I’LL BE HONEST WITH YOU. Walking into the Xfinity Center that Sunday night, I looked around and thought — okay, this is a different crowd. Mostly white, mostly sixty-plus, silver hair as far as the eye can see, and I mean that with nothing but love and respect because these people showed up, and they showed up ready. But what really got me was the kids. Not kids kids — I mean their actual grown children, thirties mostly, scattered all through the seats and the lawn, clearly dragged here at some point in their childhood and apparently never fully recovered. Every single one of them was grinning. That right there told me everything I needed to know about the night ahead.

And look — I knew Styx. I knew Chicago. But I don’t think I fully appreciated what I was walking into until I was already inside it. Two of the biggest bands to ever come out of Chicago, on the same bill for the first time ever. You’d think that would have happened decades ago. It didn’t. It happened now. Better late than never, and man, did they make up for lost time.

Styx

Styx came out swinging at 7:20 and didn’t waste a second. “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)” to open — not exactly easing you in, is it? Tommy Shaw’s voice sounded like it hadn’t aged a day, and Lawrence Gowan behind the keyboards was locked in from the jump, all that energy he brings, the kind of guy who makes playing in a band look like the best decision anyone ever made. They went into “Lorelei,” then “Build and Destroy” from the new record, and from there it was just hit after hit after hit.

Here’s the thing about Styx that I keep forgetting until I’m standing in a crowd watching them play: the catalogue is stupid deep. They have placed 16 songs in the Billboard Hot 40. Sixteen. And on this night they didn’t even play seven of them. Left “Babe” at home. Left “Show Me the Way” at home. Still played one of the best sets of the summer. I mean come on.

“Lady” had the crowd. “Too Much Time on My Hands” had everyone up — including the grown kids, who clearly know this one whether they admit it or not. “The Grand Illusion,” “Light Up,” “Crystal Ball” with the band intros, “Rockin’ the Paradise,” “The Best of Times,” “Blue Collar Man” — I’m running out of ways to say the crowd loved it because they loved all of it. And then “Come Sail Away” to close the main set, which is basically just an unfair song to play at an outdoor amphitheater in July because nobody stands a chance against it. The whole place went with it. Every word, every person, every age group.

Encore: “Mr. Roboto” — which apparently they avoided for 34 years and then brought back, and the crowd acted like they’d been personally wronged for those 34 years — and then “Renegade” to close it out. Fists up, voices out, the whole thing. Perfect ending to a set that had absolutely no business being that good.

Chicago

I keep doing this thing where I underestimate how big Chicago actually is, and then they come out and play and I feel genuinely embarrassed by myself. Over 100 million records sold. More than 25 studio albums. One of maybe 30 groups in history who can say both of those things.

That’s not a band that got lucky with a few songs. That’s a band that just kept being great for so long it became hard to keep track of.

Their current lineup is enormous — and I mean that literally, there are a lot of people up there. Lee Loughnane, one of the original members, still on trumpet and flugelhorn. Ray Herrmann on saxophone, flute, clarinet. Nick Lane on trombone. Walfredo Reyes Jr. on drums, Ramon “Ray” Yslas on percussion — these two alone are worth the ticket. Tony Obrohta on guitar, Eric Baines on bass, Carlos Murguía and Justin Avery on keyboards. And then there’s Rudy Cardenas, 48, the new lead vocalist who only joined last month, stepping into Peter Cetera’s shoes in front of an audience that has been singing these songs since before he was born.

No pressure, right? But the man handled it. More than handled it — he owned it.

Before they came out, a countdown video ran on the screen — album covers moving through the decades — and the crowd was already losing it before anyone even touched an instrument. Then the band walked out, the horns kicked in, and I genuinely felt it in my chest. That’s what a real horn section does to you.
They opened with “Introduction” and moved into “Dialogue (Part I & II),” “Alive Again,” and then “If You Leave Me Now” — which did exactly what that song does, which is reach into whatever part of you still remembers being young and grab it. The “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon” medley ran through “Make Me Smile,” “So Much to Say,” all the way to “Colour My World,” and I looked around and people had their eyes closed. Just gone. Good for them.

“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” — hands up everywhere. “Hard Habit to Break” and “You’re the Inspiration” hit the softer spots. You could see couples in the lawn finding each other. “Old Days,” “Beginnings,” then the Jackie Wilson cover “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” which absolutely erupted — followed by “I’m a Man,” the Spencer Davis stomper, which gave Walfredo Reyes Jr. and Ray Yslas space for a full percussion and drum solo that reminded everyone in that building what a rhythm section is actually supposed to feel like.

Then “Just You ‘n’ Me,” “Street Player,” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry / Get Away,” “Saturday in the Park.” Encore: “Free,” then “25 or 6 to 4” — that guitar riff hits before it even starts, you know it’s coming and you’re still not ready for it — a Duke Ellington cover, and one final percussion solo to send everyone home.
Two hours from Chicago. Ninety minutes from Styx.

A crowd that grew up with this music and brought their children along for the ride. Nobody wanted to leave. Nobody looked like they were anywhere else.

That’s what a great night looks like. And this was a great night.