Styx Opens ‘Pieces of Eight’ Residency at Venetian

By Doug Fox

As a bitter winter storm threatens to grip wide swaths of the country, Styx is once again finding refuge in familiar territory. While snow and ice dominate forecasts from Arizona to upstate New York, dedicated Stygians know they can expect a milder climate in Las Vegas — where a gentle breeze blows through their hair as the band opens its annual residency at the Venetian.

This year’s calling card is a top-to-bottom performance of “Pieces of Eight,” the 1978 album that proved Styx’s ascension to rock prominence was no illusion — grand or otherwise.

As native Chicagoan and Styx co-founder James Young notes, escaping the throes of winter in a seasonal sanctuary like Las Vegas makes perfect sense for the band and fans alike.

“When you live in the cold north part of the United States, any residency we can do in a warm spot is good,” decreed the man affectionately referred to as the Godfather of Styx. “And Las Vegas is fun. We’ve always had fun there. Anybody going to the playground that is Las Vegas is going to be in a fun kind of mental state.”

The residency, kicking off this weekend, marks the band’s seventh such adventure — an impressive run of five-date appearances at The Venetian dating back to 2017. Their residency run was only interrupted between 2019 and 2021 — with the latter two years impacted by COVID complications. The band did make a one-off appearance at the Venetian in January of 2019, performing their first full treatment of “The Mission” concept album.

“We’ve done the residency for so many years now that it feels like going to a timeshare,” says drummer Todd Sucherman. “It’s like our little Vegas home for 12 days. We recognize all the people and the staff at the Venetian and the people flying from all over the place. It’s a very special time that we have there. It feels very familiar, yet it’s very fresh every time because there’s usually something new in the works that’s sort of special for the residency.”

Previous residency themes included two go-rounds of “Renegades in the Fast Lane” featuring former Eagles guitarist Don Felder, a pairing with Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson and last year’s full-album treatment of “The Grand Illusion.”

The main attraction for this residency run is “Pieces of Eight,” an album many Styx fans would likely consider to be under-represented through the years when it comes to cracking the live setlist. Sure, “Blue Collar Man” and “Renegade” are prominent staples but appearances by the record’s other eight tracks are about as rare as the Queen of Spades becoming a love that you will not regret.

Even guitarist Tommy Shaw, when I spoke with him earlier this month, sounded newly appreciative of the album’s overall depth.

“Holy $#!%,” he exclaimed, “I forgot what a great album that was!”

The band did perform the album in its entirety as part of “The Grand Illusion/Pieces of Eight” combo tour in 2010, for a month-long run of 21 shows. The package pairing enjoyed a two-show reprise in Las Vegas in 2012 — but most of the “Pieces of Eight” songs have been absent from the stage since then, except for a few scattered appearances.

Band members, however, have been woodshedding the album’s deep tracks for several months, both in pre-show dressing room jams and soundchecks. Finally, observant setlist watchers will have noticed that every one of the album’s songs has made an appearance in at least one of the band’s first six shows of 2026, ensuring everyone is locked in for the residency performances.

“If it's something we're going to play in front of an audience, we're going to make sure that we have a pretty good grasp on the arrangement,” laughed Shaw. “No one wants to be the guy that's playing clams up there.”

“Pieces of Eight” certainly offers no shortage of pearls worth harvesting. Beyond the familiar gleam of the two big hits, the album’s deeper cuts deserve attention, care, and — perhaps most importantly — fresh perspective.

To the Music in Their Story

The two newest members of the band — guitarist/producer/band director Will Evankovich and bassist Terry Gowan — weren’t on board in 2012 when the “Pieces of Eight” album was last performed in full, giving their outsider-to-insider perspective a fresh relevance.

The pair were thoroughly versed with “The Grand Illusion,” having performed that complete album throughout much of 2025, but doing their full immersion into “Pieces of Eight” revealed a new appreciation for the original unit’s evolving confidence at the time.

“One of the things that occurred to me about ‘Pieces of Eight,’ and I came to this conclusion recently, is that it’s a little more mature than ‘The Grand Illusion,’” said Evankovich. “It’s kind of like they were really coalescing when they made that album together. It’s a lot more refined in its arrangements, and even in the recording itself. Everything is a little more polished. If ‘Grand Illusion’ was the brilliant par-baked appetizer, this is definitely the main course.

“It’s a great record,” Evankovich continued. “I think it might be my favorite that they did, and I thought ‘Grand Illusion’ might be that, but I think this one’s just a little more like they know what they’re doing now. They’ve figured it out. And so the arrangements, the production, the craftsmanship, the songs are all really wonderful.”

Terry Gowan was downright giddy when we discussed the album over a pre-show meal at an Idaho tour stop in November.

