Hollywood, Florida Show last night.
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:41 amOk, new to this board but not new to message boards. I've read a lot of the threads and I think I have a good handle on a lot of the discussions. I think it's awesome that there is such a vibrant community of Journey fans like this one. I want to let you guys know my thoughts on Journey's show last night but perhaps I should explain a bit about myself first.
I am 37 years old, which means I was a teen-ager during the height of the Steve Perry era. I always liked Journey, and after the Frontiers album I remember telling my best friend at the time that there was nowhere for Journey to go but down. It was just an idea that I had, that the music was SO GOOD that it would be hard to top.
Anyway, like I said, I was fan but not a huge one. I never saw Journey live. I was into Van Halen, The Police, U2 and other stuff.
I had pretty much forgotten about Journey after SP was no longer there. Then I saw the Behind the Music on Journey and heard SA for the first time. I was excited about the development because I always got the feeling that SP was kind of a tool and I knew that Journey had existed before SP and I thought that it could exist afterwards.
I even downloaded some tunes from the Arrival EP and love them.
So last week I found out that Journey and Def Leppard were going to be in town, I jumped at the opportunity to buy a pair of tickets. The only ones left were 300 level in the back of the (5500 seat) arena. Although I like Def Leppard my real reason for going was Journey.
The show was scheduled to start at 7:30 but because of work/traffic reasons I didn't get to my seat until about 8:45. Unfortunately this was the one rock show I've ever been to where the acts were punctual. Total bummer. I got to the show and only saw 4 Journey songs. The first song I saw in its entirety was, Faithfully which Deen Castronovo sang. Wow, was he good and man Neal is so great.
When the next song came on, I was expecting SA. I know, I know, I'm an idiot. The change was made months ago, but hopefully you understand by now that I'm not (or wasn't) that emotionally invested in the band to know that SA had been replaced by JSS. Sitting in the back, as I was, I thought SA looked way different than what I remembered from the VH1 thing. Besides I had looked at the Journey web site before the concert and they still had him on there. Anyway, I enjoyed the rest of the set including the encore (Separate Ways) still thinking (but with some doubts) that this was SA.
Today of course I started looking around on the Internet and came across this great forum and have spent a couple of hours reading stuff from the archives about the change, how it happened, the reasons given and the reasons that weren't given but could have contributed (tapegate).
I think it's a shame that any Rock artist would lip sync. I can only imagine that the reasons were because of the wear and tear that Journey's songs inflict on the vocal chords.
Anyway, though I missed most of the concert I have to say that I was impressed with what I saw. The crowd was really into it and frankly they blew Def Leppard away in terms of their sound and energy.
The acoustics in the Seminole Hard Rock Live (the arena where I saw the show) sucked. At least up where I was sitting.
To wrap it up, the show made me realize what I have been missing. Neal, Ross, Jon and Deen make it worth the price of admission regardless of who is singing (as long as he is competent). I'm going to download some tunes from Generations (any suggestions?) and try to be active in this forum. I'm also going to keep my eye out for the next tour because I won't be able to catch them at any of the remaining US dates on this tour.
I am 37 years old, which means I was a teen-ager during the height of the Steve Perry era. I always liked Journey, and after the Frontiers album I remember telling my best friend at the time that there was nowhere for Journey to go but down. It was just an idea that I had, that the music was SO GOOD that it would be hard to top.
Anyway, like I said, I was fan but not a huge one. I never saw Journey live. I was into Van Halen, The Police, U2 and other stuff.
I had pretty much forgotten about Journey after SP was no longer there. Then I saw the Behind the Music on Journey and heard SA for the first time. I was excited about the development because I always got the feeling that SP was kind of a tool and I knew that Journey had existed before SP and I thought that it could exist afterwards.
I even downloaded some tunes from the Arrival EP and love them.
So last week I found out that Journey and Def Leppard were going to be in town, I jumped at the opportunity to buy a pair of tickets. The only ones left were 300 level in the back of the (5500 seat) arena. Although I like Def Leppard my real reason for going was Journey.
The show was scheduled to start at 7:30 but because of work/traffic reasons I didn't get to my seat until about 8:45. Unfortunately this was the one rock show I've ever been to where the acts were punctual. Total bummer. I got to the show and only saw 4 Journey songs. The first song I saw in its entirety was, Faithfully which Deen Castronovo sang. Wow, was he good and man Neal is so great.
When the next song came on, I was expecting SA. I know, I know, I'm an idiot. The change was made months ago, but hopefully you understand by now that I'm not (or wasn't) that emotionally invested in the band to know that SA had been replaced by JSS. Sitting in the back, as I was, I thought SA looked way different than what I remembered from the VH1 thing. Besides I had looked at the Journey web site before the concert and they still had him on there. Anyway, I enjoyed the rest of the set including the encore (Separate Ways) still thinking (but with some doubts) that this was SA.
Today of course I started looking around on the Internet and came across this great forum and have spent a couple of hours reading stuff from the archives about the change, how it happened, the reasons given and the reasons that weren't given but could have contributed (tapegate).
I think it's a shame that any Rock artist would lip sync. I can only imagine that the reasons were because of the wear and tear that Journey's songs inflict on the vocal chords.
Anyway, though I missed most of the concert I have to say that I was impressed with what I saw. The crowd was really into it and frankly they blew Def Leppard away in terms of their sound and energy.
The acoustics in the Seminole Hard Rock Live (the arena where I saw the show) sucked. At least up where I was sitting.
To wrap it up, the show made me realize what I have been missing. Neal, Ross, Jon and Deen make it worth the price of admission regardless of who is singing (as long as he is competent). I'm going to download some tunes from Generations (any suggestions?) and try to be active in this forum. I'm also going to keep my eye out for the next tour because I won't be able to catch them at any of the remaining US dates on this tour.
.... more drinking,, if your feeling froggy , hop on over tonight!