Concerns/Hopes For Summer Tour

[AR]

Steve Augeri is playing a much more interesting setlist than what Journey does.

THAT is not not true.....despite him not sounding great I'd love to catch one of his shows. I love the the same percentage of post-Perry catalog as I do the hits with Perry.

Augeri sounds fine through loud amps in person as long as you are into rock and not one of the American Idol crooner crowd. "Remember ME" is in the set now. He played Higher Place when I saw him last year and had the pleasure of meeting TNC at the show.

Wow! I'd LOVE to catch Augeri live, especially if he's including Remember Me and Higher Place! Two of my most favorite from the Augeri years!

From just a few days ago - Remember Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgj7_7NZf3Y

[brywool]

I ride the band as hard as anyone around here but I still gave in last year and went to see them in the hopes that they would at least play their one currently on the charts at that time (Anything Is Possible). Now, they could play the whole damn Eclipse album and that just wouldn't be enough for me to spend money on them again.
When I saw them on the Escape tour, they played six new songs. On the Frontiers tour, I heard six also. The Revelation tour, I got three songs and last year one.
I bought Journey's Greatest Hits 2 a few months back, that'll be my one Journey purchase for this year.

I don't think that's entirely the band's fault that they didn't do more Eclipse stuff. If nobody's heard it and the reaction from people is "let's go to the bathroom" or "Let's check our cell phones" or worse, "let's be a rude audience and scream for 'Lovin Touchin' Squeezin' even though we KNOW they're gonna play it" then they actually did the right thing by jettisoning those songs. It sucks, but it was the right thing to keep the shows moving.

I blame the audience, TV/Radio, Journey's management, AND Journey. The audience won't let the band move on. TV/Radio don't do ANYTHING with new music unless there's shock value in it. Journey's Management seems to be a joke. But the band really needed to "SELL" those songs from the stage. "City of Hope" which a lot of folks here don't dig (I think it's fine) had a video production going on behind it and they tied it into Arnel's home. So they were trying to push that one a bit. When they played it live, it did have some excitement behind it (at least when I saw it). "Resonate" (the only other live one from Eclipse I heard) really didn't have that going for it and unfortunately, the band seemed pretty tired when they were performing it. The video shows a pretty lifeless performance unfortunately.

While Arnel sang his ass off in Seattle (He did a really amazing rendition of "Faithfully", btw) he's just not the frontguy that he needs to be. Personally, I liked him better when he started with Journey. To me, it seems they reigned him in. That vibe he had in the beginning of his tenure with the band some didn't dig ("he runs around too much, blah blah blah"), but to me, it screamed "I'm so happy to be in this band!" which is a cool thing and his energy was contagious. However, when I saw them on the last tour in Seattle, it was a VERY subdued band that I saw. WAYYYYYY too serious. Jesus, lighten up and have some fun. Other than the Frontiers shows I saw (where Perry seemed to not want to be there), Perry was always about the fun while the rest of the band could be as faceless as they wanted to be. Arnel is a reserved and shy dude. That's just who he is. Love the guy's singing and I couldn't give a flying fu** if he can sing like that where he comes from, or what color he is. But he really needs to take control of the stage because Journey is not a band of personalities. Journey is a band of musicians that really only seem to care about playing well. They don't seem to really care if they're communicating to their audience from the stage. They're asking a guy who's second language is English to do that. Totally not fair to Pineda. He's also the guy with the shortest history with them, so for him to say "This is one we did on Infinity" or whatever feels funky for the lifelong Journey fans. Understandable and not his fault at all.

Take a band like Cheap Trick (just an example)- their singer is NOT a front guy. He stands there and sings (his ass off). There's no rule that says the singer HAS to be the front guy. They rarely have Robin Zander talk. Usually, it's Rick Nielsen doing all the talking. He's good at it. Jon Cain is NOT a good speaker for the band at shows. He's way too long winded and reserved. Neal isn't either. Deen? Maybe he'd have some kind of personality behind the mic- not as a singer cuz that ain't happening, but as a mouthpiece for the band. Hell, have them all talk but don't just ramble as JC does. Perry was killer at the banter and getting the crowd going. Superb front guy. Right now, that is the element that's missing from Journey for me. I don't fault Arnel for that (obviously). There are guys that can do it and guys that can't. Arnel is a killer singer. He is. Let him sing and let someone else do the yacking. OR get him some coaching on Frontguy 101. For what it's worth, I also thought Augeri was not a good front guy for Journey. Again, just didn't have that energy or the voice for those songs (but I love his recorded stuff with the band). Arnel's got the energy, and the voice, but it's experience or coaching/confidence? he needs. I'd think by now that'd be there. Think of it though, you're still the new guy in the band. If he does something off the cuff and the rest of the band doesn't like it, it's like getting a bad performance review at yer job. I wonder how he is as a frontguy in his bands from home. I'd be curious to know if it's a different vibe with him in that setting.

