Journey and fans keep believin' in rousing rock show
Posted on Thursday, 09.24.09
BY HOWARD COHEN
hcohen@MiamiHerald.com
The most common refrain from the Twitterverse to a series of positive posts on Journey's sold-out concert at Hollywood's Hard Rock Live on Thursday night was: ``I love Journey, but not sure how I'd like them without Steve Perry.''
Those who keep holding on to Perry, the voice behind all of the San Fran group's biggest hits, the man who bailed on the band twice (in the late '80s and again after a brief reunion a decade later) clearly were not among the 5,500 who packed the Hard Rock and other stops along this successful tour.
Perry was certainly among rock's finest vocalists and his absence should be felt. But the band now has two singers on stage who not only sound like the erstwhile tenor -- drummer Deen Castronovo, who sang the Escape-era tunes Keep on Runnin' and Still They Ride while maintaining the propulsive rhythm, and Filipino frontman Arnel Pineda.
In Pineda, Journey has, arguably, hired its most technically adept singer yet.
The wiry Pineda, found singing Journey covers on a YouTube video and asked to join the group two years ago by the others -- guitarist Neal Schon, bassist Ross Valory and keyboardist/songwriter Jonathan Cain -- is, at 42, certainly younger than Perry by 18 years and thus brings a youthful verve to the band with his animated mannerisms and constant quicksilver motion.
He can also reach all the high notes Perry sent into the stratosphere on staples like Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) -- which was the opener for the 100-minute concert -- the infectious '70s album rock classic Wheel in the Sky, and the '80s ``babe-magnet'' ballads Open Arms and Faithfully. Yet, Pineda's able to do so with more clarity of tone. His voice goes the distance.
It's also that spirit -- struggling Journey fan and father in a foreign land now getting the chance to front his favorite American band -- that embodies and elevates from the nostalgia pile the go-for-your dreams optimism laced into old Journey hits such as the enduring Don't Stop Believin' and Only the Young.
Pineda's mere presence on stage seems to have inspired the others -- who are playing with palpable glee, something clearly missing in the post-Perry years amid this band's succession of lead singers.
Ask the Lonely, for instance, was originally featured in the fluff John Travolta-Olivia Newton-John movie dud Two of a Kind, but its muscular read Thursday made it seem like a candidate for a Rocky flick.
Schon, in particular, the only member to have played on every Journey album since 1973, peeled off solos on oldies like Be Good to Yourself and tracks from the career-reviving 2008 CD, Revelation, like Wildest Dream, as if he'd shaved decades off his 55 years.
Castronovo, who was briefly Journey's lead vocalist on the overlooked 2005 album Generations, was also a surprise as he, too, cast his voice aloft into Perry dimensions, flawlessly, and earned approval from the audience.
Sure, some of this was borderline cheesy -- a guitar solo after only two songs, really, Journey? -- but that's quibbling.
From the inescapable Don't Stop Believin', the 1981 smash that won't die, to the rousing Any Way You Want It, Journey revitalized itself, its fans, and proved the timelessness of good ol' classic rock.
We love you, Steve, but we really believe in this band today. 
by jrnyjetster » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:30 pm 
