Journey 10/5/11 Concord Pavilion Review

[musicfan17]

I generally lurk here a lot but don't post much, but I feel a review is in order. A quick bit of history... Journey fan since 1978, seen w/Perry 81, 85 & 87, w/ Augeri a dozen times, w/JSS once and this was our third show w/ Arnel. Have enjoyed all versions of this band. Our overall impression of the evening:

Night Ranger was great (I've seen them at least a dozen times over the years)one of my fav bands good energy, good delivery, Jack& Kelly's voice are a little haggard but they still kick some *ss! They opened with Lay It On Me, and did 7 other tunes, 4 am, Higher, Sister C, etc.. and ended with Rock In America. 8/10 tough to be the opener

Foreigner was also a good show, it started a little slow, but honestly Kelly Hansen left it all out on stage, what a front man and he slayed everything he sang and sounded strong! I was a big Hurricane fan back in the day, so it was nice to see Kelly fronting this band, Jeff Pilson had a good bit of crowd interaction as well. Honestly...didn't miss Mick Jones at all. One song Kelly's mic died and he realized it mid verse, strutted to the endof the stage the sound crew gave him another mic and he picked up the verse on the next change like nothing happened. He joke about it after the song. The setlist was the usual Greatest Hits. 9/10

Now to Journey... The setlist was basically the same as recent shows. The show opened to Neal soloing for a minute and a half, then into SWays. The sound mix was horrible, got a little better by song two Ask The Lonely and never improved after that. They did their only Eclipse song City of Hope early and Neal extended the "already too long for concerts" break in the middle of the song by shredding for a long time. Arnel sounded great when the guitar and drums were not drowning him out. They did Faithfully early.. Arnel slayed it, They did Stone in Love, Arnel slayed that too, he was On all night. Neal did not one but two guitar solos during the show, one was 4 plus minutes long, the other was 2 1/2 leading into Wheel, which they did a long jam session with more shredding/noodling by Neal, and a harmonica solo by Jon. Jon also had a long piano solo, yawn...which lead into Open Arms, Arnel was clear strong and soulful on this... it gave me chills. Some cool stuff... a fan grabbed Arnel's mic during BGTYS so he missed the start of the verse, pulled it back and kept going like a pro, and he wove some directions for the crowd into my all time yawner... LTS to get the crowd into it. They played Send Her My Love, and Escape without Neal shredding or doing extra noodling, and these were two of the high points of the show. Other filler near the end was LA Do DA. About LTS...they ended the show with this and there was more noodling at the close of the song which took..... almost three minutes!! Seriously! At that point my GF (also a big journey fan) asked if we could go to beat the crowds! LOL I replied...Sure. As we made our way out they came back for Any Way, and we could hear DSB as we got to the parking lot. Journey 6/10

Overall... it was a great night, NR and Foreigner sounded great, Arnel was going for it all night and sounded strong, hit all the high stuff (they were tuned down a half step), but give us more SONGS! and sound engineer! Sigh... Next to the ROR concerts I attended, this was one of the worst Journey concerts I can remember. They could have easily fit in 2- 3 more songs. I was bored...and I LOVE JOURNEY! Many casual fans were walking out by two thirds through the show! On the highway my girlfriend turned to me and asked " Can we look at some other concerts in the future, It was fun but I don't think I want to spend money on Journey shows for a while." I agreed, she took the words right out of my mouth. It was disheartening, Journey was a jam band/shredding/noodle fest. No more Journey shows for us for a while, money is hard to come by these days. On a side note, we were low on funds so we didn't have any drinks, this show was 100% sober LOL! My advice: Think long and hard before you drop your hard earned cash to see Journey.

[Don]

It's official, 2011 is the year of the Neal.

[musicfan17]

Yeah...looks that way. Also the music on the PA before Journey came on sounds like samples from one of Neal's upcoming solo albums, very cool. Kinda' a mix of I on U and Beyond The Thunder sounding. But sadly, it was a sub par Journey show.

[Saint John]

This review, while a bit more harsh than how I see it, is the general sentiment for this tour. Neal is, single-handedly, wiping out the chance that some fans will come back. It's amazing that, for a guy that doesn't want to meet with the fans, he has more than enough time on stage to dick off. Dude, we know that you're a great guitarist, but the long-winded solos are NOT wanted. They bore the fuck out of all but a handful of fans. The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished! People are there because you and your management agreed to a GH tour. Now, whether you fucking like it or not, you have an obligation to (primarily) play ... songs people want to hear. Yeah, mix in a few Eclipse songs (I think 2 would be ok) and maybe even Never Walk Away, but for the fucking love of God, bundle up those seemingly days long solos, and shoot them into outer fucking space!