[AR]

I ride the band as hard as anyone around here but I still gave in last year and went to see them in the hopes that they would at least play their one currently on the charts at that time (Anything Is Possible). Now, they could play the whole damn Eclipse album and that just wouldn't be enough for me to spend money on them again.
When I saw them on the Escape tour, they played six new songs. On the Frontiers tour, I heard six also. The Revelation tour, I got three songs and last year one.
I bought Journey's Greatest Hits 2 a few months back, that'll be my one Journey purchase for this year.

I don't think that's entirely the band's fault that they didn't do more Eclipse stuff. If nobody's heard it and the reaction from people is "let's go to the bathroom" or "Let's check our cell phones" or worse, "let's be a rude audience and scream for 'Lovin Touchin' Squeezin' even though we KNOW they're gonna play it" then they actually did the right thing by jettisoning those songs. It sucks, but it was the right thing to keep the shows moving.

I blame the audience, TV/Radio, Journey's management, AND Journey. The audience won't let the band move on. TV/Radio don't do ANYTHING with new music unless there's shock value in it. Journey's Management seems to be a joke. But the band really needed to "SELL" those songs from the stage. "City of Hope" which a lot of folks here don't dig (I think it's fine) had a video production going on behind it and they tied it into Arnel's home. So they were trying to push that one a bit. When they played it live, it did have some excitement behind it (at least when I saw it). "Resonate" (the only other live one from Eclipse I heard) really didn't have that going for it and unfortunately, the band seemed pretty tired when they were performing it. The video shows a pretty lifeless performance unfortunately.

While Arnel sang his ass off in Seattle (He did a really amazing rendition of "Faithfully", btw) he's just not the frontguy that he needs to be. Personally, I liked him better when he started with Journey. To me, it seems they reigned him in. That vibe he had in the beginning of his tenure with the band some didn't dig ("he runs around too much, blah blah blah"), but to me, it screamed "I'm so happy to be in this band!" which is a cool thing and his energy was contagious. However, when I saw them on the last tour in Seattle, it was a VERY subdued band that I saw. WAYYYYYY too serious. Jesus, lighten up and have some fun. Other than the Frontiers shows I saw (where Perry seemed to not want to be there), Perry was always about the fun while the rest of the band could be as faceless as they wanted to be. Arnel is a reserved and shy dude. That's just who he is. Love the guy's singing and I couldn't give a flying fu** if he can sing like that where he comes from, or what color he is. But he really needs to take control of the stage because Journey is not a band of personalities. Journey is a band of musicians that really only seem to care about playing well. They don't seem to really care if they're communicating to their audience from the stage. They're asking a guy who's second language is English to do that. Totally not fair to Pineda. He's also the guy with the shortest history with them, so for him to say "This is one we did on Infinity" or whatever feels funky for the lifelong Journey fans. Understandable and not his fault at all.

Take a band like Cheap Trick (just an example)- their singer is NOT a front guy. He stands there and sings (his ass off). There's no rule that says the singer HAS to be the front guy. They rarely have Robin Zander talk. Usually, it's Rick Nielsen doing all the talking. He's good at it. Jon Cain is NOT a good speaker for the band at shows. He's way too long winded and reserved. Neal isn't either. Deen? Maybe he'd have some kind of personality behind the mic- not as a singer cuz that ain't happening, but as a mouthpiece for the band. Hell, have them all talk but don't just ramble as JC does. Perry was killer at the banter and getting the crowd going. Superb front guy. Right now, that is the element that's missing from Journey for me. I don't fault Arnel for that (obviously). There are guys that can do it and guys that can't. Arnel is a killer singer. He is. Let him sing and let someone else do the yacking. OR get him some coaching on Frontguy 101. For what it's worth, I also though Augeri was not a good front guy for Journey. Again, just didn't have that energy or the voice for those songs. Arnel's got the energy, and the voice, but it's experience or coaching/confidence? he needs. I'd think by now that'd be there. Think of it though, you're still the new guy in the band. If he does something off the cuff and the rest of the band doesn't like it, it's like getting a bad performance review at yer job. I wonder how he is as a frontguy in his bands from home. I'd be curious to know if it's a different vibe with him in that setting.

