Hugo w/ Journey in Japan 8-29-26

[The_Noble_Cause]

https://x.com/mitchlafon/status/2093733780938686615

Hugo performed with the band last night on the song Faithfully in Fukoka, Japan.

[youkeepmewaiting]

I’ve not seen the clip yet

But

Would this be past of Neal’s next plan?

[Loneman1]

Can't get the audio to work in the clip.....I'm not on Twitter/X/whatever so that might be the issue? Very curious as to what this means. Thats pretty bold and kinda dick move to have another Journey tribute guy sing while Arnel is still around. Might be telling about the future though.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Thats pretty bold and kinda dick move to have another Journey tribute guy sing while Arnel is still around. Might be telling about the future though.

At this point, Arnel might just be thankful to get another break between songs. Who knows.

[youkeepmewaiting]

Honestly I think Anrel is probably still such a fan and a good guy I reckon he enjoyed it

[Loneman1]

Honestly I think Anrel is probably still such a fan and a good guy I reckon he enjoyed it

At this point, Arnel might just be thankful to get another break between songs. Who knows.

Yeah with everything going on I'm pretty sure Arnel is either definitely in or definitely out following this tour at this point, the decision has to have already been made. I'm thinking its the latter with Hugo coming on, but as TNC said, who knows at this point. Having Hugo singing with Journey was most certainly NOT on my bingo card today though!! I hope I can hear what he sounded like sometime soon.

[RumTumJM]

Unless they signed a new contract for this fall leg of shows, doesn't Arnel HAVE to be in the band?

I recall them saying in that start-of-tour Rolling Stone article that they couldn't part with him because of the contract that was in place then.

[JohnH]

Correct . The AEG contract stipulates Arnel has to be in the band.

[Arkansas]

Did Arnel sing at all? Was he even there?
Maybe this is just for the Japan dates?
Wow!

EDIT: I opened the Mitch Lafon FB post, which led to the Instagram post. The video there has audio, Faithfully. It's not really very good at all. And, the stage setup is stripped down, just a back drop. Lots of empty seats on the floor area shown. Who knows what's going on. Some of the FB posts say this is the only song he sang with the band.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DcoJ0X3Teek/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF6rvnEsx88


later~

[The_Noble_Cause]

Did Arnel sing at all? Was he even there?
Maybe this is just for the Japan dates?
Wow!

EDIT: I opened the Mitch Lafon FB post, which led to the Instagram post. The video there has audio, Faithfully. It's not really very good at all. And, the stage setup is stripped down, just a back drop. Lots of empty seats on the floor area shown. Who knows what's going on. Some of the FB posts say this is the only song he sang with the band.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DcoJ0X3Teek/


later~

A little shaky/pitchy at the start, but I thought it was adequate. If it was a spur of the moment thing, he probably didn't rehearse or get used to the inner ears or anything.

[youkeepmewaiting]

Finally listened

Not amazing but certainly not bad. Jumping up on stage and nailing Faithfully isn’t easy to do. He did a good job by the end

[Loneman1]

Heard it with this clip finally......the dude still looks the part and has the higher range, but my biggest gripe is still there from whenever it used to come up that he should front the band....power. He really needs a lot more projection behind those notes and then he'd be hard to beat. It'll be interesting to see what if anything comes of this.

[Loneman1]

Damn, I just caught a clip of the guy that replaced Hugo in Voyage......holy hell, THIS is the guy Neal should be looking at if he's going this route again!!

Here's "Girl Can't Help It" from January of this year - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d31FNK1-Jmc

[jrnyman28]

This just serves to show Arnel has done pretty darn well…

[FamilyMan]

Damn, I just caught a clip of the guy that replaced Hugo in Voyage......holy hell, THIS is the guy Neal should be looking at if he's going this route again!!

Here's "Girl Can't Help It" from January of this year - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d31FNK1-Jmc

Everything about this clip (Voyage) is an upgrade over the current offering Journey's out there with. Sonically, musically, vocally... far better.

Meanwhile, I can't quite believe there isn't more of consensus of how poorly Hugo performed. If this is acceptable, then why isn't Augeri qualified to return?

C'mon folks.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Meanwhile, I can't quite believe there isn't more of consensus of how poorly Hugo performed. If this is acceptable, then why isn't Augeri qualified to return?

C'mon folks.

Hugo has always sang with a weak whispy airy thin falsetto/head type voice. There are some pitch issues at the start of this performance (which could be due to a lot of things - inner ears, no rehearsal etc.), but nothing I saw really shocked me. It sounded like Hugo doing his thing. if there's no consensus, it's probably because some (like me) aren't surprised or horrified by what we saw while others may have a revisionist view of Hugo's abilities.

Can anybody show me a video of Hugo actually owning and singing Faithfully with commanding strength & power? He's been singing Journey for years. Aside from a few pitch issues, this was just the same old bullshit.

Augeri's been through a lot. He adopted a different singing style after leaving Journey that is similar to Hugo. I believe somebody on here said he was doing what's called zipping up the voice. He also now sings most of the material in a falsetto head type voice. Should either of these guys be in Journey? No. However, I would prefer Hugo at this point. I think there would be more enthusiasm by having a guy that actually wants to be up there.

[kmjrr]

Please no. He sounds awful. Always had a weak falsetto voice. Now he's pitchy as hell too. I never understood people thinking he was good.
I finally was able to see and meet Jason Kelty and he has power and is not pitchy. But I wouldn't recommend him join the band. He's got a good gig with Escape and they recently toured Japan.

[Loneman1]

Damn, I just caught a clip of the guy that replaced Hugo in Voyage......holy hell, THIS is the guy Neal should be looking at if he's going this route again!!

Here's "Girl Can't Help It" from January of this year - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d31FNK1-Jmc

Everything about this clip (Voyage) is an upgrade over the current offering Journey's out there with. Sonically, musically, vocally... far better.

Meanwhile, I can't quite believe there isn't more of consensus of how poorly Hugo performed. If this is acceptable, then why isn't Augeri qualified to return?

C'mon folks.

I completely agree. I went down the Pedro Espada rabbit hole with Voyage on YouTube and WOW they have solid performances. If Arnel is bowing out after this tour I'd love to see Pedro join Neal in whatever he's planning. He feels like a hybrid of JSS and Arnel to me, which isn't a bad combo!

As far as Hugo and his lackluster performance, I'm also a little surprised there hasn't been more talk about it. I was never sold on him as anything more than a Perry tribute artist. I mean come on, he has always had the physical part down frighteningly perfect, and his range is great but zero power. Like TNC said, he's always had the falsetto/head singing thing but nothing to back it up. He used to be a bit better, but I never could see him fronting the band.

[danielb]

Damn, I just caught a clip of the guy that replaced Hugo in Voyage......holy hell, THIS is the guy Neal should be looking at if he's going this route again!!

Here's "Girl Can't Help It" from January of this year - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d31FNK1-Jmc

Competent but lacks the it factor.