MR

Check out my Journey/Foreigner/Night Ranger photo albums, if you'd like. 235 photos for your viewing pleasure! Altogether, I shot 401 photos. 166 were unusable. They were either out of focus or unusable because the balding head of a drunken jerk two rows ahead of me was in the shot! With the exception of an obnoxious (drunken?!?) couple in Section 21, Row 10, seats 2&3, that were standing up and flailing their arms around like windmills all night long, I had a STELLAR time at the Journey/Foreigner/Night Ranger show. Though, I feel bad for the ladies in section 21, row 11, seats 1-4. They probably couldn't see jack squat during the Journey gig!! At $130 per seat, I was very surprised that the event staff didn't do anything to suppress these two selfish people. Oh well, I made the best of the situation and rocked out to my heart's content! All three bands were on fire and delivered a memorable 3 hour classic rock showcase....

Here are my reflections of Journey's performance. Neal Schon and company took command of the stage with their standard show opener, the thunderous rocker Separate Ways. Journey followed up with an equally stunning rendition of Ask The Lonely. Arnel Pineda's booming tenor vocals soared through the first two numbers of the set! I was disappointed that Who's Cryin' Now was replaced by Send Her My Love, and that the new rocker Edge of the Moment from the Eclipse album which Journey is currently supporting was replaced by 30 year old deep cut Escape. Highlights of Journey's performance were show opener Separate Ways, Ask The Lonely, Wheel In The Sky with Jon Cain's harmonica solo, Open Arms, La Do Da, Be Good To Yourself, Anyway You Want It, Don't Stop Believin', and show closer Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'. Neal Schon gave a custom guitar to a little girl at the end of Anyway You Want It. Arnel Pineda, who is tiny in person, told the stunned youngster that he'd take the guitar if she didn't want it. The surprise burst of confetti and streamers during encore, Don't Stop Believin' boosted fan enthusiasm near the end of a long night of hard drivin' rock n' roll! The entire audience was waving their hands in unison during the final performance of the night, Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin. This was quite a sight!! I left the concert extremely happy and thoroughly exhausted. The next day I felt like a zombie as I couldn't move or speak as a result of all the fun I had at the concert! Thumbs up to the Erwin Center for booking such a great bill in Austin! This triple bill melodic rock extravaganza was the best concert of 2011, so far!!

Milan


Enjoy my photo recap of last night's Austin Rockfest!!

Journey: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 5c6&type=1
Foreigner: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... eed&type=1
Night Ranger: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 130&type=1

Journey's setlist was:

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Ask the Lonely
Send Her My Love
City of Hope
Faithfully
Stone in Love
Escape
Lights
Wheel in the Sky
Open Arms
La Do Da
Be Good to Yourself
Any Way You Want It
Encore:
Don't Stop Believin'
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin

Not much there in the set list bAsically Dirty Dozen tour

Glad you had fun pics are nice

Thanks! Most of the pics came out alright, considering I used a simple Canon SD1400 digital camera.
Though, I wish these digital cameras would do a better job focusing.

This is definitely the greatest hits tour.
Only 4 songs were not on the 23 year old Greatest Hits CD.

Milan

Great pics... thanks for sharing.
I went and I gotta say Foreigner did outshine Journey on Thursday. I can now see what all the fuss surrounding Urgent was about... It was an awesome performance. Though I would argue it was tied with Open Arms for song of the night imo

They took the hint and dropped EOTM.

Thanks! I thought Foreigner delivered a solid albeit, abbreviated show last night.
However, the absence of Mick Jones and the fact that the band had ZERO original members on stage left a sour taste in my mouth.
I recommend checking out the Foreigner Rockin At The Ryman Blu-Ray disc, it features virtually identical performances to what we saw last night plus many more tunes!

Milan

rockphantom wrote:Thanks! I thought Foreigner delivered a solid albeit, abbreviated show last night.
However, the absence of Mick Jones and the fact that the band had ZERO original members on stage left a sour taste in my mouth.
I recommend checking out the Foreigner Rockin At The Ryman Blu-Ray disc, it features virtually identical performances to what we saw last night plus many more tunes!

Milan

I totally have to agree with you on that. I mean Journey was definitely tighter musically, but just the overall feel.. foreigner was slightly better. Idk, I didn't have nearly as good tickets as you did and I'm sure it was all more exciting down there. Arnel was a bit hoarse so that didn't help, and NO ROLIE!! Lol

Songs of the night for Journey (for me) were:
Open Arms
DSB
LTS (crowd was super into this one-- but the guitar jam at the end seemed long unnecessary and unfortuantely brought everyone's hands down from waving them in the air including my own. Still great.)
Escape (sounded better than other nights I've seen them)
WITS (love that jam session near the end -- like in Live in Manila)

'Meh' Journey songs of the night:
Faithfully (seriously.. this was played WAY too early)
COH (and I was really looking forward to this one cuz while I don't really much like the recorded version, it seems like in Youtube videos, it takes off live!.. But na. Would've benefited from playing radio edit)

yup yup yup on the Foreigner 'no original members' comment but who the hello cares with Kelly Hansen and Jeff Pilson on stage. sing Elmo's song or whatever--Kelly Hansen is an absolutely stunning frontman/vocalist/performer/gymnast. I was exhausted after the Foreigner set--I had to sit down and let it all settle in.

p.s. my pics stink so I won't bother to post.

p.s.p.s. I got a NEW camera today for Kansas City.

(Crazy)Dulce Lady wrote:yup yup yup on the Foreigner 'no original members' comment but who the hello cares with Kelly Hansen and Jeff Pilson on stage. sing Elmo's song or whatever--Kelly Hansen is an absolutely stunning frontman/vocalist/performer/gymnast. I was exhausted after the Foreigner set--I had to sit down and let it all settle in.

There is no doubt that the musicians in Foreigner are top notch.
During the Austin gig, I speculated that if Mick were to retire, it would make sense for the rest of the guys in Foreigner to continue on with a new band name.

Milan