Lots of great points made in this post. I agree with most of it.

I'm kind of a fan of Augeri as a frontman from his days in Journey though. He came off gracious, humble and a pro.

[brywool]

I ride the band as hard as anyone around here but I still gave in last year and went to see them in the hopes that they would at least play their one currently on the charts at that time (Anything Is Possible). Now, they could play the whole damn Eclipse album and that just wouldn't be enough for me to spend money on them again.
When I saw them on the Escape tour, they played six new songs. On the Frontiers tour, I heard six also. The Revelation tour, I got three songs and last year one.
I bought Journey's Greatest Hits 2 a few months back, that'll be my one Journey purchase for this year.

I don't think that's entirely the band's fault that they didn't do more Eclipse stuff. If nobody's heard it and the reaction from people is "let's go to the bathroom" or "Let's check our cell phones" or worse, "let's be a rude audience and scream for 'Lovin Touchin' Squeezin' even though we KNOW they're gonna play it" then they actually did the right thing by jettisoning those songs. It sucks, but it was the right thing to keep the shows moving.

I blame the audience, TV/Radio, Journey's management, AND Journey. The audience won't let the band move on. TV/Radio don't do ANYTHING with new music unless there's shock value in it. Journey's Management seems to be a joke. But the band really needed to "SELL" those songs from the stage. "City of Hope" which a lot of folks here don't dig (I think it's fine) had a video production going on behind it and they tied it into Arnel's home. So they were trying to push that one a bit. When they played it live, it did have some excitement behind it (at least when I saw it). "Resonate" (the only other live one from Eclipse I heard) really didn't have that going for it and unfortunately, the band seemed pretty tired when they were performing it. The video shows a pretty lifeless performance unfortunately.

While Arnel sang his ass off in Seattle (He did a really amazing rendition of "Faithfully", btw) he's just not the frontguy that he needs to be. Personally, I liked him better when he started with Journey. To me, it seems they reigned him in. That vibe he had in the beginning of his tenure with the band some didn't dig ("he runs around too much, blah blah blah"), but to me, it screamed "I'm so happy to be in this band!" which is a cool thing and his energy was contagious. However, when I saw them on the last tour in Seattle, it was a VERY subdued band that I saw. WAYYYYYY too serious. Jesus, lighten up and have some fun. Other than the Frontiers shows I saw (where Perry seemed to not want to be there), Perry was always about the fun while the rest of the band could be as faceless as they wanted to be. Arnel is a reserved and shy dude. That's just who he is. Love the guy's singing and I couldn't give a flying fu** if he can sing like that where he comes from, or what color he is. But he really needs to take control of the stage because Journey is not a band of personalities. Journey is a band of musicians that really only seem to care about playing well. They don't seem to really care if they're communicating to their audience from the stage. They're asking a guy who's second language is English to do that. Totally not fair to Pineda. He's also the guy with the shortest history with them, so for him to say "This is one we did on Infinity" or whatever feels funky for the lifelong Journey fans. Understandable and not his fault at all.

Take a band like Cheap Trick (just an example)- their singer is NOT a front guy. He stands there and sings (his ass off). There's no rule that says the singer HAS to be the front guy. They rarely have Robin Zander talk. Usually, it's Rick Nielsen doing all the talking. He's good at it. Jon Cain is NOT a good speaker for the band at shows. He's way too long winded and reserved. Neal isn't either. Deen? Maybe he'd have some kind of personality behind the mic- not as a singer cuz that ain't happening, but as a mouthpiece for the band. Hell, have them all talk but don't just ramble as JC does. Perry was killer at the banter and getting the crowd going. Superb front guy. Right now, that is the element that's missing from Journey for me. I don't fault Arnel for that (obviously). There are guys that can do it and guys that can't. Arnel is a killer singer. He is. Let him sing and let someone else do the yacking. OR get him some coaching on Frontguy 101. For what it's worth, I also though Augeri was not a good front guy for Journey. Again, just didn't have that energy or the voice for those songs. Arnel's got the energy, and the voice, but it's experience or coaching/confidence? he needs. I'd think by now that'd be there. Think of it though, you're still the new guy in the band. If he does something off the cuff and the rest of the band doesn't like it, it's like getting a bad performance review at yer job. I wonder how he is as a frontguy in his bands from home. I'd be curious to know if it's a different vibe with him in that setting.

