St Louis Show

[Onestepper]

Went last night to the show in St Louis. Pretty much a sold out venue including an upper deck that was completely packed, no visible open seats.

About 10 minutes before Toto took the stage a DJ came out and played a medley of 80's and 90's hits that I assume was designed to warm up the crowd. Haven't really seen that before, but it was interesting nonetheless.

I'll detail Toto's show on their board, but the long and short is that they were fantastic and sounded great. They had one surprise in the set list that I'll go into over there.

The Journey set list was consistent with other cities, with the exception that they did not play the new song "The Way We Used To Be", which I'm actually glad they left out. I don't really see in the set where it fits. Surprisingly "Dead or Alive" probably stole the show as the best performance all night. Deen of course was amazing with Mother Father, but DOA really ignited the crowd.

Arnel was classic Arnel. Jumping around all over the stage and just seem to be having fun. His voice was a bit inconsistent and his mic was even more so. I felt like there was someone there bringing it up and down constantly within the mix that was supposed to help him, but it honestly just sounded muddy at times. He's obviously still got his singing chops, but he's smartly letting the background singers and crowd carry alot of the higher stuff.

I thought Arnel, Neal and Jonathan all did a nice job of sharing hosting duties for the night at the right times. Jonathan dedicated Faithfully to the men and women of the armed forces around the world, and the crowd really got into that. Neal did mention again "Lights" as the first song he wrote with Perry. And a guy that was sitting next to us with his wife said "that's not true" right after Neal said it. I kind of chuckled.

The one thing I noticed (and I've seen from the footage of other cities) is that they have upped their Visual game on this tour. A lot of animation and light show that complimented the performance really well.

Overall it was a good show that was pretty consistent with what I expected. They sounded tight musically and it was just a better presentation and sound than the last couple of times I've seen them. They also seem to all be having a good time, which is great to see.

[Gideon]

Went last night to the show in St Louis. Pretty much a sold out venue including an upper deck that was completely packed, no visible open seats.

About 10 minutes before Toto took the stage a DJ came out and played a medley of 80's and 90's hits that I assume was designed to warm up the crowd. Haven't really seen that before, but it was interesting nonetheless.

I'll detail Toto's show on their board, but the long and short is that they were fantastic and sounded great. They had one surprise in the set list that I'll go into over there.

The Journey set list was consistent with other cities, with the exception that they did not play the new song "The Way We Used To Be", which I'm actually glad they left out. I don't really see in the set where it fits. Surprisingly "Dead or Alive" probably stole the show as the best performance all night. Deen of course was amazing with Mother Father, but DOA really ignited the crowd.

Arnel was classic Arnel. Jumping around all over the stage and just seem to be having fun. His voice was a bit inconsistent and his mic was even more so. I felt like there was someone there bringing it up and down constantly within the mix that was supposed to help him, but it honestly just sounded muddy at times. He's obviously still got his singing chops, but he's smartly letting the background singers and crowd carry alot of the higher stuff.

I thought Arnel, Neal and Jonathan all did a nice job of sharing hosting duties for the night at the right times. Jonathan dedicated Faithfully to the men and women of the armed forces around the world, and the crowd really got into that. Neal did mention again "Lights" as the first song he wrote with Perry. And a guy that was sitting next to us with his wife said "that's not true" right after Neal said it. I kind of chuckled.

The one thing I noticed (and I've seen from the footage of other cities) is that they have upped their Visual game on this tour. A lot of animation and light show that complimented the performance really well.

Overall it was a good show that was pretty consistent with what I expected. They sounded tight musically and it was just a better presentation and sound than the last couple of times I've seen them. They also seem to all be having a good time, which is great to see.

Thanks for the review.

Neal is aware of the sound mix issues. Somebody brought it up to him on FB and he said "we're working on it" but then tried to shirk the criticism "a lot of people are saying the mix is the best it's ever been..." so who the fuck knows what'll happen there.

Disappointed they dropped TWWUTB. Not because it's my favorite track, but because it once again suggests that Journey will shrink away from performing new music as they did during the Eclipse tour.

Sidenote: 5 days ago, Def Leppard released the official audio to their new single, "Kick," and on YT it's already yielded half the views of Journey's official video for TWWUTB... which has been out for 8 months.

Leppard's social media game is vastly, vastly better than Journey's. They need an active and professional social media manager instead of Neal jerking himself off on Journey's official page and reposting/retweeting personal shit from his and Michaele's love life.

Journey's visual set up is definitely much improved and even Jon looks trimmer and less miserable than he used to.

[Archetype]

The Freedom tour. Zero songs being played from this upcoming allegedly double album called Freedom. Nice.

[jrnyman28]

The Freedom tour. Zero songs being played from this upcoming allegedly double album called Freedom. Nice.

Both Neal and Jon have said they don't want to tease anymore material from Freedom until it is released. Jon refers to the Arrival debacle which is completely different but still.... Both want the package to be a complete experience for the audience.

[ebake02]

The Freedom tour. Zero songs being played from this upcoming allegedly double album called Freedom. Nice.

Both Neal and Jon have said they don't want to tease anymore material from Freedom until it is released. Jon refers to the Arrival debacle which is completely different but still.... Both want the package to be a complete experience for the audience.

I can see their point but if the new music is good then throwing everybody a bone and releasing even a small sample would drum up more interest then keeping it completely under wraps.

[JourneyHard]

About 10 minutes before Toto took the stage a DJ came out and played a medley of 80's and 90's hits that I assume was designed to warm up the crowd. Haven't really seen that before, but it was interesting nonetheless.

I forgot about that. We had the DJ in Detroit, too. It was kind of weird, but I guess they are trying something new. I can't fault them for trying to make the show better.