Journey : Live in Manila

[strangegrey]

So I'm sitting here watching this garbage on Paladia....and I can't help but come here and comment. Yes it's my first time watching this abortion...fucking sue me!

The mix of this performance is fucking awful! Items to note:

* Deens base drum and toms are completely lost in the mix.
* the eq blows sweaty dog balls on both Frigas keys and Fro's guitar
* to make up for the shitty eq, they bury Friga's keys almost completely, and blast the fuck out of Fro's guitar to the point where the guitar track stomps over everything.
* Fro's guitar is out of tune for 3/4 of this entire show.... (I've read the heat contributed that, but seriously, change the fucking guitar then)
* Arnel - over sings, has major diction issues and has the stage presence of a fucking turd dog. Ugh....


How the mighty have fallen.......

[The_Noble_Cause]

Welcome back, SG, you wretched old bastard.

Some of the changed-up Neal solos were cool. Agreed on everything else. Horrible dvd. There's a real disconnect between Arnel and the rest of the guys. I don't know if it's ethnic or cultural, but there's ZERO palpable band chemistry on display. Cain looks like he can't wait to go backstage and take a shit.

[RedWingFan]

I caught a bit of it on Paladia a few months ago. I sat through a song and laughed how horrible it sounded, then sat in disbelief thinking, Who the hell listened to the final mix and editing of this crap and said, "Yeah, this sounds good, let's start banging out dvd's". Makes me think Neil's band has zero standards.

[jrny84]

I second what everyone else has said as well. I cant believe the differences in the sound between Journey Live 2001 and this dvd. I will also add that the lighting for the whole concert is pretty bad as well. Way to dark for a taped concert and they went overboard with the smoke onstage. Its pretty bad when you can hardly see members of the band's faces because of the smoke. The whole feel to me is very karaoke and just no real connection with the audience or with the songs.

[Archetype]

I bought this DVD the day it came out. Was horrified when I got home and watched it. Audio and visual-wise, it's the worst professional concert DVD I own. By far. And I own quite a few. Such a pity because the set list is so good.

[steveo777]

I bought this DVD the day it came out. Was horrified when I got home and watched it. Audio and visual-wise, it's the worst professional concert DVD I own. By far. And I own quite a few. Such a pity because the set list is so good.

It would be nice if it could be remastered, but that ship has already sailed. I'll bet it was a great concert to be at in person. They really screwed the pooch on production.

[FamilyMan]

I think we can cut Arnel some slack on the diction issues on this one. This is his hometown crowd. He didn't need to sell an American audience here, and he'd been speaking in his native tongue all week. So let's let that one go.

But the mix - considering this was the first of the band's concerts to press in Blu-Ray - is indeed awful. But I've been saying repeatedly here that I don't like the way anything sounds in this band's post-Perry existence. Somebody in their camp -- ELSON? - is just off.

[Eric]

I love it.

Great and long set list with lots of new stuff. And the new solos were great.

I don't, however, have my surround sound stuff setup anymore so I can't comment as specifically on the audio, but I didn't like the 5.1 (if you want to call it that) on the 2001 DVD.

[Ehwmatt]

So I'm sitting here watching this garbage on Paladia....and I can't help but come here and comment. Yes it's my first time watching this abortion...fucking sue me!

The mix of this performance is fucking awful! Items to note:

* Deens base drum and toms are completely lost in the mix.
* the eq blows sweaty dog balls on both Frigas keys and Fro's guitar
* to make up for the shitty eq, they bury Friga's keys almost completely, and blast the fuck out of Fro's guitar to the point where the guitar track stomps over everything.
* Fro's guitar is out of tune for 3/4 of this entire show.... (I've read the heat contributed that, but seriously, change the fucking guitar then)
* Arnel - over sings, has major diction issues and has the stage presence of a fucking turd dog. Ugh....


How the mighty have fallen.......

Couldn't agree more. Back when I bought this DVD, I hadn't yet seen the Arnel lineup live, liked Revelation for what it was, and I still had a very open mind about the Arnel lineup. But wow, it was stunning to see this piece of dog shit. The only redeeming quality is the different arrangements on the songs. Other than that, it was a dreadful performance. It's really saying a lot when you can pick up on the band's lack of chemistry/natural energy from watching a DVD.

Usually, that's something that's prone to slip by you in a professionally filmed/edited DVD, but maybe not so much live when you're there and can sense the lack of chemistry/atmosphere. The fact that the lack of excitement/chemistry shine through on a DVD just bespeaks how awful this lineup is.