Lots of great points made in this post. I agree with most of it.

I'm kind of a fan of Augeri as a frontman from his days in Journey though. He came off gracious, humble and a pro.

Augeri DID come off as humble! YES. He was just too laid back for me and his voice just wasn't made for those tunes. I'll never forget him singing the high B in DSB ("somewhere in the Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight") and it was AIRY falsetto with no power. This was on his first tour with Journey. I was really disappointed in him live, not to mention his live pitch was dreadful. However, I loved the albums he did with the band and the first Tall Stories record is still a favorite. So I like Augeri quite a bit and would buy anything he put out. Journey stuff is hard to sing and I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did. Arnel is also incredibly humble about his good fortune and that's one of the reasons I really like him. That and his whole "I'm an old guy and I just landed the gig in one of the world's biggest bands" is pretty darned inspirational. And say what you want, the guy's a killer vocalist. I haven't weighed in on the whole Rascal Flatts thing, but I thought his vocal tone was so much bigger than the RF guy. The RF guy was all range and nose. Arnel's tone was so much fatter. It sucked that they made them edit the song down and thus gave fans something else to gripe about as if he'd forgotten the words or something. Not saying it was the best performance by any of them, but to me, it was respectable. Those are NOT easy songs to sing. Not many can do that one. It was also live. Perry used to say "Singing live means never having to say you're sorry". YUP!

[Don]

I ride the band as hard as anyone around here but I still gave in last year and went to see them in the hopes that they would at least play their one currently on the charts at that time (Anything Is Possible). Now, they could play the whole damn Eclipse album and that just wouldn't be enough for me to spend money on them again.
When I saw them on the Escape tour, they played six new songs. On the Frontiers tour, I heard six also. The Revelation tour, I got three songs and last year one.
I bought Journey's Greatest Hits 2 a few months back, that'll be my one Journey purchase for this year.

I don't think that's entirely the band's fault that they didn't do more Eclipse stuff. If nobody's heard it and the reaction from people is "let's go to the bathroom" or "Let's check our cell phones" or worse, "let's be a rude audience and scream for 'Lovin Touchin' Squeezin' even though we KNOW they're gonna play it" then they actually did the right thing by jettisoning those songs. It sucks, but it was the right thing to keep the shows moving.

I blame the audience, TV/Radio, Journey's management, AND Journey. The audience won't let the band move on. TV/Radio don't do ANYTHING with new music unless there's shock value in it. Journey's Management seems to be a joke. But the band really needed to "SELL" those songs from the stage. "City of Hope" which a lot of folks here don't dig (I think it's fine) had a video production going on behind it and they tied it into Arnel's home. So they were trying to push that one a bit. When they played it live, it did have some excitement behind it (at least when I saw it). "Resonate" (the only other live one from Eclipse I heard) really didn't have that going for it and unfortunately, the band seemed pretty tired when they were performing it. The video shows a pretty lifeless performance unfortunately.

While Arnel sang his ass off in Seattle (He did a really amazing rendition of "Faithfully", btw) he's just not the frontguy that he needs to be. Personally, I liked him better when he started with Journey. To me, it seems they reigned him in. That vibe he had in the beginning of his tenure with the band some didn't dig ("he runs around too much, blah blah blah"), but to me, it screamed "I'm so happy to be in this band!" which is a cool thing and his energy was contagious. However, when I saw them on the last tour in Seattle, it was a VERY subdued band that I saw. WAYYYYYY too serious. Jesus, lighten up and have some fun. Other than the Frontiers shows I saw (where Perry seemed to not want to be there), Perry was always about the fun while the rest of the band could be as faceless as they wanted to be. Arnel is a reserved and shy dude. That's just who he is. Love the guy's singing and I couldn't give a flying fu** if he can sing like that where he comes from, or what color he is. But he really needs to take control of the stage because Journey is not a band of personalities. Journey is a band of musicians that really only seem to care about playing well. They don't seem to really care if they're communicating to their audience from the stage. They're asking a guy who's second language is English to do that. Totally not fair to Pineda. He's also the guy with the shortest history with them, so for him to say "This is one we did on Infinity" or whatever feels funky for the lifelong Journey fans. Understandable and not his fault at all.

