Journey, Pat Benatar, Loverboy channel the '80s for sold-out

[tater1977]

Journey lead singer Arnel Pineda performs at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. / Matthew Robinson/Press-Gazette correspondent

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Kendra Meinert

It was like a piece of every high school prom, college homecoming and weekend party of the ‘80s rolled into one night – minus the drama of hallway cliques, bad breakups and acne.

Journey, Pat Benatar and Loverboy dialed up the nostalgia factor, punched the hits-only button and took a sold-out crowd of 7,476 on a fun-loving joy ride back to their youth on Saturday night at the Resch Center.

There were stops along the way for reminiscing about the days when MTV still played music videos, getting whipped up over lyrics as silly as “I got fun, you want some/I’m ever ready, Dr. Love’’ and hoisting a light with an actual flame during the power ballads. If the night had a message for both fans and bands, it was something along the lines of no matter how far in the rear view mirror those days or those songs get, “Don’t Stop Believin’’’ – or rockin’.

Nobody still does either better than Journey, whose headlining set might have been as musically tight as founding guitarist Neal Schon’s pants. He and longtime keyboardist/guitarist Jonathan Cain remain the live show’s anchors in the post-Steve Perry era, carving out generous opportunities throughout the night to show off their playing. Schon, ever-present on video screen close-ups, did a blistering instrumental of the national anthem early on, and Cain frequently took the solo spotlight at the keyboards, moving easily from the iconic opening riffs of “Open Arms’’ to blowing harmonica on the band’s surging jam of “Wheel in the Sky,’’ a highlight of the evening.

But lead singer Arnel Pineda is the reason the Journey of the ‘70s and ‘80s can still be selling out arenas all these decades later without original frontman Perry. The Filipino singer in his fifth year with the band (after several forgettable faces before him) has the vocal chops to turn the post-Perry skeptics into believers. That is, once you get past that he looks like some kid who just won the chance to sing with Journey on Classic Rock Week of “American Idol.’’

While it’s tough not to secretly long just a little for Perry’s voice on “When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bay’’ to lead off “Lights,’’ Pineda was spot on for all the much-anticipated biggies, including “Faithfully,’’ “Don’t Stop Believin’,’’ “Separate Ways’’ and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’’’ for the encore. The band slipped in a pair of new songs -- “City of Hope’’ and “Resonate’’ -- and gave Pineda a chance to catch a breather by turning vocals over to drummer Deen Castronovo on “Keep On Runnin’.’’

A dynamo on stage with boundless energy and extreme leaping abilities, Pineda ran a victory lap around the bowl of the Resch Center during “Be Good to Yourself’’ for no apparent reason other than he could.

It was a more reflective and personal – but no less fierce – set from Benatar and husband/guitarist/songwriting partner Neil Giraldo, who were playing their last date on the tour. Telling the crowd they celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this year (she calls him “Spyder’’; he calls her “Patricia’’), they felt like the cool parents chaperoning Saturday night's party. “This is the part of the show where we sit down cuz we’re old,’’ Benatar joked as they pulled up a couple of stools for an acoustic “We Belong.’’

Benatar, still the iconic MTV rocker chick of heavy eyeliner and maximum-strength vocals, sounded like a woman who has taken extremely good care of her voice on the mass sing-along of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot’’ and “Love Is a Battlefield.’’ Her searing “Heartbreaker’’ encore that unexpectedly veered into Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire’’ with a Led Zeppelin guitar solo from Giraldo for good measure was perhaps the most decade-defying performance of the entire night.

Loverboy kicked things off with 35 minutes of hits that flew by before the Canadian rockers could even get around to “Lucky Ones’’ and “Take Me to the Top.’’


But Mike Reno, who gets props for having the most fun on stage (bandana headband still included), and fellow original bandmates Paul Dean, Doug Johnson and Matt Frenette laid a seven-song slab of fist-pumping pop-rock on the crowd, from the giddy goodness of the opening bass riffs of “Turn Me Loose’’ to a turbo-charged version of “Hot Girls in Love.’’


When they got around to “The Kid Is Hot Tonite,’’ it, like most everything else that night, was every bit as fun as when you were cranking it up on cassette in your brother’s Camaro in the ‘80s.

[Rick]

Evidently, Arnel lost his watch there, somehow. A very sentimental item. He would really like to get it back, if you have any information to it's whereabouts.

Just a public service message from me.