Despite all this, I think I saw the Arnel lineup live in August 2011 with a very open mind (one, two years after this turd came out?)--I was prepared to enjoy the show, because how bad can live Journey music be? Bad, as it turned out. When I left, nobody in my party enjoyed the show at all, and it really left me feeling hollow and empty just like this DVD did. Frank, not sure if you've seen the Arnel lineup live, but the sound on this DVD reflects the sound I had at my live show. The total package-setlist, Arnel, lack of chemistry, sound mix--are truly awful and embarrassing, and it's why I haven't even given a second thought to paying their inflated ticket prices the three times they've played my area since then (including this coming July).

[strangegrey]

Welcome back, SG, you wretched old bastard.

Thank you sir!

...Cain looks like he can't wait to go backstage and take a shit.

LOL! You're *so* right. I forgot to say that I thought Cain look pained throughout the whole show. Just sitting on bench behind in his little key corner with this look like "someone get me the fuck out of here" Perhaps he had piles or hemorrhoids that day...

I think we can cut Arnel some slack on the diction issues on this one. This is his hometown crowd. He didn't need to sell an American audience here, and he'd been speaking in his native tongue all week. So let's let that one go.

Um, so it's ok for him to sing the songs like a cheap lounge bar pinoy because it's his hometown? That's a fucking cheap ass cop-out. The songs deserve the appropriate attention. Is it OK for Dean to play like garbage because they were in Oregon and he was able to score a cigar box full of weed? Is it OK for Neal to play like crap in SF, because he spent all day in court suing people for posting nude selfies he himself emailed out?

Moreover, the DVD/Bluray that was recorded there was compiled for a worldwide release (where I am betting a strong majority of the sales happened in region 1). Just because he was in Manila, it doesn't mean the overall consumption of the recording was for manila. It wasn't.

Seriously, I don't get this mindset that it's OK for Arnel to butcher the songs, whether it be over-singing, his vocal straining (which he does almost repeatedly on that show), or his diction issues. Why is this guy treated like he's handicapped in some way and needs our understanding, yet the bar set by SMFP was stapled to Augeri and Soto's foreheads on a nightly basis!!??? I just don't get it.

The DVD/Blueray was a poor product. It shouldn't have a label attached to the bottom of it that says "Please excuse Arnel's crappy diction because he spent the week running with the Sputniks in Tondo."

[ebake02]

Not to mention that they toned down the crowd to the point you can barely hear them, it sounds really awkward hearing Arnel try to get the crowd going and you can see people getting excited but all you hear is silence. Then Deen looked like he belonged on one of those save the children posters.

[brywool]

I love it.

Great and long set list with lots of new stuff. And the new solos were great.

I don't, however, have my surround sound stuff setup anymore so I can't comment as specifically on the audio, but I didn't like the 5.1 (if you want to call it that) on the 2001 DVD.

I don't think Arnel is bad on this, maybe I need to relisten as it's been a long time since I watched it. I'll pull it up on youtube while at work. As for over singing, MANY singers do that live. Perry did that all the time live on a regular basis. Up till about mid 83, he got away with it in spades and was amazing. At the end of 83 and into the 86 tours, however, he couldn't without cracking quite a bit. Some of the 86 shows were quite rough and found Steve changing melody lines to accommodate his roughed up voice.

I DO remember the Manilla video was pretty dark and the sound quality was really sub par and muffled to the extreme. I think that's the one where in Only the Young, Deen's hitting this tom and it's just SO FAR out front that it sounds ridiculous. That always sticks in my mind on that show. When you compare it to Vegas 2001, you gotta remember that a lot of that was redone in the studio, at least the vocals, so of course they're going to sound amazing. So amazing... that they went on the road with Journey for a time. I've not heard the ACTUAL Vegas show, but I have heard enough people say how bad SA was at that show and just blasting Journey for the DVD compared to the show. Knowing how he could be live, I tend to believe it. And I LIKE Augeri ['don't stop believin' champ!']. Your Jon Cain remark was on the money and made me laugh out loud.
SG, You've never liked Arnel and that's not going to change, so why subject yourself to it?