[txfirefighter]

This review, while a bit more harsh than how I see it, is the general sentiment for this tour. Neal is, single-handedly, wiping out the chance that some fans will come back. It's amazing that, for a guy that doesn't want to meet with the fans, he has more than enough time on stage to dick off. Dude, we know that you're a great guitarist, but the long-winded solos are NOT wanted. They bore the fuck out of all but a handful of fans. The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally finished! People are there because you and your management agreed to a GH tour. Now, whether you fucking like it or not, you have an obligation to (primarily) play ... songs people want to hear. Yeah, mix in a few Eclipse songs (I think 2 would be ok) and maybe even Never Walk Away, but for the fucking love of God, bundle up those seemingly days long solos, and shoot them into outer fucking space!

Tell us how you really feel Dan......don't hold back now, ya hear?

[musicfan17]

Honestly, my review is actually tempered a bit by the fact that I AM a lifelong Journey fan, a Neal Schon (as a guitarist) fan, and a fan of the Journey music catalog. This show was just plain disappointing. They could have added, Resonate or let Deen sing Mother Father, or done a cut off Revelation, or done Lay It Down etc... but what we got was excessive noodling by Neal all night. I'm not kidding about a decent percentage of fans walking out 2/3 way through the show either. AS a lifelong fan and having gone to quite a few Journey shows, my opinion may be slightly to the critical side, but it's still an honest assesment.

BTW... This was the setlist:

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
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
Encore:
Any Way You Want It
Don't Stop Believin'

[brywool]

Honestly, my review is actually tempered a bit by the fact that I AM a lifelong Journey fan, a Neal Schon (as a guitarist) fan, and a fan of the Journey music catalog. This show was just plain disappointing. They could have added, Resonate or let Deen sing Mother Father, or done a cut off Revelation, or done Lay It Down etc... but what we got was excessive noodling by Neal all night. I'm not kidding about a decent percentage of fans walking out 2/3 way through the show either. AS a lifelong fan and having gone to quite a few Journey shows, my opinion may be slightly to the critical side, but it's still an honest assesment.

wow. I mean wow. This is just disappointing. The solos are cool to give the vocalists a rest, and feature the guys... but SO MANY and SO LONG? Why? So, the fans walk out on the solos, but don't put in a new song to promote a new great album cuz people might walk out?? I am mystified at the thinking here. Dang! Promote the new album by dropping a solo and adding a new song. I see them in a few weeks, I sure hope they kick the show into a higher gear by then.

[Ehwmatt]

You had about the same experience I did in August. It was just .... boring.

[Saint John]

This review, while a bit more harsh than how I see it, is the general sentiment for this tour. Neal is, single-handedly, wiping out the chance that some fans will come back. It's amazing that, for a guy that doesn't want to meet with the fans, he has more than enough time on stage to dick off. Dude, we know that you're a great guitarist, but the long-winded solos are NOT wanted. They bore the fuck out of all but a handful of fans. The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished! People are there because you and your management agreed to a GH tour. Now, whether you fucking like it or not, you have an obligation to (primarily) play ... songs people want to hear. Yeah, mix in a few Eclipse songs (I think 2 would be ok) and maybe even Never Walk Away, but for the fucking love of God, bundle up those seemingly days long solos, and shoot them into outer fucking space!

Tell us how you really feel Dan......don't hold back now, ya hear?

I know they read here and Neal has to stop destroying the momentum of the shows. My suggestion is to lose some of that extra onstage energy by shaking a few hands before the shows!

[YoungJRNY]

I just wish they get their damned sound guy in the right frame of mind! Arnel was completely washed and drowned out pretty much the entire show. I chose lawn seats to hear Arnel's roaring vocals from afar and he ended up being muffled at times. I found myself trying to listen through the wave of pounding piano keys, drums and guitar rifts to hear Arnel crisp and clean. Didn't happen.

Well, after I got through the alcohol-ear stage but still!

[brywool]

great....

[RedWingFan]

Neal is, single-handedly, wiping out the chance that some fans will come back. It's amazing that, for a guy that doesn't want to meet with the fans, he has more than enough time on stage to dick off. Dude, we know that you're a great guitarist, but the long-winded solos are NOT wanted. They bore the fuck out of all but a handful of fans. The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished! People are there because you and your management agreed to a GH tour. Now, whether you fucking like it or not, you have an obligation to (primarily) play ... songs people want to hear. Yeah, mix in a few Eclipse songs (I think 2 would be ok) and maybe even Never Walk Away, but for the fucking love of God, bundle up those seemingly days long solos, and shoot them into outer fucking space!

