Chicago Greats

Classic rock bands Chicago and Styx team up for tour coming to Houston

Chicago and Styx are co-headlining for the first time on this tour.

Two classic rock icons from the Windy City are hitting the road together next year. Chicago and Styx will bring the wordy tour, called The Windy Cities Tour - All The Hits…Your Kind of Tour, to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands on August 20, 2026.

The tour starts in West Palm Beach in July and ends in Los Angeles in September. In addition to Houston, it'll stop in at the Moody Center in Austin on August 19.

This is the first time these multi-Platinum bands have co-headlined a tour together. Aside from being from the same city, they share a reputation for a slick sound and a certain theatricality, whether that's from musical theater or jazz influences.

“We are excited about the summer tour,” said Chicago trumpeter Lee Loughnane in a press release. “Chicago has never toured with Styx before so it's going to be a lot of fun, we're looking forward to it.”

Chicago was the highest-charting American band in Billboard Magazine's Top 125 Artists of All Time in 2019 (where it was No. 10 overall, beat by Brits and solo artists). They've toured every single year, making this their 59th year on the road. In 2025, Chicago released a deluxe version of 2005's Love Songs.

Styx, known for dramatic hits like “Come Sail Away” and “Renegade,” debuted in 1972 and is still making new music, including the 2025 album Circling From Above. The group has had eight songs that reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, led by 1979's "Babe" at No. 1.

“In my early days of live performing I had several mentors who were kind enough to let me join in and play with them despite not being able to read charts,” said Styx singer/guitarist Tommy Shaw. “Rod Henley, Ricky Parsons, Bobby and Larry Moore, Eddie Wohlford, Wimpy Jones, Country Boy Eddie and others gave me a shot. And I am thankful for that. By the time Chicago released their first album, I had enough experience to begin learning their amazing music on my own. Now, the idea of Styx touring with Chicago is a major thrill all on its own. We can’t wait to spend the summer with them!”

Both artists will offer artist pre-sales and VIP packages beginning Tuesday, December 2, at 10 am. Citi cardmembers can access a presale beginning the same day at 12 pm. After some additional presales, the general starts Friday, December 5, at 10 am at livenation.com.

The Windy Cities Tour - All The Hits…Your Kind of Tour Dates

Mon 7/13 West Palm Beach, FL iThink Financial Amphitheatre
Wed 7/15 Tampa, FL MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
Fri 7/17 Alpharetta, GA Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Sat 7/18 Charlotte, NC PNC Music Pavilion
Mon 7/20 Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Live
Tue 7/21 Camden, NJ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
Thu 7/23 Wantagh, NY Northwell at Jones Beach Theater
Sat 7/25 Gilford, NH BankNH Pavilion
Sun 7/26 Mansfield, MA Xfinity Center
Tue 7/28 Toronto, ONT. RBC Amphitheatre
Thu 7/30 Grand Rapids, MI Acrisure Amphitheatre
Sat 8/1 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
Sun 8/2 Noblesville, IN Ruoff Music Center
Wed 8/5 Cuyahoga Falls, OH Blossom Music Center
Thu 8/6 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
Wed 8/19 Austin, TX Moody Center
Thu 8/20 The Woodlands, TX The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Sponsored by Huntsman
Mon 8/24 St. Louis, MO Hollywood Casino Amphitheatreh
Tue 8/25 Kansas City, MO MORTON Amphitheater
Fri 8/28 Denver, CO Ball Arena
Sun 8/30 Salt Lake City, UT Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
Tue 9/1 Phoenix, AZ Mortgage Matchup Center
Wed 9/2 Palm Desert, CA Acrisure Arena
Fri 9/4 Concord, CA Toyota Pavilion at Concord
Sun 9/6 Los Angeles, CA Kia Forum

music live music concerts

Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 doesn't match the first movie's enthusiasm

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films like M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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