Listened to it this AM- I can see where you'd gripe about the diction, I guess, but man, the dude hits the notes dead on and does a good job with the tunes. Compare the power of his voice to that of Steve Augeri who just didn't have the power for these tunes (live I mean. In the studio, he was excellent). I do hear him running low on air in spots, but his pitch is good and his tone is good. He strains on a few notes, but he hits them. Also- Arnel puts his everything into his performance. The dude just does NOT phone it in. He's a great performer. It's too bad that the language barrier is such a problem for some fans. It doesn't bother me when I hear what he can do with his voice. There are definitely way worse singers out there. I've heard English speaking singers where I couldn't understand a word. Ever heard a Dave Matthews album? Can't understand a friggin word. Sounds like he's got a mouth full of marbles. Same with Eddie Vedder, mushmouths, both of them. To me, Arnel did a great job with very difficult material. Compare this show to the Rascall Flatts show. His pronunciation on that show was peculiar to say the least and I'm still trying to figure out what he's doing there. Still, KILLER tone and great range- and a good guy too.

As for the production of the DVD, yeah, coulda been better sounding for sure. The drums are mixed so poorly. I DO like that you can hear every bass note Ross is playing for once.
Looks like the lights were LEDs and not enough of them. Pars put out more light, but they're not as vivid as the LEDs.
Not everyone's gonna like everything.

One more thing- tough to argue with this set list. For me, as a diehard, this show hit everything with the exception of "Higher Place" which woulda been a good addition. It wasn't so dull with JUST the DD and even those were altered so that they were more interesting for those who have heard them forever. I think the changes to those tracks might've been lost on those in Manilla, but not necessarily.

[Ehwmatt]

I love it.

Great and long set list with lots of new stuff. And the new solos were great.

I don't, however, have my surround sound stuff setup anymore so I can't comment as specifically on the audio, but I didn't like the 5.1 (if you want to call it that) on the 2001 DVD.

I don't think Arnel is bad on this, maybe I need to relisten as it's been a long time since I watched it. I'll pull it up on youtube while at work. As for over singing, MANY singers do that live. Perry did that all the time live on a regular basis. Up till about mid 83, he got away with it in spades and was amazing. At the end of 83 and into the 86 tours, however, he couldn't without cracking quite a bit. Some of the 86 shows were quite rough and found Steve changing melody lines to accommodate his roughed up voice.

I DO remember the Manilla video was pretty dark and the sound quality was really sub par and muffled to the extreme. I think that's the one where in Only the Young, Deen's hitting this tom and it's just SO FAR out front that it sounds ridiculous. That always sticks in my mind on that show. When you compare it to Vegas 2001, you gotta remember that a lot of that was redone in the studio, at least the vocals, so of course they're going to sound amazing. So amazing... that they went on the road with Journey for a time. I've not heard the ACTUAL Vegas show, but I have heard enough people say how bad SA was at that show and just blasting Journey for the DVD compared to the show. Knowing how he could be live, I tend to believe it. And I LIKE Augeri ['don't stop believin' champ!']. Your Jon Cain remark was on the money and made me laugh out loud.
SG, You've never liked Arnel and that's not going to change, so why subject yourself to it?

Listened to it this AM- I can see where you'd gripe about the diction, I guess, but man, the dude hits the notes dead on and does a good job with the tunes. Compare the power of his voice to that of Steve Augeri who just didn't have the power for these tunes (live I mean. In the studio, he was excellent). I do hear him running low on air in spots, but his pitch is good and his tone is good. He strains on a few notes, but he hits them. Also- Arnel puts his everything into his performance. The dude just does NOT phone it in. He's a great performer. It's too bad that the language barrier is such a problem for some fans. It doesn't bother me when I hear what he can do with his voice. There are definitely way worse singers out there. I've heard English speaking singers where I couldn't understand a word. Ever heard a Dave Matthews album? Can't understand a friggin word. Sounds like he's got a mouth full of marbles. Same with Eddie Vedder, mushmouths, both of them. To me, Arnel did a great job with very difficult material. Compare this show to the Rascall Flatts show. His pronunciation on that show was peculiar to say the least and I'm still trying to figure out what he's doing there. Still, KILLER tone and great range- and a good guy too.

As for the production of the DVD, yeah, coulda been better sounding for sure. The drums are mixed so poorly. I DO like that you can hear every bass note Ross is playing for once.
Looks like the lights were LEDs and not enough of them. Pars put out more light, but they're not as vivid as the LEDs.
Not everyone's gonna like everything.

One more thing- tough to argue with this set list. For me, as a diehard, this show hit everything with the exception of "Higher Place" which woulda been a good addition. It wasn't so dull with JUST the DD and even those were altered so that they were more interesting for those who have heard them forever. I think the changes to those tracks might've been lost on those in Manilla, but not necessarily.

