MR

I went to the concert last night at Jones beach on Long Island.
What a night!! First the monsoon....thunder, lightning, hail the size of canned hams, and us sitting in our cars to see if the show was going to go on...after two hours (8pm), they let us in.
Cheap Trick sounded great, although their set was reduced to about 7 songs or so..Rick Neilsen brings out this funky 5 necked guitar! It was huge...wonder what that sucker weighed?
Heart was spectacular...they played for an hour, and Ann Wilson is beyond belief ! That girl can sing!! Geat covers of 'Reign 'oer Me' and 'Going to California'. I wish they would have done the long version of " Dreamboat Annie", because that is MY song! But they didn't play it.
Now for Journey! They were fantastic...Arnel is so adorable, I want to take him home and adopt him ! For any who were concerned about his "accent", well don't be, 'cause it wasn't there. Either singing, or talking, he sounds as "American" as most of us do! and, what a voice it is! I was real close to the stage and he can really project those vocals..great pipes, and a wonderful stage presence! Neal was stellar as usual, Ross made his silly faces , Jon spent more time on rhythm guitar, then on the "Faz", which they covered between uses...It was still drizzling...it was fun watching Neal's hair get curlier by the minute with all that humidity!
My brother came with me, as he is a fan since '75! He was so impressed with Arnel's singing!
A couple of surprises, they played "La Do Da" and "Dead or Alive"!
Awesome!
All in all, it was a great show, and Journey played until 12:15am! ( to make up for the rain delay). I could really see it in Neal's face, that this is where he is happiest...on stage, with his guitar, playing for us peeps. Deen was right on the beat all night ( One disappointment..no "Mother, Father; " )

Journey is alive and kickin' major ass...Incredible show!

Journey on!
Anne

4ever4Steve wrote:I went to the concert last night at Jones beach on Long Island.
What a night!! First the monsoon....thunder, lightning, hail the size of canned hams, and us sitting in our cars to see if the show was going to go on...after two hours (8pm), they let us in.
Cheap Trick sounded great, although their set was reduced to about 7 songs or so..Rick Neilsen brings out this funky 5 necked guitar! It was huge...wonder what that sucker weighed?
Heart was spectacular...they played for an hour, and Ann Wilson is beyond belief ! That girl can sing!! Geat covers of 'Reign 'oer Me' and 'Going to California'. I wish they would have done the long version of " Dreamboat Annie", because that is MY song! But they didn't play it.
Now for Journey! They were fantastic...Arnel is so adorable, I want to take him home and adopt him ! For any who were concerned about his "accent", well don't be, 'cause it wasn't there. Either singing, or talking, he sounds as "American" as most of us do! and, what a voice it is! I was real close to the stage and he can really project those vocals..great pipes, and a wonderful stage presence! Neal was stellar as usual, Ross made his silly faces , Jon spent more time on rhythm guitar, then on the "Faz", which they covered between uses...It was still drizzling...it was fun watching Neal's hair get curlier by the minute with all that humidity!
My brother came with me, as he is a fan since '75! He was so impressed with Arnel's singing!
A couple of surprises, they played "La Do Da" and "Dead or Alive"!
Awesome!
All in all, it was a great show, and Journey played until 12:15am! ( to make up for the rain delay). I could really see it in Neal's face, that this is where he is happiest...on stage, with his guitar, playing for us peeps. Deen was right on the beat all night ( One disappointment..no "Mother, Father; " )

Journey is alive and kickin' major ass...Incredible show!

Journey on!
Anne

Thanks for the review, Anne. AP indeed has arrived.

4ever4Steve wrote:A couple of surprises, they played "La Do Da" and "Dead or Alive"!

THEY BUSTED OUT LA DO FUCKING DA?!?!

That's pretty sweet.

Thanks for posting your thoughts on the show Anne.
Enjoyable reading.
Glad you folks didn't get rained out...."hail the size of canned hams".... classic, love that line!

bluejeangirl76 wrote:

4ever4Steve wrote:A couple of surprises, they played "La Do Da" and "Dead or Alive"!

THEY BUSTED OUT LA DO FUCKING DA?!?!

That's pretty sweet.

Holy crap.. I may need to catch another show.

This band knows no bounds.

4ever4Steve wrote:they played "La Do Da"

Talk about snail trails!! Really would be the happiest girl if they'd do that in Cleveland.

bluejeangirl76 wrote:

4ever4Steve wrote:A couple of surprises, they played "La Do Da" and "Dead or Alive"!

THEY BUSTED OUT LA DO FUCKING DA?!?!

That's pretty sweet.

Video Anyone? Anyone? I Soooo!!! want to hear that.

How many NEW songs did they play? Did the crowd get into the new stuff?

"First the monsoon....thunder, lightning, hail the size of canned hams"

wow!! if those can't stop the you guys from watching a concert, now more than ever I am am a believer of ...
"Journey Fans"!!

Having been there myself, I can say Arnel was AMAZING. Me and my buddy (who is not as much of a Journey fan as me), kept looking at each other with our jaw dropped. He (who is a rather "large" male, said he had goosebumps during Open Arms. You know what Kevin James says, those type of guys sweat pealing an orange!) My parents even wound up going last minute (worst seats for more money! HAHAHA!), and they loved it too. The energy of Arnel and the rest of the guys is insane now, and they are totally worth seeing now.

I was awesome how many Filipino people we saw at the show. They are so proud to have Arnel there!

Also, my boss was at the same show, and the 1st thing he tells me is, "There is no way you can tell me that guys sounds the least bit like Steve Perry! Am I the only one who must conclude he was at the wrong show/sleeping/drunk/stoned/whatever?

Cheap Trick and Heart were amazing too. WHAT FREAKIN PIPES ANN HAS!!!!