Remember that part of the "Behind The Music" where Cain said, "I see a guy (Neel) who really wants his band back"?

Well, yeah he's got it back. Take it back Neil, take it...take it far, far away. Take it back to your garage, play whatever the hell you want. Play a 35 minute solo if you want.

This review as well as Matt's was exactly the experience I had at Pine Knob. Just thankful I got to see Night Ranger, they made it worth it.

[SultanOfSwing]

The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished!

[onmyjrny]

If these shows are really as the reviews are describing them, Neal might as well just start each show with "FU (insert name of town)!" Because he KNOWS no one wants to hear him solo all night. If they did, he would have more people showing up at his solo shows. I remember at the Vacation's Over show I went to, as he went into his long solo, he told the audience that if they didn't want to hear it, they should "go fornicate." Which I think a lot of people did, judging by the number that left.

Neal is doing what Neal wants to do and too bad for what the audience wants to hear. I think it may be a sign that Journey's days as a band are either coming to a close or getting ready for another long vacation.

[jestor92]

I won't spend a money on this band in a live setting after the Augeri tapegate incident.

[SF-Dano]

You know its funny. I had three friends who went to the show and thought Journey was great. They are not new fans either. At least a dozen Journey shows between the three. Their only complaint was that the set was too short, but they understood that 3 bands makes for a shorter set. I specifically asked them about the sound, to which I was told "Dude, it sounded great". They are planning to hit the Shoreline show next week as well. They dug the NR set also. Interesting that they felt Foreigner was a bit boring. So it is just funny how different the same concert experience can be for different folk.

I have been trying to decide if I should hit the Sacramento show next weekend. They had me convinced to go, now reading here I am not sure again. I will probably get some cheaper lawn seats, go and have a good time regardless.

[musicfan17]

Neither will we anymore! (Spend money on Journey tickets that is)

Dano, I wonder where your friends where sitting? We were in the front part of 203 just out of the bowl to the right. The folks behind and next to us all commented about the muddy sound and poor mix, not being able to hear Arnel etc... It's true that concert experiences are in the eyes and ears of the beholder though. I was a musician for many years before arthritis got to my hands, and honestly the sound was pretty *hitty where we were.

[zino]

I generally lurk here a lot but don't post much, but I feel a review is in order. A quick bit of history... Journey fan since 1978, seen w/Perry 81, 85 & 87, w/ Augeri a dozen times, w/JSS once and this was our third show w/ Arnel. Have enjoyed all versions of this band. Our overall impression of the evening:

Night Ranger was great (I've seen them at least a dozen times over the years)one of my fav bands good energy, good delivery, Jack& Kelly's voice are a little haggard but they still kick some *ss! They opened with Lay It On Me, and did 7 other tunes, 4 am, Higher, Sister C, etc.. and ended with Rock In America. 8/10 tough to be the opener

Foreigner was also a good show, it started a little slow, but honestly Kelly Hansen left it all out on stage, what a front man and he slayed everything he sang and sounded strong! I was a big Hurricane fan back in the day, so it was nice to see Kelly fronting this band, Jeff Pilson had a good bit of crowd interaction as well. Honestly...didn't miss Mick Jones at all. One song Kelly's mic died and he realized it mid verse, strutted to the endof the stage the sound crew gave him another mic and he picked up the verse on the next change like nothing happened. He joke about it after the song. The setlist was the usual Greatest Hits. 9/10

Now to Journey... The setlist was basically the same as recent shows. The show opened to Neal soloing for a minute and a half, then into SWays. The sound mix was horrible, got a little better by song two Ask The Lonely and never improved after that. They did their only Eclipse song City of Hope early and Neal extended the "already too long for concerts" break in the middle of the song by shredding for a long time. Arnel sounded great when the guitar and drums were not drowning him out. They did Faithfully early.. Arnel slayed it, They did Stone in Love, Arnel slayed that too, he was On all night. Neal did not one but two guitar solos during the show, one was 4 plus minutes long, the other was 2 1/2 leading into Wheel, which they did a long jam session with more shredding/noodling by Neal, and a harmonica solo by Jon. Jon also had a long piano solo, yawn...which lead into Open Arms, Arnel was clear strong and soulful on this... it gave me chills. Some cool stuff... a fan grabbed Arnel's mic during BGTYS so he missed the start of the verse, pulled it back and kept going like a pro, and he wove some directions for the crowd into my all time yawner... LTS to get the crowd into it. They played Send Her My Love, and Escape without Neal shredding or doing extra noodling, and these were two of the high points of the show. Other filler near the end was LA Do DA. About LTS...they ended the show with this and there was more noodling at the close of the song which took..... almost three minutes!! Seriously! At that point my GF (also a big journey fan) asked if we could go to beat the crowds! LOL I replied...Sure. As we made our way out they came back for Any Way, and we could hear DSB as we got to the parking lot. Journey 6/10

