Chicago and Styx
Aug. 5, 2026
Blossom Music Center
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
By Robert McCune
From Blossom Music Center, an outdoor amphitheater in Northeast Ohio built with an oyster-shell overhang in the rich wood structure of a ship’s hull, a voyage through rock’n’roll history was embarked upon.
Co-headliners Styx and Chicago, sailing on musical legacies of between 50 and 60 years, had docked at this particular port many times before. And likely will still for years to come.
But on this “Windy Cities Tour,” the brothers in ballad were especially reflective on the rapids and currents that have kept their ships a-sail all these years.
Lawrence Gowan, a Styx staple since 1999, stood at the stern of a keyboard as he regaled his mates for their years of dedication to building and filling the sails of the good-ship Styx. That includes 1972 founders and originalists James “J.Y.” Young and Chuck Panozzo, Tommy Shaw who joined the crew in the band’s third year, and Todd Sucherman, on the drum kit for more than 30 years now.
Credit Gowan with the ship metaphor for this show, which paid off late in Styx’s set with a performance of one of the band’s most iconic hits, “Come Sail Away.”
Not a band to sail away into the night without an encore, Styx returned to the stage for “Mr. Roboto,” a track that sounds current despite having been released in 1983, and the guitar-ripping “Renegade.”
Chicago, aka “America’s band,” has an even longer tenure of tearing up the charts with their various hits and singles. Founded in 1967, the band has not missed a year touring since, though the band lineup has changed multiple times. On this tour, only trumpeter and flugelhornist Lee Loughnane remains as an original/founding member.
The band has grown in size as well over the years, from seven in its original state to 10 currently.
That big-band Chicago sound remains strong, though some of its softer ballads, like “You’re the Inspiration” and “If You Need Me Now,” feel a bit drowned out in instrumentality.
My personal favorite Chicago song, 1988’s “Look Away,” the most recent of the band’s Billboard chart-toppers, is rarely played live, and hasn’t been played on this tour – presumably because it’s not a fit stylistically or instrumentally for this latest incarnation.
It’s easy to miss the emotionally resonant vocals of past Chicagoans Peter Cetera who left the band in 1985 and Bill Champlin, who took the vocal reins from Cetera and then himself left in 2009.
That’s not to say that this Chicago doesn’t have its own sterling talent. New lead singer Forty-seven-year-old Rudy Cardenas, a past finalist on talent-scouting reality TV “American Idol,” wasn’t even born when Chicago was formed, but joining just this year, he undeniably brings a new energy to the group. Of the rest of the 10-piece band, none have more than 14 years of tenure (with Walfredo Reyes Jr. on the drum kit a member since 2012).
And this Chicago is still putting out new music, with a rumored studio 27th album in the works, perhaps for 2027.
But it doesn’t feel like the Chicago many grew up hearing on the radio.
And that’s OK. Nothing stays the same forever.
Follow Robert McCune on Instagram (@Every_Thing_After_Photo) and listen to the “Every.Thing.After Podcast” on Spotify.
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