Atlanta Show Review

[Toph]

This was my first time seeing the lineup with Arnel. Had high hopes and part of the time my expecations were met, but other times it was disappointing.

Only caught 1 and 1/2 songs of Night Ranger due to bad Atlanta traffic - Friday evening traffic plus 50,000 at Braves game plus 16,000 at concert only a few miles away made for long traffic wait. But Night Ranger was off that stage at 7:25. They must have had to start early. Isn't the rule on concerts to start a few minutes late? Usually acts come on about 15 minutes after the time of the ticket. The promoter should realize that Atlanta traffic on Fridays with Braves games is BAD and arranged for the band to start a few minutes late to allow for people to get in the arena.

Foreigner - despite being a true cover band - no members who played on any of the hit records were on stage - Mick Jones was described as "ailing" put on a good show. They have so much energy! I would say that they and Night Ranger both have more energy that Journey. Good show, all the hits (well, with the exception of That Was Yesterday, Say You Will, and I Don't Want To Live Without You).

Journey comes out to Seperate Ways - good rendition of that, Arnel seems to nail it. Ask The Lonely was also good. Then for some reason they pull out When You Love A Woman. I would have rather heard Send Her My Love or Who's Crying Now in that ballad slot, neither of which were played. City of Hope is next. Crowd sits. Arnel seems to be struggling a bit with the notes. Then Stone in Love - nicely done. Now I'm going to mix up the order here, but they go with Faithfully (struggles), Lights (well done), Edge Of the Moment (crowd sits and goes to the bathroom - Arnel desperately trying to get people to stand up and get into the song, but the crowd is not having anything to do with that), Open Arms, Wheel In The Sky, Be Good To Yourself, and then for some reason La Do Da (Escape stayed on the bench to my disappointment), Anyway You Want It. Short break from the encore and then Don't Stop Believin (nailed it!) and Lovin Touchin.

So the performance. On the positive, they played most of the hits with a few exceptions, crowd was into it, Cain's piano sounded great, the backing vocals were strong (if not overpowering). The negatives - Arnel was clearly struggling on many of the songs. Really needed Jon and Deen to sing many of the chorus vocals. Arnel did a lot of holding the microphone a foot from his mouth and either a mouthing the words or b) holding it to the audience for the audience to sing. A lot of times he did not sing on the choruses and let Jonathan/Deen sing those parts. A lot in the audience probably didn't realize it, as he does a good job of making it seem like he is singing, but not really singing. In many cases the music was louder than his voice and the background vocals were turned way up. In a few cases I even think Deen might have been backing him on some lead parts. Someone needs to tell Neal to turn it down. A bit of guitar playing is fun, but too often every song became a shred fest. Bordered on obnoxious. We had extended versions of some songs that could have been cut down to fit 1-2 more songs in. But if Arnel's chops are wearing down, maybe this is a way to give him a rest. Arnel went back stage a lot and you could see him drinking lots of water. I hate to say it, but I think the guy's vocal cords are just fried. Maybe he had a cold or something, but seemed to be struggling mightily. He tries though - he isn't going through the motions - you can tell he really wants to hit it. But damn those songs are just murder on a voice. At some point maybe Journey looks into a female lead singer (ala Boston), because these songs just will tear up a dude's voice.

Was it worth $100 a ticket? Probably. It was fine. Was it the best concert I've ever been to? Not by a long shot. Will I see them again. Probably not in the near future. Kind of a been there, done that. Done that a few times and its not any different - if anything the show has probably taken a step back in recent years.

Would love to hear perspective of anyone else who was at the Atlanta show.

[Gideon]

Thanks for the review, Toph.
Did Neal give out another PRS at the show? The only video I've found for AWYWI is blurry, but I think he did.

[Ehwmatt]

This was my first time seeing the lineup with Arnel. Had high hopes and part of the time my expecations were met, but other times it was disappointing.

Only caught 1 and 1/2 songs of Night Ranger due to bad Atlanta traffic - Friday evening traffic plus 50,000 at Braves game plus 16,000 at concert only a few miles away made for long traffic wait. But Night Ranger was off that stage at 7:25. They must have had to start early. Isn't the rule on concerts to start a few minutes late? Usually acts come on about 15 minutes after the time of the ticket. The promoter should realize that Atlanta traffic on Fridays with Braves games is BAD and arranged for the band to start a few minutes late to allow for people to get in the arena.

For some reason, Night Ranger has started early at seemingly every show. I saw reviews before I went August 6 that said as much, and sure enough, they started at 6:50 for me. It really is BS on the promoter's/management's part. People expect concerts to start late, like you said.

[fightingilliniJRNY]

This was my first time seeing the lineup with Arnel. Had high hopes and part of the time my expecations were met, but other times it was disappointing.

Only caught 1 and 1/2 songs of Night Ranger due to bad Atlanta traffic - Friday evening traffic plus 50,000 at Braves game plus 16,000 at concert only a few miles away made for long traffic wait. But Night Ranger was off that stage at 7:25. They must have had to start early. Isn't the rule on concerts to start a few minutes late? Usually acts come on about 15 minutes after the time of the ticket. The promoter should realize that Atlanta traffic on Fridays with Braves games is BAD and arranged for the band to start a few minutes late to allow for people to get in the arena.

For some reason, Night Ranger has started early at seemingly every show. I saw reviews before I went August 6 that said as much, and sure enough, they started at 6:50 for me. It really is BS on the promoter's/management's part. People expect concerts to start late, like you said.

I have no earthly idea why Night Ranger has been starting early and Journey has been finishing 15-20 minutes before the 11:00 curfew that most venues have. It seems to me it would be exactly the same logistically for Night Ranger to start ON TIME and Journey to finish AT 11:00. All the set change times would stay the same!

[tater1977]

Thanks for the review, Toph.
Did Neal give out another PRS at the show? The only video I've found for AWYWI is blurry, but I think he did.

@TheJonathanCainJonathan Cain


Thanks to Journey fans in Atlanta for making last night's show a sell-out! Neal Schon gave another PRS guitar! http://pic.twitter.com/3N82AUcN

[Gideon]

That's awesome!

[Ehwmatt]

This was my first time seeing the lineup with Arnel. Had high hopes and part of the time my expecations were met, but other times it was disappointing.

Only caught 1 and 1/2 songs of Night Ranger due to bad Atlanta traffic - Friday evening traffic plus 50,000 at Braves game plus 16,000 at concert only a few miles away made for long traffic wait. But Night Ranger was off that stage at 7:25. They must have had to start early. Isn't the rule on concerts to start a few minutes late? Usually acts come on about 15 minutes after the time of the ticket. The promoter should realize that Atlanta traffic on Fridays with Braves games is BAD and arranged for the band to start a few minutes late to allow for people to get in the arena.

For some reason, Night Ranger has started early at seemingly every show. I saw reviews before I went August 6 that said as much, and sure enough, they started at 6:50 for me. It really is BS on the promoter's/management's part. People expect concerts to start late, like you said.

I have no earthly idea why Night Ranger has been starting early and Journey has been finishing 15-20 minutes before the 11:00 curfew that most venues have. It seems to me it would be exactly the same logistically for Night Ranger to start ON TIME and Journey to finish AT 11:00. All the set change times would stay the same!

Thanks for pointing that out. I forgot about the latter detail- Journey finishes well before 11 anyway. I do remember that making me wonder even more walking outta the show why Night Ranger started so early.

It really seems weird/bush league.