Take a band like Cheap Trick (just an example)- their singer is NOT a front guy. He stands there and sings (his ass off). There's no rule that says the singer HAS to be the front guy. They rarely have Robin Zander talk. Usually, it's Rick Nielsen doing all the talking. He's good at it. Jon Cain is NOT a good speaker for the band at shows. He's way too long winded and reserved. Neal isn't either. Deen? Maybe he'd have some kind of personality behind the mic- not as a singer cuz that ain't happening, but as a mouthpiece for the band. Hell, have them all talk but don't just ramble as JC does. Perry was killer at the banter and getting the crowd going. Superb front guy. Right now, that is the element that's missing from Journey for me. I don't fault Arnel for that (obviously). There are guys that can do it and guys that can't. Arnel is a killer singer. He is. Let him sing and let someone else do the yacking. OR get him some coaching on Frontguy 101. For what it's worth, I also though Augeri was not a good front guy for Journey. Again, just didn't have that energy or the voice for those songs. Arnel's got the energy, and the voice, but it's experience or coaching/confidence? he needs. I'd think by now that'd be there. Think of it though, you're still the new guy in the band. If he does something off the cuff and the rest of the band doesn't like it, it's like getting a bad performance review at yer job. I wonder how he is as a frontguy in his bands from home. I'd be curious to know if it's a different vibe with him in that setting.

I really think Arnel was at his best in 2008. He sang in key and despite his accent, he came across rather well. He was a bit hyper on stage but the guy was giving his all and the band seem enthused by it.
2009 was a different matter entirely. We found out by then that Arnel was going to be hired gun, staying in the Philippines when away from the band and basically only showing up when called. Anything the band was going to create was still going to be from the two guys with minimal input from others. And then when the tour started, we saw that Arnel had regressed quite a bit. His accent was worse than ever and on top of that, the band didn't look like quite the happy bunch they had before. Then you had Neal telling fans if they didn't like his extra noodling on Open Arms that they could just stay home instead (and that is what I did).

2011 had promise but it got off on the wrong foot by Journey not marketing their album properly (not even telling people it was on itunes or Amazon) and then the sound issues in Europe. I get it that they could play 4 or 5 new songs but at the end of the tour with the shows sold already what was the harm in playing your one song that was currently on the charts? All the initial talk from Jon and Neal about how the band was gonna play what they wanted this time out was just that, talk.
Also, Arnel basically copying anything Kelly Hansen did the previous show such as climbing up on the railings or walking into the crowd, that was just cheesy.

[AR]

I ride the band as hard as anyone around here but I still gave in last year and went to see them in the hopes that they would at least play their one currently on the charts at that time (Anything Is Possible). Now, they could play the whole damn Eclipse album and that just wouldn't be enough for me to spend money on them again.
When I saw them on the Escape tour, they played six new songs. On the Frontiers tour, I heard six also. The Revelation tour, I got three songs and last year one.
I bought Journey's Greatest Hits 2 a few months back, that'll be my one Journey purchase for this year.

I don't think that's entirely the band's fault that they didn't do more Eclipse stuff. If nobody's heard it and the reaction from people is "let's go to the bathroom" or "Let's check our cell phones" or worse, "let's be a rude audience and scream for 'Lovin Touchin' Squeezin' even though we KNOW they're gonna play it" then they actually did the right thing by jettisoning those songs. It sucks, but it was the right thing to keep the shows moving.

I blame the audience, TV/Radio, Journey's management, AND Journey. The audience won't let the band move on. TV/Radio don't do ANYTHING with new music unless there's shock value in it. Journey's Management seems to be a joke. But the band really needed to "SELL" those songs from the stage. "City of Hope" which a lot of folks here don't dig (I think it's fine) had a video production going on behind it and they tied it into Arnel's home. So they were trying to push that one a bit. When they played it live, it did have some excitement behind it (at least when I saw it). "Resonate" (the only other live one from Eclipse I heard) really didn't have that going for it and unfortunately, the band seemed pretty tired when they were performing it. The video shows a pretty lifeless performance unfortunately.

