STYX: THE MISSION
Tommy Shaw Acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, vocals
James “JY” Young Electric guitar and vocals
Chuck Panozzo Bass guitar
Todd Sucherman Drums, percussion, Waterphone
Lawrence Gowan Piano, Hammond B3 organ, synthesizers, vocals
Ricky Phillips Bass guitar, vocals

By Mike Mettler, chief information officer of the Global Space Exploration Program (GSEP)

“We can do this.”

This was the mantra undertaken by STYX as the band spent almost two years on and off behind closed doors working on the music that ultimately became known as The Mission, its sonically sweet 16th studio album and most ambitious, most challenging, and most rewarding release to date.

“The planets truly aligned for The Mission, and I couldn’t be prouder,” says STYX vocalist/guitarist Tommy Shaw, who co-wrote the album’s storyline with longtime collaborator Will Evankovich (Shaw Blades, The Guess Who). Continues Shaw, “It’s our boldest, most emblematic album since Pieces of Eight.” Adds STYX co-founding guitarist/vocalist James “JY” Young, “This album is an incredible artistic expression that resonates with the best parts of our past, but is intended for modern-day consumption. I’m very excited about it.”

Indeed, The Mission — which is set for liftoff from Alpha Dog 2T/UMe on June 16, 2017 — is an aurally adventurous 43-minute thrill ride that chronicles the trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumphs of the first manned mission to Mars in the year 2033. From the hopeful drive of the lead single “Gone Gone Gone” to the pivotal harmonic convergence of “Radio Silence” to the stargazing machinations of “Locomotive” to the rough-riding blaze of glory that permeates the hard-charging “Red Storm” to the elegiac optimism of the closing track “Mission to Mars,” The Mission succeeds in delivering the greater good from a band that continues to fire on all cylinders, 45 years after signing its first recording contract.

In fact, The Mission displays the best aspects of the ongoing in-harmony musical intersection of the six-man STYX team: the aforementioned guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, co-founding guitarist/vocalist James “JY” Young, keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan, original bassist Chuck Panozzo, drummer/percussionist Todd Sucherman, and bassist/vocalist Ricky Phillips.

“The Mission is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to be a part of something unique and special that’s happening in real time right in front of you,” believes Evankovich, who also produced the album that was recorded primarily at Blackbird Studios, The Shop, and 6 Studio Amontillado in Nashville. “It is one of those albums that musically and cosmically showed you the next right thing to do every step of the way. I will forever be grateful and proud of what we did to create this body of art.”

Indeed, the extra in-studio elbow grease applied by Shaw, Evankovich, and the entire band on the production side of things clearly paid off with the end results. “Working on The Mission was so fun and so easy,” marvels Jim Scott (Wilco, Tom Petty, Dixie Chicks), the man who mixed the album at his own Plyrz Studio in Nashville. “STYX is so experienced, and so bold. My job was to balance it all and try to enhance and emphasize the dynamics of the actual songs, and the transitions between them. In other words, I concentrated on the obvious, and also made the loud things loud! It was a very pure and simple mostly analog recording, and I mixed it the same way — no samples, and no shenanigans. Each time I listened back to it, I found each song could have other meanings and images separate from the overall space saga.”

The space saga Scott refers to is the crux of the music that makes up The Mission. The storyline was created to reflect the viewpoint of the six-person crew enlisted for the maiden voyage of Khedive, the first entry in a new fleet of nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft underwritten by the Global Space Exploration Program (or GSEP, for short). The Khedive team consists of The Pilot, a fully hands-on, seat-of-the-pants born leader; a First Officer who serves as the team’s big-brother figure; an Engineer who is skeptical of every phase of the mission but remains confident in his own abilities to make the best of any technical situation; and a Top- Shelf Trio of science, astrophysics, and survivalist experts.

An invigorating combination of freedom and trust is what ultimately led Shaw down The Mission’s highly focused songwriting path. “It’s been so long since we made a STYX album like the ones we did before, because so much has changed,” Shaw acknowledges. “We are rough- edged and badass when we’re out on the road, and we know it. But, to a man, while we were making this record, everyone got very real and dug down deep in unfamiliar territory, and gave the performances you hear. Anything we can do to make the songs better — that’s what we do. It was all hands on deck, and it’s such a cool thing after all these years to still have that together. To have this album come out now, when the brotherhood of the band has never been stronger, well — it’s the sweet dream we never imagined. The truth is, it is a dream fulfilled.”