Great to see you around Bry, and a nice even-handed take despite your being as for Arnel as I'm against him.

A couple things here:

1. I agree-the set list is very, very good by contemporary Journey standards. It's probably the last time we'll ever see a setlist this robust and varied. It's what frustrated me so much about the performance and production issues on the DVD.

2. Re: Arnel being a "great performer." With all due respect, and you're a WAY better musician than I ever will be, I think you're conflating being a "great performer" with "trying hard." Arnel tries incredibly hard from an energy standpoint (not sure how hard he tries "off the field" e.g., by working on his diction when off the road), but that doesn't make him great. It just gets him an A for effort. The results and impact are lackluster, and I don't think he's a great performer by any objective measure. Plus, it's sad but true, the tiny stature and overall lack of natural swagger are things he can't overcome (you can overcome the former with the latter, but he lacks both).

[brywool]

Ugh, I typed out a long reply where I agreed with some of your points and not others, but it timed out and I lost it.
Forget it.

Thanks for tossing the compliment to me, btw. I'm just a cover band guy, not that big of a deal.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Ugh, I typed out a long reply where I agreed with some of your points and not others, but it timed out and I lost it.

Before you post - right click, select all, copy. Do it every time.

[brywool]

Ugh, I typed out a long reply where I agreed with some of your points and not others, but it timed out and I lost it.

Before you post - right click, select all, copy. Do it every time.

Haha, I USUALLY do this too. I typed this very early and ONLY remembered after I hit "preview" (I wanted to make sure I got all the quoting right).

UGH!

The gist was, I don't care what accent the guy has- I care about what he does with his voice and he can do a lot.
As a front guy, he's not the best. He's also not the worst.
With a voice like that, it's okay to me that he doesn't drag his Nikes around.
A for effort- darn straight. While Arnel is not everyone's cup of tea, yes, I get that and that's fine, he DOES put everything he has into the gig. It may not work for everyone, but speaking for the live show, look how much work he puts in compared to say Ross or Jon. All things being equal, all three of them play/sing their asses off. However, Cain looks like SG stated. Just a lump of boredom. Ross is Ross. Arnel is doing everything he can and gives 100%- more if you count all he has to do to recover and maintain his voice after gigs. Nobody else has to really do that. He has to be spending HOURS putting his voice back into shape for the next shows. He's not SP, SA, or JSS. He's his own dude and that's cool with me. There are a lot worse frontguys out there and definitely singers not as good. This material isn't easy. I think he's the best choice they could've made. Some of the others that were being considered, to me weren't as good, not going there.

On the working the language issues- look at how he was with The Zoo. He's come a very long way. I don't think he should be expected to sing with an American accent. He's not American- big deal. Just as English guys weren't American and sang with a British accent (which was cool). Just seems unreasonable. I don't care if his accent creeps in because his pitch, power, and tone are huge. With the Rascall Flatts thing- his pronunciation was so different but again, it wasn't his accent. It was something that he was doing as a vocal thing which I didn't dig. He only did it on the Journey songs. On the RF songs, he sounded great. On the Journey tunes- some things were just really really dark sounding. Didn't work for me. I don't think I've seen him do anything since then. I'm not going to the 2014 show in July because there's nothing new they're doing. If they were throwing in a bunch of the after-Perry era stuff, I'd go, but it's going to be the DD. Too expensive to see that again.

[Ehwmatt]

Ugh, I typed out a long reply where I agreed with some of your points and not others, but it timed out and I lost it.

Before you post - right click, select all, copy. Do it every time.

Haha, I USUALLY do this too. I typed this very early and ONLY remembered after I hit "preview" (I wanted to make sure I got all the quoting right).

UGH!

The gist was, I don't care what accent the guy has- I care about what he does with his voice and he can do a lot.
As a front guy, he's not the best. He's also not the worst.
With a voice like that, it's okay to me that he doesn't drag his Nikes around.
A for effort- darn straight. While Arnel is not everyone's cup of tea, yes, I get that and that's fine, he DOES put everything he has into the gig. It may not work for everyone, but speaking for the live show, look how much work he puts in compared to say Ross or Jon. All things being equal, all three of them play/sing their asses off. However, Cain looks like SG stated. Just a lump of boredom. Ross is Ross. Arnel is doing everything he can and gives 100%- more if you count all he has to do to recover and maintain his voice after gigs. Nobody else has to really do that. He has to be spending HOURS putting his voice back into shape for the next shows. He's not SP, SA, or JSS. He's his own dude and that's cool with me. There are a lot worse frontguys out there and definitely singers not as good. This material isn't easy. I think he's the best choice they could've made. Some of the others that were being considered, to me weren't as good, not going there.