While Arnel sang his ass off in Seattle (He did a really amazing rendition of "Faithfully", btw) he's just not the frontguy that he needs to be. Personally, I liked him better when he started with Journey. To me, it seems they reigned him in. That vibe he had in the beginning of his tenure with the band some didn't dig ("he runs around too much, blah blah blah"), but to me, it screamed "I'm so happy to be in this band!" which is a cool thing and his energy was contagious. However, when I saw them on the last tour in Seattle, it was a VERY subdued band that I saw. WAYYYYYY too serious. Jesus, lighten up and have some fun. Other than the Frontiers shows I saw (where Perry seemed to not want to be there), Perry was always about the fun while the rest of the band could be as faceless as they wanted to be. Arnel is a reserved and shy dude. That's just who he is. Love the guy's singing and I couldn't give a flying fu** if he can sing like that where he comes from, or what color he is. But he really needs to take control of the stage because Journey is not a band of personalities. Journey is a band of musicians that really only seem to care about playing well. They don't seem to really care if they're communicating to their audience from the stage. They're asking a guy who's second language is English to do that. Totally not fair to Pineda. He's also the guy with the shortest history with them, so for him to say "This is one we did on Infinity" or whatever feels funky for the lifelong Journey fans. Understandable and not his fault at all.

Take a band like Cheap Trick (just an example)- their singer is NOT a front guy. He stands there and sings (his ass off). There's no rule that says the singer HAS to be the front guy. They rarely have Robin Zander talk. Usually, it's Rick Nielsen doing all the talking. He's good at it. Jon Cain is NOT a good speaker for the band at shows. He's way too long winded and reserved. Neal isn't either. Deen? Maybe he'd have some kind of personality behind the mic- not as a singer cuz that ain't happening, but as a mouthpiece for the band. Hell, have them all talk but don't just ramble as JC does. Perry was killer at the banter and getting the crowd going. Superb front guy. Right now, that is the element that's missing from Journey for me. I don't fault Arnel for that (obviously). There are guys that can do it and guys that can't. Arnel is a killer singer. He is. Let him sing and let someone else do the yacking. OR get him some coaching on Frontguy 101. For what it's worth, I also though Augeri was not a good front guy for Journey. Again, just didn't have that energy or the voice for those songs. Arnel's got the energy, and the voice, but it's experience or coaching/confidence? he needs. I'd think by now that'd be there. Think of it though, you're still the new guy in the band. If he does something off the cuff and the rest of the band doesn't like it, it's like getting a bad performance review at yer job. I wonder how he is as a frontguy in his bands from home. I'd be curious to know if it's a different vibe with him in that setting.

Lots of great points made in this post. I agree with most of it.

I'm kind of a fan of Augeri as a frontman from his days in Journey though. He came off gracious, humble and a pro.

Augeri DID come off as humble! YES. He was just too laid back for me and his voice just wasn't made for those tunes. I'll never forget him singing the high B in DSB ("somewhere in the Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight") and it was AIRY falsetto with no power. This was on his first tour with Journey. I was really disappointed in him live, not to mention his live pitch was dreadful. However, I loved the albums he did with the band and the first Tall Stories record is still a favorite. So I like Augeri quite a bit and would buy anything he put out. Journey stuff is hard to sing and I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did. Arnel is also incredibly humble about his good fortune and that's one of the reasons I really like him. That and his whole "I'm an old guy and I just landed the gig in one of the world's biggest bands" is pretty darned inspirational. And say what you want, the guy's a killer vocalist. I haven't weighed in on the whole Rascal Flatts thing, but I thought his vocal tone was so much bigger than the RF guy. The RF guy was all range and nose. Arnel's tone was so much fatter. It sucked that they made them edit the song down and thus gave fans something else to gripe about as if he'd forgotten the words or something. Not saying it was the best performance by any of them, but to me, it was respectable. Those are NOT easy songs to sing. Not many can do that one. It was also live. Perry used to say "Singing live means never having to say you're sorry". YUP!

The only time I was ever disappointed in SA live was when it wasn't.