The album’s collective strengths are not lost on JY. “Tommy likes to say, ‘From a tiny acorn a giant oak doth grow,’” Young recites. “And my genetic material is there too, so I helped birth this child, and if it turns out to be the most successful thing we’ve done — well, that’s why we make STYX records. It shows how we work as a team. The skill level of the band has allowed us to go do things we just couldn’t have otherwise in the past. And that’s not a knock on Mr. John Panozzo or Mr. John Curulewski at all [the two original STYX bandmembers who have passed away]. As I’ve said before, I’ve surrounded myself with home-run hitters after the people we’ve lost. I really do love this album, and what we’ve done on it. It’s a great collaboration.”

Gowan loves how The Mission reflects the band’s core identity. “The album feels simultaneously comfortable and new,” observes the keyboardist/vocalist. “It’s both entertaining and charming, and a natural progression of our sound. There’s a tip of the hat to all the great music of that era, which we made sure to highlight by my utilizing all those vintage Oberheim synthesizer sounds. That DNA, quite frankly, is what’s in all those great, classic STYX albums anyway, and I can see all kinds of cross-references that appear on this album. I feel great about it. It’s also been particularly intriguing to hear Tommy mutter a couple of times, ‘This feels like The Grand Illusion.’ I take that as being quite the positive response.”

Sucherman feels the band has struck the right balance for the here and now. “This record has so much great ear candy on it from start to finish,” the drummer notes. “And I think the ebb and flow of it was tailored just right, too. The spirit of how well we all work together is captured here — that overall sense of fun mixed in with the light and shade of the material itself. Plus, the fact that the storyline is rooted in some sort of scientific truth, based on our relationship with the New Horizons team [the NASA scientists who named Pluto’s smallest moon after STYX in 2015], adds a certain warmth and gravitas to it. That just lends even more depth to the space story at hand.”

Phillips is impressed with how harmoniously the album came together. “I’ve done a lot of sessions over the years and played on songs and albums that have had big productions and gone all the way to No. 1, but The Mission was by far the easiest, most seamless recording project I’ve ever been a part of,” the bassist admits. “Everyone was so prepared. That’s the beauty of us having worked together over all these years, and being out there every night onstage and seeing each other more than we see our families. That’s all paid off, because everybody in STYX knows what works in this unit. In fact, I don’t remember us having a single struggle over any of the material at all.”

Let the final assessment of The Mission go to original STYX bassist Chuck Panozzo, who added his signature low-end tones to “Hundred Million Miles” and is the man both Shaw and Young rightly describe as the “connection to source.” Panozzo has a knack of always being able to find a way to bring the best of STYX past, present, and future all together in one place, as he concludes: “The Mission is a sincere and honest representation of how STYX built upon where we were in the 20th century in order to go somewhere new in the 21st century.” And that’s really the gist of The Mission, STYX’s bold sonic voyage into an exciting new frontier with the goal of discovering how the universe’s mysteries unfold — and then creating the perfect soundtrack to accompany it. Light it up, let’s get this show on the road!

ABOUT STYX
The six men comprising STYX have committed to rocking the Paradise together with audiences far and wide by averaging over 100 shows a year every year since (yes) 1999, and each one of them is committed to making the next show better than the last. Founded in Chicago in 1972, STYX has the unique distinction of being the first band in rock history to have four consecutive certified multimillion-selling albums in a row: 1977’s The Grand Illusion, 1978’s Pieces of Eight, 1979’s Cornerstone, and 1981’s Paradise Theatre.

STYX draws from over four decades of barn-burning chart hits, joyous singalongs, and hard- driving deep cuts. Like a symphony that builds to a satisfying crescendo, a STYX set covers a wide range of stylistic cornerstones. From the progressively sweeping splendor that is “The Grand Illusion” to the hunker-down fortitude of all that is the “Blue Collar Man,” from the majestic spiritual love for a special “Lady” to the poignant rumination on the fleeting nature of fame in “Miss America,” from an individual yearning for true connection as a “Man in the Wilderness” to a soul-deep quest to achieve what’s at the heart of one’s personal vision in “Crystal Ball,” from the regal reach-for-the-stars bravado of “Come Sail Away” to the grainy all-in gallop of that rugged “Renegade” who had it made, STYX draws on an unlimited cache of ways to immerse one’s mind and body in their signature sound.

