The last song on the Brave New
World album is the reprise - it is bits and pieces of songs from the rest of
the album, plus additional music and lyrics - kind of the wrapup song that
ties the album together, and it serves the same purpose for the show. I think
it's pretty cool that they play a recording of this when they come back out to take
their bows and say thank you to the audience. First of all I think it's cool
that they do that at all. Not every band does. REO does, but there's not any
background music, and maybe it's because I'm just so used to Styx doing this,
but that seems so odd now.
The rest all
happens in the space of about two minutes. The boys all come back
out, guitars all left behind now, with all the presents they give out.
Todd has a handful of drumsticks, some of them have towels, and they have
these inflatable beach balls now that have the Styx logo on them and look like
soccer balls, and they toss some of those out. They throw all the stuff they
have to throw, pull out all the leftover guitar picks and toss them. Then they
go up to the edge of the stage like they always do, and slap people's hands,
make a little contact.
I think I
recall the sequence correctly here: I think Tommy came by my area first, and he was
smacking hands, so of course I had my hands up there, and he saw my gloves
again and gave them a big smile, and shook my hand. Todd didn't come over as
far as where I was, and neither did Glen. Lawrence came over, and shook my
hand on the way by. Someone in front of me had a Styx t-shirt and a big black
magic marker, and when Lawrence came over they asked him to sign the shirt,
and he did. Someone behind me apparently thought that was a neat idea, and
asked the person in front of me if they could borrow the marker, and the
person in front of me said yes, but he had one more signature he wanted. JY
did come over to where I was standing and slap hands, and he hit my hand along
with the rest, but didn't really notice the gloves at that point - there were
a LOT of hands all pressed together there seeking attention!
About now,
the guys are trying to wrap up so they can take their bows and leave. Tommy
comes over toward the middle of the stage again, and the guys in front of me
are yelling "Tommy! Hey Tommy over here!" I honestly can't remember
whether Tommy came over and signed the shirt or not. I don't think he did - I
know he didn't hear them and blow them off, but I don't think he heard them.
One or more of the boys is still busy at the front of the stage, doing what, I
don't know because, well, I'm not looking over there. JY is done and he's
moved about twenty feet back from the edge of the stage, pretty much directly in
front of me though, and I'm watching him, waving my hands in tribute, and he's
watching the other guys to see when they're going to be ready to assemble and
take their bows. So while he's waiting, JY turns and looks out at the crowd
again. He's exhausted, he's sweaty, he's happy, he has this big happy
comfortable grin on his face, and he's looking out at the crowd and we're
still yelling and screaming and going nuts and smiling back at him. So he
looks out across the first few rows, and hey - there's these bright
yellow gloves that say
J Y in shiny red letters, one on each palm. He
laughs and gets a look of recognition and surprise on his face. This is a look
that says this is not the first time he's seen these gloves, but he didn't
expect to see them here! He goes back to the happy, comfortable, ear to ear
grin, points at me… and walks all the
way BACK up to the edge of the stage, smiling and keeping his
eyes on me the whole time. When he gets there he leans down and reaches out his hand
to me. The person in front of me scooted out of the way enough for me to move
right up against the stage, so I did, and JY took my hand and shook it, and
gave me a big beaming smile. I'm positive the smile I gave him
back was bursting right off my face. He let go of my hand and stepped back.
Then he
looked over toward center stage again, and I looked too, and whoops - everyone
else was standing there with their hands linked, almost not waiting for JY
anymore, because the song had less than a minute left to play before it would
be over. JY hustled over to the far end of the stage rather than just joining
up with the band on the side he's already on - don't ask me why - and
they all linked hands and took their bows.
WOW - what a
show! All I can say after a show like that is - when's my next one?
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