Overall... it was a great night, NR and Foreigner sounded great, Arnel was going for it all night and sounded strong, hit all the high stuff (they were tuned down a half step), but give us more SONGS! and sound engineer! Sigh... Next to the ROR concerts I attended, this was one of the worst Journey concerts I can remember. They could have easily fit in 2- 3 more songs. I was bored...and I LOVE JOURNEY! Many casual fans were walking out by two thirds through the show! On the highway my girlfriend turned to me and asked " Can we look at some other concerts in the future, It was fun but I don't think I want to spend money on Journey shows for a while." I agreed, she took the words right out of my mouth. It was disheartening, Journey was a jam band/shredding/noodle fest. No more Journey shows for us for a while, money is hard to come by these days. On a side note, we were low on funds so we didn't have any drinks, this show was 100% sober LOL! My advice: Think long and hard before you drop your hard earned cash to see Journey.

This is exactlry how I felt after the show I saw in WPB.. WAY TOO MUCH guitar. If this was only a 2 band show or an Evening with Journey that would be one thing, but when you are only playing 15 or 16 songs as the headliner.Leave the solos for another night.. We left our show half way throught the Journey set and i was totlay disapointed and so was my wife..dont think I will be spending anymore $$ on Journey Concerts

[tanga]

Ditto, it's the same way I felt. Foreigner stole the show in Vegas. I thought Arnel is worn out, maybe it's just the sound equipment, but he looks terrible on stage. I'm done with Journey for now, unless they come up with different set lists next time.

[Scarab Pilot]

This review, while a bit more harsh than how I see it, is the general sentiment for this tour. Neal is, single-handedly, wiping out the chance that some fans will come back. It's amazing that, for a guy that doesn't want to meet with the fans, he has more than enough time on stage to dick off. Dude, we know that you're a great guitarist, but the long-winded solos are NOT wanted. They bore the fuck out of all but a handful of fans. The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished! People are there because you and your management agreed to a GH tour. Now, whether you fucking like it or not, you have an obligation to (primarily) play ... songs people want to hear. Yeah, mix in a few Eclipse songs (I think 2 would be ok) and maybe even Never Walk Away, but for the fucking love of God, bundle up those seemingly days long solos, and shoot them into outer fucking space!

I may start a flame war here...but it seems Journey has come full circle. They were a jam band for four years until the record company said cut a decent record or your done - they get Perry and the rest is history. We're back to it being all about Neal, oh and some Journey songs and once again...they can't sell records, they're boring the shit out of the fans with the solos and now Neal has adopted the very same behavior he bagged on Perry for...hiding out from the fans.

What a douche.

[RedWingFan]

Well Saint John, looks like there's an ever growing # of people who believe my prediction was right!

http://forums.melodicrock.com/phpBB/vie ... hp?t=49636

Foreigner is going to blow little Arnel off the stage. Journey's going to get their collective asses handed to them nightly!

Keep thinking that. They've (Foreigner) all but thrown in the towel and conceded that they're a tribute act. I don't think you're ever going to hear new music again, whereas Journey will have another new album to play live. And it's gonna rock hard.

[Behshad]

The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished!

That was the best part of his rant indeed!
With Saint John being against guitar solos, I cant wait to see him at the Yngwie show next week

[Saint John]

Well Saint John, looks like there's an ever growing # of people who believe my prediction was right!

http://forums.melodicrock.com/phpBB/vie ... hp?t=49636

Foreigner is going to blow little Arnel off the stage. Journey's going to get their collective asses handed to them nightly!

Keep thinking that. They've (Foreigner) all but thrown in the towel and conceded that they're a tribute act. I don't think you're ever going to hear new music again, whereas Journey will have another new album to play live. And it's gonna rock hard.

