Prepare for 'Stadium of Fire' by looking back at five memora

[tater1977]

Prepare for 'Stadium of Fire' by looking back at five memorable Utah Journey shows

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To simply say that Journey has an extensive concert history in the Beehive State is an understatement somewhat on par with opining that the band's anthem "Don't Stop Believin' " has been played on the radio a few times over the years.

The Bay Area rockers will add to their extensive Utah performance legacy when they headline the "Overstock.com Stadium of Fire" on Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The band is expected to play before nearly 40,000 attendees at the marquee event of America's Freedom Festival at Provo -- or, putting it in historical perspective, roughly 37,600 more people than the first time I saw Journey perform in Utah.

According to online tour archives and my own records, Journey has played 16 previous public shows in the Beehive State on 14 different tours -- double-dipping on both the "Escape" and "Frontiers" tours. Of those, I have personally witnessed 14 of the shows and 13 of the tours. (The band's first Utah show -- May 10, 1978 -- happened before I moved to Utah, although I did catch that tour in Los Angeles.)

With a nod to the band's Utah concert history, and to get you ready for what promises to be an incendiary (pun intended) show on Saturday, here is a look back at five memorable Journey shows within our state's borders, in chronological order.

"Evolution" tour: May 8, 1979, Salt Palace Assembly Hall

After several years of paying its dues and toiling in relative obscurity, there were specific signs that Journey was in ascension mode when the band played before 2,600 fans in this soldout show. The band had added lead vocalist Steve Perry for the previous year's breakthrough album, "Infinity." Keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Rolie was still in the fold, and while Perry began taking over most of the main singing duties, the few songs where Perry and Rolie traded off lead vocals exhibited an undeniable 1-2 punch.

Journey took the stage to a preview tape playing the instrumental "Majestic" before the full band launched into "La Do Da." The band played 22 songs -- pulled almost entirely from the "Infinity" and "Evolution" albums -- in an energetic 1-hour, 45-minute show. Many of these songs would drop out of the setlist, rarely to be played again as the band's hit catalog would explode in the next several years, so this show provided the best representation of those two key albums in Journey's progression.

"Escape" tour: May 29-30, 1982, Salt Palace

In the intervening three years from its Salt Palace Assembly Hall appearance, Journey had blown up into a full-fledged arena rock act. "Escape" became the band's first No. 1 album and spawned five hit singles. It's my theory that every band has one tour where they hit their absolute peak -- combining creativity, passion, experimentation and performance acumen -- before essentially knowing exactly who they are and mostly sticking with and playing to those strengths. If correct, then "Escape" was clearly that moment for Journey.

The Salt Palace show was originally scheduled for Nov. 19, 1981, but was postponed for reasons I can no longer remember. By the time the band re-slotted the date in May of 1982, it would need two days to satisfy a growing Utah fanbase. This was Perry's fourth album with the band, so the setlist was stacked with recognizable classics. This tour marked the first with keyboardist/part-time guitarist Jonathan Cain, who replaced Rolie, but more importantly became a main songwriting partner with Perry and guitarist Neal Schon. This solidified the band's classic core lineup.

Among the songs played at this show, it's noteworthy to point out that Journey included "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)," which would become the lead single from the following year's "Frontiers" album. A nice early preview of what would become one of Journey's best-known songs.

"Frontiers" tour: March 30, 1983, BYU's Marriott Center

Saturday's appearance at LaVell Edwards Stadium will mark the second time Journey has played on a BYU property -- with this "Frontiers" tour show occurring during a period when the Marriott Center was still holding a few rock concerts (Heart and Elton John were a couple others during this same general time period). At one point during the show, Cain's keyboards malfunctioned, leaving Perry to nervously note that he might have to tell a few jokes to pass the time. The keyboards revved to life shortly thereafter, however, before any actual punchlines could be thrown. Also of note, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, whose new single "Cuts Like a Knife" was just climbing the charts, opened the show.

Untitled co-headling tour with Foreigner: Aug. 11, 1999, Franklin Covey Ballpark

This show would have been memorable simply because it was the Utah debut of new lead singer Steve Augeri. However, this concert will forever be remembered by attendees because of a tornado that ripped through downtown Salt Lake City earlier in the day, causing moderate damage and putting that evening's outdoor show in jeopardy.

In a subsequent interview with me, Journey bassist Ross Valory said that from his downtown hotel vantage point he literally stared disaster right in the eyelids. His own. Valory slept right through most of the mid-day hubbub.

"I woke up at some point to a few sirens and thought, 'Ugh, it's kind of stormy out there'," Valory said. "Then I woke up later in the afternoon, turned on the TV, ordered my coffee and proceeded to see this information on every channel available. I looked out the window and saw that just about two blocks away was where all the damage was done. And yours truly slept right through it."

As for Augeri, questions about what he would sound like on iconic Journey material were answered with the very first line of the opening song, "Separate Ways." He sounded nearly identical to Perry, and even looked somewhat like the former lead singer, especially from a distance. I'm convinced that less than half the people in attendance that day even realized the band had a new lead singer.