• Styx – Front Row + Meet & Greet Package
  • Package includes:
  • One front row ticket
  • Exclusive pre-show meet & greet with Styx
  • Personal photograph with Styx
  • Specially designed Styx raglan shirt (exclusive to packages only!)
  • Styx pin set
  • Styx lighter
  • Styx cooler bag
  • Limited edition Styx VIP merchandise item
  • Official meet & greet laminate
  • Commemorative ticket
  • Limited availability

• Styx – Meet & Greet Package
  • Package includes:
  • One premium ticket located in the first 10 rows
  • Exclusive pre-show meet & greet with Styx
  • Personal photograph with Styx
  • Specially designed Styx raglan shirt (exclusive to packages only!)
  • Styx pin set
  • Styx lighter
  • Styx cooler bag
  • Limited edition Styx VIP merchandise item
  • Official meet & greet laminate
  • Commemorative ticket
  • Very limited availability

• Styx – VIP Tour Package
  • Package includes:
  • One reserved ticket
  • Specially designed Styx raglan shirt (exclusive to packages only!)
  • Styx pin set
  • Styx lighter
  • Styx cooler bag
  • Limited edition Styx VIP merchandise item
  • Commemorative tour laminate
  • Commemorative ticket
  • Limited availability

Pending NYSGC Approval. Management reserves the right to cancel or change a promotion at any time. Must be 21 or older. For help with problem gambling call 877.8.HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369).

Hairball is more than just a band, and certainly more than a tribute band!

A band puts on a concert – Hairball puts on an event! Hairball is a Rock & Roll experience you won’t soon forget. The lights, sound, smoke, fire, bombs, and screaming hoards of avid fans…to merely call it a concert would be like calling Mount Rushmore a roadside attraction!

Vocalists Joe, Kris and Bobby lead the band through a 2+ hour, mind-blowing, and drop dead accurate homage to some of the biggest arena acts in the world. Van Halen, KISS, Motley Crue, Queen, Journey, and Aerosmith are but a few of the acts fans will see brought to life. The Hairball stage becomes an entirely new rock concert before your very eyes countless times throughout the night.

The motor that drives the Hairball dragster consists of Freaky on the electric bass, Billy on the drums, and Happy on the lead guitar. These Rock & Roll soldiers pride themselves on nailing some of the most memorable licks and chops of all time, while adding their own style and flare that they’ve cultivated over decades of tireless performing. This isn’t a side job. These guys eat, sleep and breathe Rock & Roll!

Constantly adding more characters, more pyrotechnics, more lights, more sound, more props, more surprises…more everything! While Happy often tells the audience “Today is the first day is the rest of your life!” Hairball performs every show as though it could be their last. Every night is a 100% full-on, no-holds-barred, exciting, chaotic, fiery party that has to be experienced to be believed!

Pending NYSGC Approval. Management reserves the right to cancel or change a promotion at any time. Must be 21 or older. For help with problem gambling call 877.8.HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369).

“You can kill the lights and the amplifiers/But dreams don’t care if you’re tired,” “No Rest”

With his sixth studio album, the aptly named Love Hope Faith, his follow-up to 2014’s Thanks for Listening, Colt Ford continues to live out his boyhood dream – the one where you “wake up on a mission/to buy that beat-up Gibson,” as he sings on “No Rest.”

Love Hope Faith is exactly that, a message to to his loyal fan base, and a strike against the divisiveness plaguing our country, celebrating the things that bring us together – friends, family, our faith in a better future.

Featuring such guests as Music City stalwarts Brad Paisley (“Lookin’ for a Hand Out”), Toby Keith (“Time Flies”), Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley and brother Josh (“Young Americans”) and veteran rockers Lit (“I’m Mud”); promising newcomers like Waterloo Revival’s Cody Cooper and George Birge (“Dynamite”), Tyler Farr (“My Truck”), Taylor Ray Holbrook (“Reload”), Javier Colon (“No Rest”) and Granger Smith (“Keepin’ It Real”), Love Hope Faith is the ultimate populist country record, featuring a little something for everyone.

“I’m just trying to bring people together,” says the Georgia native, a one-time golf pro who still frequents the links and the co-founder/owner of his own Average Joes Entertainment. “There’s so much conflict out there, it’s hard to decide who’s right and who’s wrong.”

And while he admits to a populist fan base and down-to-earth, “Keepin’ It Real” attitude, Colt cautions, “I’m not a politician. I’m a musician, a performer. We have to get past our differences and find a common ground.”

