Ever wonder why concept albums went out of style? This is why. When the likes of Styx decided their music needed more big ideas, suddenly big ideas didn’t seem so cool anymore. In 1983 Styx made Kilroy Was Here, their idea of a rock opera, with a heavy concept intersecting themes of fascism, dystopia, personal freedom, and robots. There was a big tour, in which the performance was prefaced with the showing of a thirty-minute film detailing the aforementioned heavy conceptry. The album did give the world the ridiculous and ridiculously good single Mr Roboto. Thoroughly silly as it may all seem, the band seemed to take the project quite seriously, which of course only made them look sillier. I heard they actually got boo’ed and heckled when they brought it to Texas. From watching this video, they do appear to be playing with straight faced conviction (Tommy Shaw looks like Napoleon Dynamite). They’re awfully close to Spinal Tap territory, unwittingly driving the nail into the coffin of the rock opera. That said, I absolutely love Styx. They are so silly and cheesy and uncool and so good. Styx kicks Rush’s ass every time!
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