Jeff "message of love" & Faith In the Heartlan

[fightingilliniJRNY]

I have a 2005 bootleg as well (Irvine, I think...I got it from someone here) where Augeri is definitely singing...and sounds awful. My guess is the tape thing didn't start until a few shows into the tour after they realized Augeri's voice was completely shot.

Yep. Irvine was the first date of the Generations Tour and Steve "healed" about 4 or 5 dates later.

[purpleplanet10]

all i wanted was a couple of songs and look at what i started. I really wasnt into journey untilla steve A joined & deen. i liked there music but it wasnt untill i saw them live that i really got hooked. i like the stev P years but for me its steve A and im 33 years old. so i gues it where you jump on borad. i have also followed jeff for many years. he rocked in soul sirkus, and i think will be a graet fit i hope he sings the WHOLE catalog!

still looking for a good message of love with jeff.

[conversationpc]

I have a 2005 bootleg as well (Irvine, I think...I got it from someone here) where Augeri is definitely singing...and sounds awful. My guess is the tape thing didn't start until a few shows into the tour after they realized Augeri's voice was completely shot.

Yep. Irvine was the first date of the Generations Tour and Steve "healed" about 4 or 5 dates later.

Deano claims Augeri was lipping the Indianapolis show but I was there, sitting in the lawn section where you can hear all the audio very clearly without being too close to all the noise onstage and Augeri sounded pretty bad there, too. There was no lipping that show.

[Jeremey]

Hey Steve!

Sorry you're having a hard time here, man. This whole topic brought out a lot of emotions on all sides. I'm not going to open a big can of worms here, but I will say that I was asked to analyze several bootlegs and come up with some sort of conclusion. The best conclusion I could make was that the bootlegs did include the identical vocal track, they were the isolated vocal tracks from the Vegas recordings, and since the band plays with a click track, they were synched up, performance-wise, to the music being played on the stage. Steve's vocal mic was live and in the mix. However, Kevin Elson had the stripped vocal tracks in the mix, and throughout the shows would bring Augeri's live mic down in the front of house mix, and blend it with the prerecorded vocal tracks. This technically was not lip synching, but to put it mildly, most people felt this was a bit too much "technical assistance." Unfortunately, it's become clear over the course of the past year that the band's continued reliance on this assistance eventually pushed Augeri to a level he couldn't maintain, performance-wise, and it most likely did permanent damage to his voice.

I still have several of the source files on my server, I'll link to them here....

This is the Escape audio from the Vegas 2001 DVD:
www.journeytributeband.com/escapevegassolo.wma

This is the Escape audio from the Manchester show in early 2006. Listen for the inflections in the vocal track. They are identical to the Vegas audio:
www.journeytributeband.com/escapemanchestersolo.wma

Now here are both tracks synched together, one in the left ear and one in the right. With headphones on, there is a perfect stereo (identical) vocal mix:
www.journeytributeband.com/splitescapefull.wma

Here is the same treatment done to a recording of Separate Ways from Canada in 2004 (?), in one ear, and Separate Ways from Vegas 2001 in the other:
www.journeytributeband.com/sepwayssynch.mp3

One thing I found surprising was that Augeri did some very specific vocal inflections and melody changeups, and they were identically repeated night after night.

As far as the times people heard Augeri on tour and he sounded bad, thus there couldn't have been audio tampering - You did indeed hear Augeri singing, roughly, flat in places, and struggling to hit notes, I have no doubt. It makes it all the more sad because those were times where he probably told Elson he was going to give it a go those nights, and his voice just wasn't clicking. By the time the Def Leppard tour began, they really had no choices left.

As another note. Some people on other message boards have called me a hypocrite and other names, to put it mildly, because I posted these findings, claiming I have no business calling myself a fan of Journey (and in some cases, no business even existing), and have no business running a tribute to Journey. I hope people realize how ridiculous those statements are, and I hope in some way the events of the past 5 months have in some small way vindicated those of us who count ourselves as die hard fans, but saw the writing on the wall...

So there you go, please let's not start any wars or anything. If you haven't heard the tracks before I'll say now what I did then - Listen and make up your own minds....

