The Revelations Tour: lessons learned (or not)

[Majestic]

For me the Eclipse tour is a bit dissapointing. When I remember what the Revelations tour was, the Eclipse tour seems awful. On the Revelations tour they played a lot of songs from the new album, and they were very good songs. They also injected energy into the classics with extended versions that made 20 year old songs sound fresh and new.

This tour, we get one or two Eclipse songs, and not songs that anyone cares for, and songs that shouldn't even be played considering the reality of what the tastes of most Journey fans are, a taste which Journey has cultivated in them for 30 years. There are several good songs on Eclipse that would appeal to Journey's broader fan base such as Anything is Possible, Someone, Tantra, She's a Mystery, To Whom..., etc. and they should being playing some of these, at least three a night or else there is no sense in having an 'Eclipse tour' at all, unless they are trying to eclipse their own album so that nobody knows it exists. Why would they do that though?

They also need to keep doing some of the classics the way they played them on the Revelations tour in order to let fans take the current Journey line up as a serious classic rock band that's still got something to show and not just a cover band of themselves. They even made die hards like Open Arms with the way they played it last tour! I also think What I needed is one of the best live songs they've got, and it showcases Neal and Arnel in a big way and is a modern song with a classic feel.Why drop it? Just because it rocks that good?

They need to keep the extended versions of the classics because they are actually better than the originals, and it puts life into the songs. These guys can't still love playing Open Arms 30 years later, but they've got to bring it for the fans. Playing the extended versions should help the band keep it real by allowing them to care about playing it and not being bored to death at it 'yet again.'

People say they don't have enough time to do this, but I disagree. If they made After all These Years, What I needed, plus rotated in 3 songs from Eclipse from the songs I mentioned above, that is only 5 songs. Of the dirty dozen, there are several that are not monster hits, and some that we even actually hate like Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' that can be permanently jettisoned to make room for playing new songs that are worth doing.

I was going to go see a show on this tour, and that didn't work out this year. Actually, I'm not that upsed about it, because I would have been disappointed with this tour since I've already seen the "Hits" live enough times to not care that much about it. Looking back on the Revelations tour, I'm really disappointed I missed an opportunity to take in one of those shows, because that was Journey playing at a level not seen since the 80s.

[Eric]

I agree with the extended versions being so much better and alive...but I don't think they did those on the first leg of the Revelations tour...it was in 2009 when they mostly toured alone.

[Ehwmatt]

It really was and is a shitty tour. End of story.

[Don]

I think we have learned that Journey with an accent, performing in original key sounds 100 times better than an accent free Journey performing in Eb.

[Hollywood]

Eric is correct. When they did the big package tour with Cheap Trick and Heart only three songs from Revelations were being played Never Walk Away, After All These Years, and Wildest Dreams. They did not expand this until the next year and the expanded versions of older songs were also 2009. The time constraints of the 3-bill tour restricts the band's time greatly and they have made the decision to play only two (Three at the beginning) and for 85% of the audience this is probably the right decision. Foreigner is getting a longer set than Heart which is deserving considering that every song they play in their set was a hit.

As for which songs from a new album are played I have never understood this. Many bands seem to chose songs that are different from what I would choose.