set a New Styx Standard
The triple-platinum The Grand Illusion album remains the best-seller in Styx history, after reaching No. 6 on the Billboard album chart. Singles "Come Sail Away" (No. 8) and "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" (No. 29) also reached the Top 40. Styx went on to release three more multi-platinum albums in a row.
Tommy Shaw has called this era, which also included Styx's 1978 follow-up LP Pieces of Eight, "the prime season of innocence." He'd joined the year before, becoming a key creative element on 1976's transitional Crystal Ball, but The Grand Illusion was where Shaw completely integrated with the group's larger dynamic.
"The beauty of the creative team back then is that we were different," James "J.Y." Young told UCR. "We were all different individuals and so everything that creatively came out was really held to very high standards from a dozen different angles, as opposed to everyone playing the same thing. There was lots of layers to what we did, both musically and arrangement-wise – and the amazing thing is that the work really seems to have wonderfully withstood the test of time."
Styx touched on this breakthrough release with 2012 dates dubbed the Grand Illusion / Pieces of Eight Tour, but the setlists blended both albums.
Styx's Newly Announced 2025 Tour Dates
(All shows begin at 8:30 p.m.)
01/24 – Venetian Theatre in the Venetian Resort @ Las Vegas
01/25 – Venetian Theatre in the Venetian Resort @ Las Vegas
01/29 – Venetian Theatre in the Venetian Resort @ Las Vegas
01/31 – Venetian Theatre in the Venetian Resort @ Las Vegas
02/01 – Venetian Theatre in the Venetian Resort @ Las Vegas
17. 'Big Bang Theory' (2005)
Motivated by the positive reaction to their cover of the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" (while performing at Eric Clapton's Crossroads festival), Styx took the plunge into a full-on covers album with 2005's Big Bang Theory. So, while it clearly can't compete with an LP of Styx originals, this was a fun little exercise for fans to hear their heroes jamming on classic songs by The Who, Free, Jimi Hendrix and even Jethro Tull. (Ed Rivadavia)
16. 'Cyclorama' (2003)
Cyclorama saw Dennis DeYoung replaced by Lawrence Gowan, Glen Burtnik moved over to bass, and drummer Todd Sucherman completing a lineup now led by James ‘JY’ Young and Tommy Shaw – a difficult pill to swallow even for fans who knew this was the only way Styx could move forward. Nevertheless, it didn’t help matters that some songs sounded more like Boston (“Do Things My Way”), Extreme (“Yes I Can”), and even King’s X (“Waiting for Our Time”) than they did vintage Styx. (Rivadavia)
15. 'Styx' (1972)
Styx’s adventurous but scattershot debut had much in common with that of hundreds of one-and-done art rock bands of the early ‘70s. Even putting the entire band naked on the cover was a cliche. So, too, were the band’s rambling, semi-symphonic exploits, though the spoken word segment in the 13-minute “Movement for the Common Man” sort of previewed ‘Paradise Theater.’ That left room for just two indications of greatness yet to come in “What Has Come Between Us” and “Best Thing.” (Rivadavia)
14. 'The Serpent Is Rising' (1973)
Styx’s third LP, The Serpent Is Rising, was a quasi-concept album, but the fact that no one – least of all the band itself – seems to recall or even understand precisely what that concept was (other than a laundry list of phallic symbols) pretty much says it all. Musically, the band’s early progressive-rock influences never sounded more chaotic or divorced from making sense as songcraft. The hidden track “Plexiglass Toilet” (basically a laughable version of the calypso standard “Day-O”) is an all-time low. (Rivadavia)
13. 'Edge of the Century' (1990)
Styx's only release with Glen Burtnik as vocalist/guitarist, Edge of the Century was as much a victim of its time as the band's troubled passage through the ‘80s – a time marked by solo LPs, long layoffs, lots of public airing of dirty laundry, you name it. Because it was released in 1990, the album's slick brand of AOR simply had no place in a music world transitioning from hair metal to grunge. So the fact that songs like "Show Me the Way" and "Love Is the Ritual" were no match for Styx's glory days efforts was almost beside the point. (Rivadavia)
12. 'Brave New World' (1999)
Styx capitalized on the delighted fan response to their arena-packing Return to Paradise tour by heading back into the studio for the first time with DeYoung and Shaw in nearly two decades. But 1999’s Brave New World didn't attempt to work miracles. Instead, it aimed for a careful revival of Styx’s melodic-rock polish. Unfortunately, they didn't succeed in converting all those concertgoers into record buyers but Brave New World was nevertheless a very worthy Styx effort. Only a time machine might have granted this LP the success it probably deserved. (Rivadavia)
11. 'Styx II' (1973)
Though it was bound to improve upon their very spotty debut, Styx II still showed a band searching for its identity, and trying whatever they could think of as they went along. On the upside, Styx’s three resident songwriters – Dennis DeYoung, James ‘JY’ Young and John Curulewski – began spreading their wings in intriguingly divergent directions, but it was DeYoung who asserted his leadership by taking over side two and supplying Styx’s breakthrough single, albeit retroactively, in “Lady.” (Rivadavia)
10. 'Cornerstone' (1979)
Having reached the culmination of their original creative vision on The Grand Illusion, then doubled down on Pieces of Eight, Styx turned toward mainstream pop on Cornerstone. The primary point of contention was “Babe” (something of a sequel to “Lady”) which irked longtime fans with its MOR sweetness, yet shot straight to No. 1. More problematic was the album’s overall lack of substance, as a slew of rote pop-rockers allowed for but a few memorable efforts in Shaw’s folky “Boat on the River” and his co-write with DeYoung on “Borrowed Time.” (Rivadavia)