At concerts I will throw a few drinks back (shock) and rock out. I'm not that critical, although Perry set the bar high obviously. Unless a vocal performance is absolutely dreadful like Don Dokken was this year at M3, I will enjoy it.

SA did a fine job in that band. Too much touring though.

[brywool]

I really think Arnel was at his best in 2008. He sang in key and despite his accent, he came across rather well. He was a bit hyper on stage but the guy was giving his all and the band seem enthused by it.

YUP

2009 was a different matter entirely. We found out by then that Arnel was going to be hired gun, staying in the Philippines when away from the band and basically only showing up when called. Anything the band was going to create was still going to be from the two guys with minimal input from others. And then when the tour started, we saw that Arnel had regressed quite a bit. His accent was worse than ever and on top of that, the band didn't look like quite the happy bunch they had before. Then you had Neal telling fans if they didn't like his extra noodling on Open Arms that they could just stay home instead (and that is what I did).

Eh, where the guy lives is beside the point. Yeah, it was always going to be the J/N show as far as the writing. At least they let Pindeda contribute at all. J/N are veterans. For them to just say "Here Arnel, go write us a number 1" is pretty unrealistic and if that's what peeps were expecting, then that's their problem, not the bands. In the days of no internet, being halfway 'round the world was a big issue. It's not like that. there are MANY bands that write and record on either different continents or different coasts. It can be done. The noodling, yeah, that was pretty silly. It sure seemed like something kind of "snapped" within Neal. I remember a similar thing before "Generations". "We're gonna rock harder, blah blah blah". Well, they did that and did something totally different (as many fans seemed to be begging for) and it blew up in their faces. They did a similar thing with Eclipse. 'We're going to do a concept album which is different for us' and people said "Gee, I don't hear a single or a power ballad or big choruses, or whatever'. Fans won't let the band move on. I think Eclipse is a great record, but it's not the kind of record that's going to have fans holding lighters and cryin' in each others arms. Take it for what it is, a departure (pardon the pun) and enjoy it. If it's not poppy enough, go put on Raised on Radio and turn on Lifetime.

2011 had promise but it got off on the wrong foot by Journey not marketing their album properly (not even telling people it was on itunes or Amazon) and then the sound issues in Europe. I get it that they could play 4 or 5 new songs but at the end of the tour with the shows sold already what was the harm in playing your one song that was currently on the charts? All the initial talk from Jon and Neal about how the band was gonna play what they wanted this time out was just that, talk.
Also, Arnel basically copying anything Kelly Hansen did the previous show such as climbing up on the railings or walking into the crowd, that was just cheesy.

I can't comment on the Kelly Hansen thing as I didn't see that. I heard people mention that, but never saw it. But the rest of this paragraph I agree with you on.

[brywool]

SA did a fine job in that band. Too much touring though.

Man, I remember people just ripping apart his Today show concerts and many of his other shows (Baton Rouge). Now it's like he was the second coming. Too much touring, yes. According to one of his voice teachers "that gig was always hard on him". That's straight from the horse's mouth. Steve Augeri SHOULD have had the keys lowered. People would've blasted him on it. It's funny, people were saying "lower the keys to save the singer" when Augeri and JSS were in the band. Jss did it for at least one show (and didn't dig it), and they've done it to preserve Pineda's pipes... all the sudden, it's sacrilegious. Please...

[tater1977]

Don't know why but this just struck me as funny....


Constant celebration: Three big retro acts will come together at the Ted


http://www.dailypress.com/news/top-list ... 4633.story

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, the Ted Constant Convocation Center is holding a concert featuring three acts that were popular 30 years ago. OK, so that sounds funny, but it's actually a pretty good show that the Ted has lined up for October 2: a classic rock triple header of Journey (minus Steve Perry), Loverboy (original lineup still basically intact) and Pat Benatar (who is, yes, still Pat Benatar). Here are the details.

[Arkansas]

Uhm, why should there be any hopes & concerns by other than the band(s) themselves?
Nobody, here or elsewhere, really cares any more.

People will go to the shows. The promoters will make their share, and the band(s) will get paid.
It's all business, nothing more.


later~

[The_Noble_Cause]

Man, I remember people just ripping apart his Today show concerts and many of his other shows (Baton Rouge).