"Eclipse" tour: July 21, 2011, Rio Tinto Stadium

This show is noteworthy because it was the nationwide kickoff for the band's 46-date "Eclipse" tour. It was a triple bill that also featured Foreigner and Night Ranger. By this time, Journey was on its third lead singer-post Steve Perry -- with Arnel Pineda, who remains with the band today -- having taken the baton from Jeff Scott Soto, who briefly took it from Augeri.

Journey ramped through 17 songs on a beautiful summer evening in an hour and 35 minutes, mixing in most of the key old hits with three tunes from the then-new "Eclipse" album.

There you have it -- five of the most memorable Journey shows in Utah to date. Where will the band's "Stadium of Fire" show eventually rank on this list? Only time will tell.

[Final Frontiers]

I won't bother to start a new thread for the Stadium of Fire show since there's already one with this title.




PROVO -- Journey unleashed 50 minutes of musical pyrotechnics Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium -- and then "Stadium of Fire" set off actual fireworks.

The iconic hitmakers from San Francisco lit the fuse for an evening of incendiary entertainment with a tight 10-song, 50-minute headlining set -- displaying a brand of rock flair never before experienced in 35 years of "Stadium of Fire."

"The Star-Spangled Banner," for example, no doubt has been played hundreds upon hundreds of times before inside the house that LaVell built, but it's safe to say it has never been delivered quite like it was by Journey guitarist Neal Schon on Saturday.

Schon dazzled the 40,000 or so in attendance with the fluid ferocity of his electrified version of the National Anthem, performed as a guitar solo early in Journey's set. One could say it brought the crowd -- already in a patriotic mood due to the very nature of the event -- to its feet, except for the fact that audience members had already been standing from the beginning keyboard notes of "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)," the band's opening number.

Journey certainly proved a departure from the standard "Stadium of Fire" headline entertainment -- which has typically erred on the side of country comfort. Even though limited in time, Saturday's show still had most of the earmarks of a typical Journey concert, just delivered, perhaps, at a bit faster pace.

Schon's guitar work, of course, is a hallmark of the band's sound. One of two original members -- and the only one who has been with Journey throughout its entire 40-year recording history -- Schon's fretwork is a near-perfect combination of speed and melodicism. Dude delivers a torrent of riffage that still somehow remains easy on the ears.

His rideout guitar solo to "Who's Cryin' Now" on Saturday offered the perfect example -- its catchy refrain is eminently hummable, yet Schon added embellishments live that still somehow remains easy on the ears.

His rideout guitar solo to "Who's Cryin' Now" on Saturday offered the perfect example -- its catchy refrain is eminently hummable, yet Schon added embellishments live that took it to a new level. One need look no further than lead singer Arnel Pineda for confirmation. For a good portion of the solo, Pineda could be seen casually holding a rear microphone stand simply smiling while watching the guitarist work his magic.


For his part, Pineda continues to provide most of the band's visual energy. He's a literal whirling dervish on stage, running from side to side and even enjoying a few trips out into the audience. Additionally, Pineda would take occasional flying leaps off of a box sitting mid-stage which seemed to serve no other purpose than provide a launching pad for his aerial acrobatics.

When he wasn't leading Journey aerobics, Pineda was fostering seemingly sincere one-on-one interactions with fans in the front sections. He would nod, gesture and point at individual fans -- and during one of his forays into the audience, he even stopped briefly while running along the front row to say something specifically to one fan he had obviously noticed from the stage. Such personal interaction, though impossible to duplicate throughout an entire stadium, does help shrink the venue, at least from a perception standpoint.

Jonathan Cain (keyboards, guitar and backing vocals), Ross Valory (bass and backing vocals) and brand-spanking newcomer Omar Hakim (drums) were all rock solid. Hakim, who has temporarily replaced Deen Castronovo behind the kit, was only playing his second show with the band, but you'd have never known it to watch him live on Saturday as he looked and sounded completely locked in with his bandmates.

Other than Schon's searing "Star-Spangled Banner" rendition, the rest of the band's setlist was pulled from four hit albums released between 1978 and '83. They should have all been pretty recognizable songs to the audience, and included radio hits such as "Any Way You Want It," "Stone in Love," "Lights," "Wheel in the Sky" and "Faithfully."


As would be expected, the band closed its performance with "Don't Stop Believin'," one of the most popular songs to emerge from the 1980s. Pineda, a native Filipino, embraced the spirit of the occasion by draping himself in an American flag during the first portion of the song.

The rock 'n' roll theme actually carried over into the fireworks show as "Stadium of Fire's" largest-ever detonation unfolded aerially to the accompaniment of rock classics -- by the likes of Bob Seger, Boston, Kiss, Joan Jett, Elvis and, yes, The Osmonds -- being played over the loudspeakers in the stadium.

The fireworks sequence timed to portions of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" was especially inspiring. Very well done.

If Saturday's "Stadium of Fire" proved one thing, it's that fireworks and rock 'n' roll can indeed go hand in hand.







Stadium of Fire

JOURNEY SETLIST

LaVell Edwards Stadium

July 4, 2015

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

Any Way You Want It

Star-Spangled Banner

Stone in Love

Lights

Who's Cryin' Now

Escape

Wheel in the Sky

Faithfully

Don't Stop Believin'

Performance time: 50 minutes






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Despite the difficult circumstances, I'm glad Omar is getting mad props.