Peace!
Jeremey

[fightingilliniJRNY]

I have a 2005 bootleg as well (Irvine, I think...I got it from someone here) where Augeri is definitely singing...and sounds awful. My guess is the tape thing didn't start until a few shows into the tour after they realized Augeri's voice was completely shot.

Yep. Irvine was the first date of the Generations Tour and Steve "healed" about 4 or 5 dates later.

Deano claims Augeri was lipping the Indianapolis show but I was there, sitting in the lawn section where you can hear all the audio very clearly without being too close to all the noise onstage and Augeri sounded pretty bad there, too. There was no lipping that show.

I was at Indianapolis too and I distinctly remember him sounding terrible through the first few songs of the second set and then I remember saying how much better he sounded by the middle to end of the show. I don't think he just got better by himself in the middle of the set. Not that much better. I remember the second set opener, Be Good To Yourself, being particularly bad.

[Red13JoePa]

AR, or I think somebody else said something similar of the Hershey show that by the end he sounded pretty good.
I thought that's what happened @ Camden, too that he strengthened as it went on, but alas a few nights later in Holmdel was major struggle, then blew out completely I think in NC.

[stevew2]

Hey Steve!

Sorry you're having a hard time here, man. This whole topic brought out a lot of emotions on all sides. I'm not going to open a big can of worms here, but I will say that I was asked to analyze several bootlegs and come up with some sort of conclusion. The best conclusion I could make was that the bootlegs did include the identical vocal track, they were the isolated vocal tracks from the Vegas recordings, and since the band plays with a click track, they were synched up, performance-wise, to the music being played on the stage. Steve's vocal mic was live and in the mix. However, Kevin Elson had the stripped vocal tracks in the mix, and throughout the shows would bring Augeri's live mic down in the front of house mix, and blend it with the prerecorded vocal tracks. This technically was not lip synching, but to put it mildly, most people felt this was a bit too much "technical assistance." Unfortunately, it's become clear over the course of the past year that the band's continued reliance on this assistance eventually pushed Augeri to a level he couldn't maintain, performance-wise, and it most likely did permanent damage to his voice.

I still have several of the source files on my server, I'll link to them here....

This is the Escape audio from the Vegas 2001 DVD:
www.journeytributeband.com/escapevegassolo.wma

This is the Escape audio from the Manchester show in early 2006. Listen for the inflections in the vocal track. They are identical to the Vegas audio:
www.journeytributeband.com/escapemanchestersolo.wma

Now here are both tracks synched together, one in the left ear and one in the right. With headphones on, there is a perfect stereo (identical) vocal mix:
www.journeytributeband.com/splitescapefull.wma

Here is the same treatment done to a recording of Separate Ways from Canada in 2004 (?), in one ear, and Separate Ways from Vegas 2001 in the other:
www.journeytributeband.com/sepwayssynch.mp3

One thing I found surprising was that Augeri did some very specific vocal inflections and melody changeups, and they were identically repeated night after night.

As far as the times people heard Augeri on tour and he sounded bad, thus there couldn't have been audio tampering - You did indeed hear Augeri singing, roughly, flat in places, and struggling to hit notes, I have no doubt. It makes it all the more sad because those were times where he probably told Elson he was going to give it a go those nights, and his voice just wasn't clicking. By the time the Def Leppard tour began, they really had no choices left.

As another note. Some people on other message boards have called me a hypocrite and other names, to put it mildly, because I posted these findings, claiming I have no business calling myself a fan of Journey (and in some cases, no business even existing), and have no business running a tribute to Journey. I hope people realize how ridiculous those statements are, and I hope in some way the events of the past 5 months have in some small way vindicated those of us who count ourselves as die hard fans, but saw the writing on the wall...

So there you go, please let's not start any wars or anything. If you haven't heard the tracks before I'll say now what I did then - Listen and make up your own minds....