It was the CBS Morning Show, not NBC Today. And yeah, it was horrible. They did DSB and HP. SA's voice was not there that day. They also had an appearance on the syndicated show, Blind Date. The show featured a clip of the band performing World Gone Wild. I remember one local rock radio show ripping the performance and callers calling in saying "who was that guy" referring to Augeri. If you're gonna replace a legend, you better have the goods. Luckily for Arnel, he is a much better vocalist than Augeri. I like Augeri. But the Journey songbook kicked his ass.

[Liam]

I think the touring to death is what kicked his ass.

[Eric]

I think the touring to death is what kicked his ass.

Although they had to re-do the vocals for the Journey 2001 DVD and that was in 2000....

[brywool]

I saw him in the beginning with Journey. The songs were too high for him. Not a slam on the guy. I like Augeri. One classy individual and a good singer on record. But for Journey, his voice was always trying to catch up. He was a good fit personality-wise with the band, or seemed to be at first. But in the end, you could tell that Neal wanted nothing to do with him and made it pretty obvious, which was pretty uncool.

[AR]

SA did a fine job in that band. Too much touring though.

Man, I remember people just ripping apart his Today show concerts and many of his other shows (Baton Rouge). Now it's like he was the second coming. Too much touring, yes. According to one of his voice teachers "that gig was always hard on him". That's straight from the horse's mouth. Steve Augeri SHOULD have had the keys lowered. People would've blasted him on it. It's funny, people were saying "lower the keys to save the singer" when Augeri and JSS were in the band. Jss did it for at least one show (and didn't dig it), and they've done it to preserve Pineda's pipes... all the sudden, it's sacrilegious. Please...

They lowered them 2 steps down for Perry at the Bill Graham tribute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI794fcvfjc

I'll take Augeri's Today show performance over this.

[Don]

Shockingly, I've actually heard the Bill Graham performance of Faithfully on the radio, when the local station here in L.A. does its live cuts weekend.

[Eric]

SA did a fine job in that band. Too much touring though.

Man, I remember people just ripping apart his Today show concerts and many of his other shows (Baton Rouge). Now it's like he was the second coming. Too much touring, yes. According to one of his voice teachers "that gig was always hard on him". That's straight from the horse's mouth. Steve Augeri SHOULD have had the keys lowered. People would've blasted him on it. It's funny, people were saying "lower the keys to save the singer" when Augeri and JSS were in the band. Jss did it for at least one show (and didn't dig it), and they've done it to preserve Pineda's pipes... all the sudden, it's sacrilegious. Please...

They lowered them 2 steps down for Perry at the Bill Graham tribute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI794fcvfjc

I'll take Augeri's Today show performance over this.

I'd honestly take Augeri at the end - tapes and all - over the Raised on Radio vocals. Just awful stuff.

[AR]

SA did a fine job in that band. Too much touring though.

Man, I remember people just ripping apart his Today show concerts and many of his other shows (Baton Rouge). Now it's like he was the second coming. Too much touring, yes. According to one of his voice teachers "that gig was always hard on him". That's straight from the horse's mouth. Steve Augeri SHOULD have had the keys lowered. People would've blasted him on it. It's funny, people were saying "lower the keys to save the singer" when Augeri and JSS were in the band. Jss did it for at least one show (and didn't dig it), and they've done it to preserve Pineda's pipes... all the sudden, it's sacrilegious. Please...

They lowered them 2 steps down for Perry at the Bill Graham tribute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI794fcvfjc

I'll take Augeri's Today show performance over this.

I'd honestly take Augeri at the end - tapes and all - over the Raised on Radio vocals. Just awful stuff.

Well, you know as well as I do that as fans we were very lucky to have a touring version of Journey as long as we did.

Perry got out at the right time and didn't need the cash.

Augeri did great for awhile.

Just time to shut it down and it has been for a long time.

[The_Noble_Cause]

I'll take Augeri's Today show performance over this.

I wouldn't. Have you seen the CBS Morning Show performance? It was so bad I thought the Augeri era was over right then and there.

[Navarro]

I'll take Augeri's Today show performance over this.

I wouldn't. Have you seen the CBS Morning Show performance? It was so bad I thought the Augeri era was over right then and there.

Is there a link to this performance?

[The_Noble_Cause]

Is there a link to this performance?

It was on Youtube. It's been taken down.