“If I had to pick one song that I’m most excited about, it’s ‘Sing For the Day,’” he said, barely able to keep his enthusiasm in check. “We were just practicing it right now — I just came from doing it. That’s why I’m so happy! That’s why I’m so up! It’s just one of those songs!”

Gowan said he was first introduced to the “Pieces of Eight” album by his brother Patrick — ironically not Lawrence, the one who predated him in Styx. One of his main original takeaways was the emerging strength of the three distinct lead vocalists: Shaw, Young and Dennis DeYoung.

“That’s the thing about this album — there’s a really good balance between them on this particular record,” he said of the vocal triumvirate. “They all sound very much in sync on this record. You get their own writing, their musicality and their vibe. There’s a real cohesiveness somehow. It all plays out really well.”

Gowan’s attention was also captured by the band’s progressing lyrical prowess. He was especially gobsmacked by the defiant attitude of “Blue Collar Man.” 

“I don’t know how to put this, but I don’t know of another rock anthem that says, ‘No, I want a job. I want to work. I want to be successful as a musician. I want to be a rock ’n’ roller, but I want to work as well. And if that doesn’t work out for me, and if this is all that I am, then that’s good too. Then that’s what I am. I’m going to be a blue-collar man. That’s fine too — but I want to work.’

“There’s a deep aspect of self-respect in that song,” he said. “There’s something in that song and you feel the power of it. They don’t really write like that in rock songs. To me, that makes it so anthemic. It’s a marvel. But it’s just the way that Tommy writes.”

As a third guitarist, Evankovich is in the impactful position of resurrecting embellishments and overdubs from the original recording that weren’t done live before in the two-guitar lineup.

“They didn’t do a crazy amount of overdubs — like, say, Led Zeppelin, but there are a lot of bits that were overdubbed that they just deemed unnecessary or not as important,” he said. “I’ll pick those up because now we have the luxury of a third guitar player.” 

In addition to taking on some additional lead vocal duties, Evankovich will be augmenting other guitar parts for a bigger overall sound as well as playing mandolin on “Sing For the Day.”

“That’s something that’s probably not ever happened in a Styx show,” he said regarding the live mandolin accompaniment in “Sing For the Day.” “I did that with Tommy with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. I've played a lot of these songs with Tommy solo or in Shaw/Blades, so they're not unfamiliar to me. My job is to support the music as best I can.”

How Beautiful It Was Meant to Be

From the opening fanfare of “Great White Hope,” the self-therapeutic “I’m OK,” the majesty of “Lords of the Ring,” not to mention the big hits on Side II along with the rocking eloquence of “Queen of Spades” and the elegiac beauty of the title track, the whole “Pieces of Eight” journey will be an experience unto itself.

But when I spoke to both Sucherman and Lawrence Gowan about what stood out to them about the previous shows in 2010 and 2012, they both immediately pointed to “Aku-Aku,” the tranquil instrumental closer, as a main highlight.

Sucherman said there was some initial band debate about how to end the song live, since it goes through a progressively softer 45-second fade out on the album.

“I remember distinctly … the guys looked at each other and said, ‘Well, how are we going to finish Aku-Aku?’” Sucherman said. “And I said, ‘Oh, we’re going to fade out live.’ And they all looked at me like I was crazy. They said, ‘What? Really?’ And I said, ‘Trust me, this is going to work.’

“And that first night, when the penny dropped and the audience knew, ‘Holy smokes, they’re going to get quieter and quieter until they fade out’ — and the crowd started to roar. I felt like that was going to be a magic moment and it was just like that pretty much every show. So one of the things I’m looking forward to the most is executing that perfect live fade out, which is, musically, a very difficult thing to do.”

Lawrence Gowan suggested that moment always earns one of the biggest crowd reactions when it comes to a full-album performance. Not only is it the culmination of the album itself, but the added gravitas of the live fade pushes enthusiasm to the brink.

“It’s amazing to end a show where the band actually physically fades it as if it’s fading a record,” he said. “We actually begin to play lighter and lighter with every round. I’m trying to match what Todd’s playing on the drums as far as where he is dynamically, and I’m trying to get my touch lighter and lighter without having the notes disappear entirely. But it’s a great moment when we get it just right. The audience begins to rise and crescendo as we're diminuendoing.”

Come Alive, Spread Your Wings and Fly

After this weekend’s two opening shows, the residency takes a three-day break before returning for shows Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

According to Shaw, it’s the individual talents of the band members that make tackling a project like this so satisfying. The songs, he said, inevitably take on a life of their own. 

“There’s so much expertise going on. I’m definitely the least educated musician of all,” Shaw said. “Everybody does their part. You’re playing the same ideas, but your personality and your own style comes through it. The fun thing about this is we’re not creating a new album. We’re just embellishing the one that we did before.”