And what better way to do that with Colt Ford’s groundbreaking hybrid of country, blues, rock and rap rhythms, who has built up a following that started with mud trucker events and graduated to arena status sharing the stage with the likes of golfing buddy Toby Keith.

From the statement of beliefs in “Reload” (“We can agree to disagree. That doesn’t make you a bad person, I’m just telling you what I think. If you pet that dog, you might get bit”) and the adolescent dreams of “trying to live big in a small town” in “Young Americans,” singing “Free Bird” and “Free Falllin’ to the country/EDM mash-up of “Dirt Road Disco” (“Can there be a more fun song than that?”) and the ode to the joys of running your fingers in the wind of an open car window (“Lookin’ For a Handout”) or “one more shot of Baccardi” in “Time Flies,” Colt Ford breaks boundaries and mends fences along the way.

“I feel more confident than ever as an artist,” says Ford, and while he numbers some of the most important supporters in Music City, his lack of country radio acceptance and award show accolades continues to drive him. “I’ve given it my best shot. Some of that outsider thing is tongue-in-cheek, but some of it is true. I’m unbelievably accepted by artists and songwriters. There’s no one I can’t work with. They know I’m real. I’ve built those relationships over time, and I feel I’ve created a body of work.”

Love Hope Faith was created with some of the leading songwriters in music today, Jeff Hyde (“Lookin’ for a Hand Out”) and Justin David (“Time Flies”) to Jaren Johnston, Neil Mason and Jesse Frasure (“Dirt Road Disco”) to Walker Hayes & Thomas Archer (“No Rest”) and Eric

Dodd & Alex Hall (“Dynamite”). Still, it is the sturdy persona of Colt Ford that gives them their consistency.

“There are a lot of different styles on this album, but I think my fans will hear it’s just me,” he says. “As long as I remain true to myself, I can delve into all of them.”

Songs like the rock/hip-hop “Dynamite” reference the Scorpions (“rock like a hurricane”), Marvin Gaye (“let’s get it on”), Michael Jackson (“Billie Jean on the radio”) and Jay Z, while the first single, “4 Lane Gone,” sports a full-blown rock intro before settling into a lament for a lost romance in which the individuals are on their separate paths. “My Truck” is a hilarious “can you top this” playground rank-out session, while the anthemic “I’m Mud” is just that, a self-deprecating, but in-your-face song from the perspective of the dirt below (“I’ve been played on, spit at, kicked until I turned to dust”). “Keepin’ It Real” is just that… Colt on staying the distance, “headlights on the highway/just keep going… Beer is cold and life is good.”

“No Rest” probably sums up Colt’s ambitions on Love Hope Faith, his tribute to being a working musician, what he calls “my version of ‘My Way.’”

“I’m proud of that song,” he says. “I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever done. It’s not just about being a rock star, but accomplishing your dreams, a passion that can’t be stopped. Anyone who has that drive will appreciate it. Everybody’s got fears, but when you hear that song, it’s me.”

“I built walls… and I’ll be here when they’re gone,” he says, taking the role of “I’m Mud,” but you know he might as well be talking about himself.

Love Hope Faith is Colt Ford’s musical message, one so universal it tears down those walls, then invites everyone into the tent.

Pending NYSGC Approval. Management reserves the right to cancel or change a promotion at any time. Must be 21 or older. For help with problem gambling call 877.8.HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369).

Ticket Price increases to $10 per ticket TBD.

Hard Promises:

Central New York’s top classic rock band brings their Tom Petty Tribute to the stage of the Vine! Petty Fest started six years ago and has grown larger every year. Hard Promises will be bringing lots of special guests from the Syracuse and Rochester music scene and will play a full two hour show of Tom Petty’s remarkable catalog of music.

Hard Promises is comprised of five veteran Central New York musicians featuring current and former members of Kane, Benny Mardones’ Hurricanes, The Shop, Zoid, Joe Bonamassa Band, Tickets, Custom Taylor, and Jake Fake and the Liars. Providing one of New York’s best live classic rock shows, the members of Hard Promises have shared the stage with Cheap Trick, John Waite, Gregg Allman, Starship, Eddie Money, Dickey Betts, Blues Traveler, Joan Jett, Blue Oyster Cult, Great White, Spin Doctors, and the legendary B.B. King.

Pending NYSGC Approval. Management reserves the right to cancel or change a promotion at any time. Must be 21 or older. For help with problem gambling call 877.8.HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369).