Journey ends festival's first day with a bang

[tater1977]

Journey ends festival's first day with a bang

By Kevin Coffey
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

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http://www.omaha.com/article/20110719/GO/707199889/0


Journey capped off a long, hot day at Red Sky Music Festival with a bang.

After performing its two biggest hits — "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Any Way You Want It" — pyrotechnics burst and a cloud of confetti rained on the crowd.

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More than 12,500 people filed into the 17,000-seat ballpark to see the "Eclipse" tour, which featured many songs from Journey's album of the same name.

It was a few too many for me.

Songs such as "Tantra" (a 6-minute piano ballad) and "Chain Of Love" (another Journey-styled arena rock jam) were unfamiliar to most. The songs brought down the crowd's energy levels and saw all but the Journey die hards take their seats after standing through most of the show.

Lead singer Arnel Pineda does an admirable job of standing in for former frontman Steve Perry. In fact, Pineda is a near-perfect mimic.

But he has the tendency to hold out notes and fill every available space with his voice. After an hour of soaring vocals and vibrato-filled notes, it got a little old.

Still, it's Journey.

Flash and pomp are what the band built itself up with. Pineda's over-the-top vocals and Neal Schon's flashy guitar playing are what brought those thousands of people to the show and what kept them cheering and singing the whole way.

The band played 17 songs over 90 minutes and got the best response during hit songs including "Lights," "Wheel In The Sky," "Stone In Love" and "Open Arms."

The big show, however, came when the crowd heard the opening piano notes to "Don't Stop Believin'." The crowd sang its adoration at the top of its lungs.

Journey did a good job of breaking in the ballpark for future concerts. The stage setup was impressive and has me looking forward to more shows there.

Sitting at about second base, the stage points toward home plate. To accommodate the crowd, white tiled plastic flooring covered the baseball diamond.

The stage itself was enormous and larger than others I've seen at larger festivals. Two enormous video monitors flanked the stage, which made viewing better for those with distant seats.

But even the upper deck had good sight lines and a decent view of the action on the stage below.

Other than the heat, the festival's first day came together pretty well.

Early crowds were pretty abysmal (only a dozen or so), but eventually more than 2,500 people came to see bands on stages B and C at the festival grounds.

MECA officials said the festival's first day went extremely well and they hoped that subsequent days would do the same. There were no problems with crowd control, and concertgoers managed the heat pretty well by downing lots of water and taking advantage of misting tents.

The day cooled off a bit once it came time for the headliner to play the main stage inside the ballpark.

Opening band Night Ranger mostly stuck to old tunes but also played "Growing Up In California" from its latest album. Classic power ballad "Sister Christian" and hair band jam "(You Can Still) Rock In America" closed out the band's hour-long set.

Fans cheered and sang for the band's two hits the most, but they let the love flow for Journey.

Pineda and Schon especially seemed to feed off of the crowd's energy and put a lot of effort into pleasing fans.

"Thank you guys," Pineda said at the end of the show. "We'll be back. We love you."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com

twitter.com/owhmusicguy

[kmjrr]

4 new songs out of 17 were a few too many for him. Whatever. If you asked him, I bet he couldn't name any songs that should have replaced them.
The "Enormous" stage and "Enormous" video monitors looked standard to me.

[DrFU]

4 new songs out of 17 were a few too many for him. Whatever. If you asked him, I bet he couldn't name any songs that should have replaced them.
The "Enormous" stage and "Enormous" video monitors looked standard to me.

Your av is Adorable! Such handsome and happy looking guys.

[kmjrr]

Your av is Adorable! Such handsome and happy looking guys.

Thanks! That photo was 2 years ago, we waved at Deen and he called us over to the stage and gave Joey drumsticks and picked him up onto the stage. Very nice.

Last night Deen waved back at us before the show and the guy next to Joey said to him "COOL! He waved at you!", which made him feel proud.

[KenTheDude]

Deen is such an unbelievably nice & generous guy. He's awesome with kids, too.

[kmjrr]

Same guy who reviewed Journey, saying they played too many new songs, reviewed 311 the next night.
"The band released a new album, Universal Pulse, on Tuesday. The 23-song, 105-minute set included several songs from the album, which were great additions to the concert." ... "Time Bomb is my favorite from the new album".
He also posted on his twitter account during the Journey show "If I have to shield my eyes, your stage lights are too bright. #journey" and "Journey ends main set with "Don't Stop Believin'. How is that not your encore song?"

I tweeted back to him "So it's okay for 311 to play songs from their new CD but not Journey? Lights too bright? Encore MUST be Don't Stop Believin'? Please."

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110720/G ... ng-for-311

[Onestepper]

Same guy who reviewed Journey, saying they played too many new songs, reviewed 311 the next night.
"The band released a new album, Universal Pulse, on Tuesday. The 23-song, 105-minute set included several songs from the album, which were great additions to the concert." ... "Time Bomb is my favorite from the new album".
He also posted on his twitter account during the Journey show "If I have to shield my eyes, your stage lights are too bright. #journey" and "Journey ends main set with "Don't Stop Believin'. How is that not your encore song?"

I tweeted back to him "So it's okay for 311 to play songs from their new CD but not Journey? Lights too bright? Encore MUST be Don't Stop Believin'? Please."

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110720/G ... ng-for-311

Maybe he just doesn't like Journey's new material in a live setting. It happens.

[kmjrr]

Maybe he just doesn't like Journey's new material in a live setting. It happens.

Sure, but I don't think that's the role of a concert reviewer. He is the Omaha World Herald's music reviewer. I assume there is more to it than just writing up a review based on one's own musical tastes.

[Greg]

311 was a hometown band. No matter what, you're always going to give a little extra cheer to the home team.

[Onestepper]

Maybe he just doesn't like Journey's new material in a live setting. It happens.

Sure, but I don't think that's the role of a concert reviewer. He is the Omaha World Herald's music reviewer. I assume there is more to it than just writing up a review based on one's own musical tastes.

Uhm, but I think that happens all of the time. To think personal taste doesn't play into any review is to just be naive. That's why you take any of these things with a grain of salt.