9. 'The Mission' (2017)
For all of its obvious pretensions, Styx's 2017 concept album about our planet's first manned mission to Mars is a focused, punchy affair. It seems the goal here was both a return to (rock) form, and to establish their next-era credentials as something more than a touring act. Thanks to songs like "Hundred Million Miles" and "Locomotive," Styx can safely hang that "Mission Accomplished" banner. (Bryan Rolli)
8. 'Man of Miracles' (1974)
Another album, another small step on Styx’s long road of self-discovery and realization. Man of Miracles mercifully reined in the weird excursions of The Serpent Is Rising and went a long way toward formalizing the template of future successes – minus the hits. As such, the band’s fourth LP found James "JY" Young flexing his hard rock muscles on “Rock & Roll Feeling” and “A Man Like Me,” DeYoung in classic melodramatic form on “Evil Eyes” and “Christopher, Mr. Christopher,” and John Curulewski (with JY) referencing both glam rock and the Rolling Stones on “Havin’ a Ball.” (Rivadavia)
7. 'Crash of the Crown'
Crash of the Crown at first seemed like nothing more than a sequel to The Mission, with its throwback musical grandiosity, interlocking song structure and the presence of more recent Shaw collaborator Will Evankovich. But it's different in an important way: Styx didn't reach for a sweeping, album-length topic this time. Nobody's going to Mars. Instead, a loose theme of earth-bound turmoil, struggle and hope winds its way through Crash of the Crown – making it both more topical and more easily digestible. (Nick DeRiso)
6. 'Equinox' (1975)
A pivotal album in Styx's career, Equinox signaled the group's exciting fresh start with major label A&M, but also their final partnership with founding guitarist John Curulewski. The music at hand is simultaneously inspired and disjointed, often split between addressing the group's burgeoning mainstream aspirations ("Light Up," "Lorelei") and persistent progressive ambitions ("Mother Dear," "Suite Madame Blue"), rather than finding a happy medium. And yet there is much to love here, not least among them being JY's hard-rock juggernaut "Midnight a Ride." (Rivadavia)
5. 'Crystal Ball' (1976)
Tommy Shaw proved he was the missing piece to Styx's musical puzzle when he joined the group in time for 1976's Crystal Ball and made immediate contributions as a guitarist and songwriter. His arrival sparked a healthy competition with resident creative forces DeYoung and JY, and dovetailed with their efforts to refine Styx's art-rock formula into great hit songs. Sure enough, album standouts like the title track, "Mademoiselle" and "This Old Man" served as the proof-of-concept examples for victories still ahead. (Rivadavia)
4. 'Kilroy Was Here' (1983)
Love it or hate it, Kilroy Was Here epitomizes both the grandeur and folly of Styx's music through the years, contrasting some of the band’s most accomplished work with songs that were clearly dialed in by a band splintering at the seams. In one corner stood Dennis DeYoung, armed with another complicated (but amazingly prescient) concept about music censorship (“Mr. Roboto”), while in the opposite corner stood Tommy Shaw, refusing to play ball yet contributing some stellar fare nonetheless (“Haven’t We Been Here Before”). Playing referee in the middle was JY, who vented his frustration with “Heavy Metal Poisoning.” (Rivadavia)
3. 'Pieces of Eight' (1978)
Flush with confidence after the hard-won success of The Grand Illusion, Styx went for the throat on their eighth LP, Pieces of Eight. It was a tour de force for the band’s trio of songwriters, who reached the top of their form, with the superb backing of the Panozzo rhythm section. Shaw led the charge with fan favorites “Renegade” and “Blue Collar Man,” DeYoung’s title track and “Lords of the Rising” provided more majestic pomp rock highlights, and JY brought the house down with “Great White Hope” and (with DeYoung) the simply sublime “Queen of Spades.” (Rivadavia)
2. 'Paradise Theatre' (1981)
With 1981’s absolutely stunning, triple-platinum-selling Paradise Theater, Styx bounced back from the creative disappointment of Cornerstone with a vengeance and silenced all those who had prematurely predicted their demise. Just when it seemed impossible for a band to reconcile fading ‘70s prog-rock with rising ‘80s AOR, Styx showed everyone how it was done, couching no less than four hit singles (including twin Top 10s “The Best of Times” and “Too Much Time on My Hands”) inside a full-fledged concept album where every deeper cuts (“Snowblind,” “Half-Penny, Two Penny,” etc.) also counted. Trouble was straight ahead, of course, but these were among the very best of times. (Rivadavia)
1. 'The Grand Illusion' (1977)
When all is said and done, The Grand Illusion remains the definitive Styx album. It is a master class in the art of packaging art-rock pretensions into radio-conquering hits, as exemplified by its stately title track, the deceptively nuanced “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” rousing “Come Sail Away,” and the simultaneously biting and irresistible “Miss America.” All this inspiration was once again backed by meaningful cuts like the philosophical “Man in the Wilderness” and fantastical “Castle Walls,” which played their part in catapulting Styx to multi-platinum stardom after half a decade building toward this triumphant vindication. Likewise, all these years later, Styx's career high point is obviously no short-lived illusion. (Rivadavia)
Real-Life ‘Spinal Tap’ Stories: Styx