Foreigner isn't blowing Journey away. Journey is still getting much louder applause, but it's not as consistent as Foreigner, seeing that they play hit after hit after hit. If the roles were reversed, and Journey was playing nothing but old songs with not one member that helped create them, you would be slobbering all over yourself that "Journey has truly turned themselves into a tribute band." There's no doubt that Journey, namely Neal Schon, deserve criticism for this tour, but they're not getting blown off the stage by Foreigner. Not even close. I'd say that Foreigner's set is better, but that's about it. And that's not to say that there aren't nights when Foreigner is better. There are.

[SultanOfSwing]

The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished!

That was the best part of his rant indeed!
With Saint John being against guitar solos, I cant wait to see him at the Yngwie show next week

I've never seen SJ suddenly became so critical towards any member of Journey particularly Schon. I wonder if this has something to do with Schon's latest escapades, hmm.

[Behshad]

The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished!

That was the best part of his rant indeed!
With Saint John being against guitar solos, I cant wait to see him at the Yngwie show next week

I've never seen SJ suddenly became so critical towards any member of Journey particularly Schon. I wonder if this has something to do with Schon's latest escapades, hmm.

So youve missed how he feels abour Mr Perry?
Or did you mean current active members ?

[DrFU]

The cheering you hear at the end is because you're (finally) finished!

That was the best part of his rant indeed!
With Saint John being against guitar solos, I cant wait to see him at the Yngwie show next week

I've never seen SJ suddenly became so critical towards any member of Journey particularly Schon. I wonder if this has something to do with Schon's latest escapades, hmm.

So youve missed how he feels abour Mr Perry?
Or did you mean current active members ?

Somebody reads these things... We got extended keys solo and a real, by-gosh drum solo from Deen in Vegas ... and only one noodlefest

[Saint John]

Somebody reads these things... We got extended keys solo and a real, by-gosh drum solo from Deen in Vegas ... and only one noodlefest

That's good to know. Whether it's Perry, Augeri, Soto, Pineda or Schon, as a fan, I'm going to give an honest opinion of what I think would make the shows better. And I always try to limit my takes on what I believe the majority of the audience thinks. I'm not gonna be like some of the hardcore goofs on here and request that they put Nickel and Dime, Cookie Duster, Hustler and Spaceman into the set, as the crowd would disappear faster than Michael Moore's lunch.

[Michigan Girl]

I'd say the current non~member lineup of the band Foreigner blew the current lineup of the band Journey off the stage
the night I saw them.

Forget the fact that the replacement singer Hansen blows the replacement singer Pineda away
with his charisma alone ...and it didn't even matter who had the better pipes, or the better songs,
because one band, out of three, sounded like shit.
I can't figure out how anyone even knows if AP got the words right or that Neal's solos were entirely too long?!

I'm pissed that this band has known the entire tour that they sound like shit and did nothing to correct it.
If I were an instigator, I'd say they were deliberately trying to cover something up.

Fortunately, I went with every intention of seeing what this KH is made of, and I was kinda hoping to hear more
from NR ...who were awesome, but not near enough stage time.

Unless Journey is opening for SP, or SP is singing for Journey ...they will get no more of my hard earned $$$$!!
When one of my friends looked at me and said, "I hate it when they play stuff I don't know." and the song was
BGTY ...I said, "let's motor!!"

We did hear 20,000 people singing DSB from out in the parking lot and that
was the highlight of Journey's set ...so cool!!

[Yoda]

I hate this for Journey. They have historically been a great live band.

[RedWingFan]

I'd say the current non~member lineup of the band Foreigner blew the current lineup of the band Journey off the stage
the night I saw them.

Forget the fact that the replacement singer Hansen blows the replacement singer Pineda away
with his charisma alone ...and it didn't even matter who had the better pipes, or the better songs,
because one band, out of three, sounded like shit.
I can't figure out how anyone even knows if AP got the words right or that Neal's solos were entirely too long?!

I'm pissed that this band has known the entire tour that they sound like shit and did nothing to correct it.
If I were an instigator, I'd say they were deliberately trying to cover something up.

Fortunately, I went with every intention of seeing what this KH is made of, and I was kinda hoping to hear more
from NR ...who were awesome, but not near enough stage time.

Unless Journey is opening for SP, or SP is singing for Journey ...they will get no more of my hard earned $$$$!!
When one of my friends looked at me and said, "I hate it when they play stuff I don't know." and the song was
BGTY ...I said, "let's motor!!"

We did hear 20,000 people singing DSB from out in the parking lot and that
was the highlight of Journey's set ...so cool!!

You're so hot when you agree with me!

Speaking of the parking lot. I remember when my wife and I were walking through the lot heading into Pine Knob someone was blasting "Still They Ride" while tailgating. I turned to the wife and said, "That's the best Journey's going to sound tonight!"