THE GRAND ILLUSION / PIECES OF EIGHT LIVE

Another live release from a band that looks like they are going to play music forever. Now they have a steady line up, the same as the previous DVD release, with the contemporary youth orchestra of Cleveland. This time, there is no orchestra. The band played their 2 most popular albums of the late 70's : "The Grand Illusion" and "Piece of Eight", in their entirety.

Shot in high definition with 11 cameras at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, this DVD offers a nice picture quality and a DTS-HD sound that give you what your looking for when you want surround sound. The stage settings is interesting with a giant back screen and a nice light show as well. On this screen, the band decided to show someone using a turntable to play the music of those 2 albums, like it was LP with side one and two.

As far as the performance goes, there is not much wrong with this band that got a lot of experience over the years, knowing how to make this show a success. The music of Styx while not always interesting in their later days, was better in their earlier days. To take the decision to play the 2 most popular albums, was not a big risk, but i can't say i was pleased with the quality of the songs on both albums, especially with "Piece of Eight", who contains some more ordinary songs.

The highlights songs were the well known "Come Sail Away" , "Castle Walls" for the great instrumental part, and "Lords of the Ring" for his symphonic approach. If you like pop music with a symphonic touches, nice vocal harmonies and a nice guitar and keyboard interplay, you will enjoy most of the material here, but for someone who want hear some pure progressive rock music, this is not for you. Myself i am in the middle of both categories, i was a little bit disappointed by some of the songs on "Piece of Eight" and would have prefer hear some others songs from the band on others albums, like "Suite Madame Blue", but it was not possible here, with the concept of the show.

This is a nice addition for any Styx fans, or those who have enjoyed a lot these two albums. I would have prefer hear and see "Equinox" on this show. But for a technological aspect, this show is a real success. If i had to rate this for the quality of sound and picture, it would be 5 stars, but i think the music is more important than the package, so i give 3.4 stars.