On the working the language issues- look at how he was with The Zoo. He's come a very long way. I don't think he should be expected to sing with an American accent. He's not American- big deal. Just as English guys weren't American and sang with a British accent (which was cool). Just seems unreasonable. I don't care if his accent creeps in because his pitch, power, and tone are huge. With the Rascall Flatts thing- his pronunciation was so different but again, it wasn't his accent. It was something that he was doing as a vocal thing which I didn't dig. He only did it on the Journey songs. On the RF songs, he sounded great. On the Journey tunes- some things were just really really dark sounding. Didn't work for me. I don't think I've seen him do anything since then. I'm not going to the 2014 show in July because there's nothing new they're doing. If they were throwing in a bunch of the after-Perry era stuff, I'd go, but it's going to be the DD. Too expensive to see that again.

Au contraire, the British singer analogy is inapposite for two reasons. First, a lot of British vocalists sing with no accent whatsoever. They sound as "American English" as I do when they sing. E.g., Dave Mason, Robert Plant. Second, even when the British accent is more obvious, it's really comparing apples and oranges. No one's faulting an accent. People are faulting the fact that he cannot pronounce words and thus the meaning of lyrics/what he's singing get lost. It's distracting and takes you out of the song. A guy singing with a British accent isn't mangling basic pronunciations such that the vocals sound like a garbled mess, he just has an accent. Just seems quite different to me.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Au contraire, the British singer analogy is inapposite for two reasons. First, a lot of British vocalists sing with no accent whatsoever.

Elton John and Phil Collins spring to mind. I agree with Brywool to an extent and there ARE some great vocal moments on the Manilla dvd. But great vocals aren't enough. He doesn't command the stage. I never saw the JSS shows, so I can't comment. Augeri had the crowds eating out of the palm of his hand when I saw him in 2002. Every year after that, the whole band was dysfunctional and lethargic. The other year, when Foreigner opened for Journey was really a master class in what being a frontman is all about. Kelly delivered killer vox and stage presence to spare. Wish Journey had someone like that.

[AR]

I refuse to rehash and read the entire thread. Am I incorrect though that he said "Neal Schon on piano" at one point?

That said, he got past a lot of those issues. I still think that getting a singer off youtube makes a band wanting to have a lasting legacy look really stupid.

Arnel Pineda is cool with me though. Unlike the Home Depot idiot in "Boston" wearing a Brad Delp Halloween costume every night.

[yulog]

Welcome back, SG, you wretched old bastard.

Thank you sir!

...Cain looks like he can't wait to go backstage and take a shit.

LOL! You're *so* right. I forgot to say that I thought Cain look pained throughout the whole show. Just sitting on bench behind in his little key corner with this look like "someone get me the fuck out of here" Perhaps he had piles or hemorrhoids that day...

I think we can cut Arnel some slack on the diction issues on this one. This is his hometown crowd. He didn't need to sell an American audience here, and he'd been speaking in his native tongue all week. So let's let that one go.

Um, so it's ok for him to sing the songs like a cheap lounge bar pinoy because it's his hometown? That's a fucking cheap ass cop-out. The songs deserve the appropriate attention. Is it OK for Dean to play like garbage because they were in Oregon and he was able to score a cigar box full of weed? Is it OK for Neal to play like crap in SF, because he spent all day in court suing people for posting nude selfies he himself emailed out?

Moreover, the DVD/Bluray that was recorded there was compiled for a worldwide release (where I am betting a strong majority of the sales happened in region 1). Just because he was in Manila, it doesn't mean the overall consumption of the recording was for manila. It wasn't.

Seriously, I don't get this mindset that it's OK for Arnel to butcher the songs, whether it be over-singing, his vocal straining (which he does almost repeatedly on that show), or his diction issues. Why is this guy treated like he's handicapped in some way and needs our understanding, yet the bar set by SMFP was stapled to Augeri and Soto's foreheads on a nightly basis!!??? I just don't get it.

The DVD/Blueray was a poor product. It shouldn't have a label attached to the bottom of it that says "Please excuse Arnel's crappy diction because he spent the week running with the Sputniks in Tondo."