I must be honest though, as much as the show was AMAZING, it is hard to still not have a sour taste in my mouth with the events of recent years (notably Tapegate & The Soto Scandal). Having seen them 2x in 2005, I still cannot help but feel cheated, assuming that Tapegate was in full swing then. I don't mean to open up any wounds with this, just voicing how I feel.

Friga also seemed to be in rare Friga-form. I couldn't believe how much he played guitar (in a set which I assume was cut back slightly).

Also, I am SOOO SURPRISED no one has posted about this, but I LOVE, how he announced their new song, After All THOSE Years! Didn't he WRITE THE FREAKIN SONG?!?!?!

We need some audio boots from this tour to show up....

RumTumJM wrote:Also, I am SOOO SURPRISED no one has posted about this, but I LOVE, how he announced their new song, After All THOSE Years! Didn't he WRITE THE FREAKIN SONG?!?!?!

Ahhh, Frig. *shakes head* It's sad when geezers start lose their faculties publically like that.

I was there, too. Sorry for the long post.

Before the show: Soundcheck, M&G, Crazy Storm
We did the VIP thangy, cause Jones Beach is a dry venue (alcohol wise) unless you have access to the VIP area. Also, since it always rains, the VIP area has tents that you can see the stage from.

Anyway, we were there for soundcheck, they played La Do Da first without Arnel, then with him. He sounded great, so we were hoping they would play it later, and sure enough... It was awesome. They also did Feeling That Way/Anytime, two of my faves. So that was a treat, but Arnel has a long way to go on those, so they probably won't play them anytime soon.

Jonathan, Deen and Ross showed up at the party. I didn't have anything for them to sign so i stole a candle from a table, all three thought it was funny. I thought Jon was gonna tell on me, but he ended up being pretty cool. The free stuff was actually good this time, a Journey beach bag and a huge red Journey beach towel. We also got a drum head signed by all of Journey, and later Rick Nielson added his signature.

Shortly after the guys left the party, we all got kicked out of the VIP tent, we were pissed. No more beer. It turned out it was for our safety. They made us go under the overhang under the seats and then all hell broke loose. Rain, huge hail, thunder, lightening, Crazy wind; Debris starting coming our way so we ran into an enclosed area, the debris followed us through the doors so staffers shut the doors, some people tried to open them back up so we could see the storm, but the wind was too strong. Eventually the wind let up and we could go back out under the overhang. It was still raining with plenty of lightening, but to my surprise, there were a ton of people lined up at the front gate. Talk about fans! Around 8pm, they started letting people in, we got back into our tent, which was soaked inside, downed a few free beers, then around 8:30, Cheap Trick took the stage.
We went to find our seats, Front row center!!!

The Show
Robin Zander sounded amazing. What a performer, and he had on a really cool suit. All the musicians in Cheap Trick are top notch. Too bad about the shortened set, I was really, really, really enjoying their performance.

I love the way Heart doesn't stick to the original versions of some of their songs. Their live version of Alone is so much better than the studio version. Of course, Ann's vocals were mesmerizing, but she seemed kind of pissed off. And their lighting was awful.

Most of you have seen Journey, so I'm not going to get into it. A few things: La Do Da was great, Arnel was fantastic. The harp and mandolin segway into Wheel In The Sky was super cool. And Jonathon finally changed up his piano solo into Open Arms. About time!!! Oh and Escape rocked!!! Being in the front row, I can't comment on the crowd reception, but talking with people after the show, they seemed really enthusiastic about Journey and Arnel. We took the train, so after the show we had to get a bus from the venue to the train station and missed the train by 5 minutes. Due to the late hour we had to wait an hour for the 1:43am train along with all the other city dwellers. It was fun. I got to talk to a lot of people about the show and Journey in general. one guy had a setlist, so I took a picture.

My feelings on Arnel:

I haven't been around here since Jeff was let go. I was extremely disappointed in the way it went down, but as a journey fan since 1976, we've been down this road before. My priority with music is the music. Charting, business practices, personnel, etc. all take a back seat to the music and the performance. Though, it can be conflicting, sometimes you gotta take the bad with the good. IMO, Journey is one of the greatest bands ever; whatever the lineup. Arnel is on par with the quality of this band. Perry, in his prime, will always be my no. 1, but right now, Arnel is the man. He's improved tremendously since the Chile show and the passion and soul that I felt was lacking then and even on the Vegas DVD, seems to be surfacing. It struck me at the show, but I noticed it more when looking at the photos I took.

Journey setlist:

Majestic Intro
Never Walk Away
Only The Young
Stone In Love
Change For The Better
Ask The Lonely
After All These Years
Harp and Mandolin segway
Wheel In the Sky
Lights
Faithfully
Piano solo
Open Arms
Don't Stop Believing
Separate Ways
La Do Da
Dead Or Alive
Any Way You Want It

Encore:
Escape
Be Good To Yourself

Pics:

Journey:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606750516794/show/


Cheap Trick:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606761236214/show/

Heart:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606765930975/show/

junky wrote:I
Pics:

Journey:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606750516794/show/


Cheap Trick:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606761236214/show/

Heart:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606765930975/show/

amazing pics. thanks

Thanks for the reviews, folks...much appreciated by those of us in a dry spell between shows.

DrFU wrote:Thanks for the reviews, folks...much appreciated by those of us in a dry spell between shows.

dry spell?? it's a fluffing DROUGHT!!

sigh.....

bluejeangirl76 wrote:

4ever4Steve wrote:A couple of surprises, they played "La Do Da" and "Dead or Alive"!

THEY BUSTED OUT LA DO FUCKING DA?!?!

That's pretty sweet.

Oh my GOD, I would love to have heard that! Love that song!!!!!

I'm so glad they're doing stuff like that. That's what makes them so damn great, live.