Aside from the unfortunate passing of Ozzy Osbourne, as covered by two corresponding articles, I did actually have a fun summer in regards to music. July 20, 2025 marked my first concert since seeing the Rolling Stones in May of 2024. That night, my family and I attended the “Brotherhood of Rock” tour, featuring Don Felder (formerly of Eagles), Kevin Cronin (formerly of REO Speedwagon), and of course, the main event of the night, Styx. Felder played some of the Eagles’ best hits, including but not limited to “Take It Easy”, “Already Gone”, “Hotel California”, and ending his set with “Life In the Fast Lane”, which was played with the musician’s signature doubleneck guitar.
Taking Felder’s place was the aforementioned Cronin, playing some classic REO Speedwagon songs, such as “Keep on Lovin’ You”, “Take it on the Run” (often denoted by its famous lyric “Heard it From A Friend”) and “Can’t Fight This Feeling.”
Styx has always been a musical anomaly to me. Much like the band Toto, who I’ll get to soon, they have a handful of hits and seemingly a decent number of fans. Yet, they are always left out of the conversation and somehow not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I, along with Adam Sandler (who includes the band’s music in many of his films, to the point where it is a minor subplot in “Big Daddy”), am here to change that. One of the pictures sees Styx open their performance, kicking things off with “The Grand Illusion.” The group also played “Come Sail Away”, which I call a “sandwich song”, as it begins slowly, rocks out in the middle, and concludes slowly (an example would be Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”).
Five days later, we also attended a Yacht Rock festival, headlined by Christopher Cross, Men at Work, and Toto. The latter played numerous hit songs including “Georgy Porgy”, “Rosanna” and “Hold The Line”, which is a classic on air guitar. Of course, the band ended the affair by serenading the crowd with “Africa”, with everyone blessing the rains that night. A fun fact for “Star Wars” fans is that Toto frontman Joseph Williams is the son of iconic composer John Williams.
Speaking of family, we continued our great summer one month later by seeing Joan Jett and Billy Idol at Madison Square Garden! This concert was major for me because while I have seen Billy Idol live before, I had never been to a concert in Madison Square Garden before (in fact, the last time I went there was a Ranger game 10 years ago) nor have I seen Joan Jett live. Let me tell you, it’s no wonder “Rolling Stone” ranked Jett twice as one of the world’s best guitarists. She killed it with songs like “I Hate Myself For Lovin’ You”, “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”, “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” and concluded with “Bad Reputation”. Following her, and bringing down the house, was the great Billy Idol. Great tunes played included “Hot In the City”, “Rebel Yell”, “Dancin’ With Myself” and the showstopper, “White Wedding.” To make matters better, Idol’s guitarist, Billy Morrison, a personal friend of Ozzy, granted a tear-eyed tribute to the Prince of Darkness. We concluded the summer by seeing “The WHO” at the Garden once more, where I was fortunate enough to meet an old teacher of mine!
A great summer all in all!