Actually this is a very good/fair point to be made about Arnels time as front man, its only fair that he receives the same scrutiny that both Augeri /Soto received.

[slucero]

Welcome back, SG, you wretched old bastard.

Thank you sir!

...Cain looks like he can't wait to go backstage and take a shit.

LOL! You're *so* right. I forgot to say that I thought Cain look pained throughout the whole show. Just sitting on bench behind in his little key corner with this look like "someone get me the fuck out of here" Perhaps he had piles or hemorrhoids that day...

I think we can cut Arnel some slack on the diction issues on this one. This is his hometown crowd. He didn't need to sell an American audience here, and he'd been speaking in his native tongue all week. So let's let that one go.

Um, so it's ok for him to sing the songs like a cheap lounge bar pinoy because it's his hometown? That's a fucking cheap ass cop-out. The songs deserve the appropriate attention. Is it OK for Dean to play like garbage because they were in Oregon and he was able to score a cigar box full of weed? Is it OK for Neal to play like crap in SF, because he spent all day in court suing people for posting nude selfies he himself emailed out?

Moreover, the DVD/Bluray that was recorded there was compiled for a worldwide release (where I am betting a strong majority of the sales happened in region 1). Just because he was in Manila, it doesn't mean the overall consumption of the recording was for manila. It wasn't.

Seriously, I don't get this mindset that it's OK for Arnel to butcher the songs, whether it be over-singing, his vocal straining (which he does almost repeatedly on that show), or his diction issues. Why is this guy treated like he's handicapped in some way and needs our understanding, yet the bar set by SMFP was stapled to Augeri and Soto's foreheads on a nightly basis!!??? I just don't get it.

The DVD/Blueray was a poor product. It shouldn't have a label attached to the bottom of it that says "Please excuse Arnel's crappy diction because he spent the week running with the Sputniks in Tondo."

Actually this is a very good/fair point to be made about Arnels time as front man, its only fair that he receives the same scrutiny that both Augeri /Soto received.

Especially considering the buildup he got too...

[jrny10]

But could there be a new singer in Journey again, or the return of JSS, or will it be Arnel till the end now? What do you think?

[No Surprize]

But could there be a new singer in Journey again, or the return of JSS, or will it be Arnel till the end now? What do you think?

A 4' 1" Fillipino fronting an American Band was fucked up from the start. Should have never happened to begin with. Stop with all the bullshit and bring Perry & Rollie back, put Cain on Rhythm guitar. Sounds like a plan.

[scarab]

dropping SOTO was the bands worst mistake. Neal wanted to rock, so why get a Perry soundalike?

[jrny10]

The band's decline did indeed start with the dismissal of JSS, but since they'd never take him back, where to go from here?

[steveo777]

The band's decline did indeed start with the dismissal of JSS, but since they'd never take him back, where to go from here?

Journey is a touring band now. If you measure their success by filling seats, there has been an upswing, not a decline. They would sell no more seats with Perry at the helm, although they might for a bit, until it became obvious that he wouldn't be able to tour as extensively as they do now and there is no way he could sing the catalog, even as well as Arnel at this point. Sorry, but to the AP bashers, there really is noone better at this point in the game. Loon out peeps!

[AR]

I will be ending my live boycott of Journey this summer. Last time I saw them was with JSS in Florida in May of 2007.

One show to complete the circle because it is convenient for me on a trip I am taking.

[FamilyMan]

The band's decline did indeed start with the dismissal of JSS, but since they'd never take him back, where to go from here?

Journey is a touring band now. If you measure their success by filling seats, there has been an upswing, not a decline. They would sell no more seats with Perry at the helm, although they might for a bit, until it became obvious that he wouldn't be able to tour as extensively as they do now and there is no way he could sing the catalog, even as well as Arnel at this point. Sorry, but to the AP bashers, there really is noone better at this point in the game. Loon out peeps!

Steveo ... I gotta say; if Journey reunited with Perry, their ticket sales will (at the least) double. They'd book stadiums, not sheds. And command a higher price at the gate. Granted, they'd play fewer dates. But other than Zeppelin, can you think of another band reunion that fans of our generation are clamoring for? It would be epic.

[Archetype]

Eclipse would easily be at least twice the album with Jeff Scott Soto singing on it.

[steveo777]

Eclipse would easily be at least twice the album with Jeff Scott Soto singing on it.

No it wouldn't. You are high on drugs.