Peace!
Jeremey

Hi Jeremey, thanks so much for giving me the info and the files.I didnt mean to open up a can of worms but i need to know and I am ready to accept it.I lurked hear shortly when this was going down, then was told the clips were doctored to make Steve look bad,so I chose to stayed away and chose not beleive any of it,and go to concerts to see for myself. it sounded live to me,by what your are saying it was live at times.I will check out the files you sent,but If you say it happened,I tend to beleive it did. You are true to the sound of Journey and are trully a tribute to Mr Perry.You are a true fan and have every right to call youself and your band a tribute to Journey I am so dissapointed, I cant put into words how i feel.Ill get over it, I do have a life. It didnt have to happen this way,although I want to rant and rave and blame{beleive me} Ill try not to , Im sure If i do, Ill get cussed up down agian,thats okay.Ive seen some of the past posts,it was pretty bad. I dont want to get that started again. It wouldnt be fair to the people here.As far as Journey im not sure weither i want to stay the obessed crazed fan that I have been in the last 5 years.We will see. I am glad there is a band like yours that I can go see and hear live.You guys sound just like Journey in the eighties and nineties{Trial By Fire}, One can pretend cant they? I will check what you sent, but i pretty much take your word for it. Thanks for taking the time and trouble, Ill see ya Sat.If you drink ill buy you a beer, take care stevew2

[zino]

all i wanted was a couple of songs and look at what i started. I really wasnt into journey untilla steve A joined & deen. i liked there music but it wasnt untill i saw them live that i really got hooked. i like the stev P years but for me its steve A and im 33 years old. so i gues it where you jump on borad. i have also followed jeff for many years. he rocked in soul sirkus, and i think will be a graet fit i hope he sings the WHOLE catalog!

still looking for a good message of love with jeff.

There's a good video on youtube from Hollywood Fl on 11/7

[Jeremey]

[ Hi Jeremey, thanks so much for giving me the info and the files.I didnt mean to open up a can of worms but i need to know and I am ready to accept it.I lurked hear shortly when this was going down, then was told the clips were doctored to make Steve look bad,so I chose to stayed away and chose not beleive any of it,and go to concerts to see for myself. it sounded live to me,by what your are saying it was live at times.I will check out the files you sent,but If you say it happened,I tend to beleive it did. You are true to the sound of Journey and are trully a tribute to Mr Perry.You are a true fan and have every right to call youself and your band a tribute to Journey I am so dissapointed, I cant put into words how i feel.Ill get over it, I do have a life. It didnt have to happen this way,although I want to rant and rave and blame{beleive me} Ill try not to , Im sure If i do, Ill get cussed up down agian,thats okay.Ive seen some of the past posts,it was pretty bad. I dont want to get that started again. It wouldnt be fair to the people here.As far as Journey im not sure weither i want to stay the obessed crazed fan that I have been in the last 5 years.We will see. I am glad there is a band like yours that I can go see and hear live.You guys sound just like Journey in the eighties and nineties{Trial By Fire}, One can pretend cant they? I will check what you sent, but i pretty much take your word for it. Thanks for taking the time and trouble, Ill see ya Sat.If you drink ill buy you a beer, take care stevew2

Hey Steve,

Sorry to bring you down - Let me put it this way....What I've said all along is that people should not take what happened or elements of what happened and have them change their true feelings about the music of Journey and the legacy of the band. I originally got involved in this earlier this year because I saw a lot of people were tearing each other apart based on speculation of what may have happened. I posted the material originally to try to allow people to move on from the contraversy and move forward. In some cases that didn't happen, unfortunately. What I found was that there were a lot of people who had a tremendous emotional investment in one particular person in the band, and it may have tended to cloud their judgement about the issue.

The plain fact is that nothing and no one can change what this music means to you, and the impact it's had on your life. We all share that common experience here at this board, and it's important that you not allow yourself to get down on the band or the music. The situation with Steve Augeri was a professional blunder and certainly a crisis for the band, but we'll always get strength and inspiration from those magical songs.

See you Saturday!!!

[Rockindeano]

Arrival blows donkey ass compared to TBF. TBF is a mature album.....Arrival is so fluffy it is sickening.

"Arrival" is "fluffy" compared to "Trial by Fire"? You are kidding, right?

Dude, TBF has harder rockers than Arrival does. Look at the CD's.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Steve, u seem like a nice guy so I am going to toss another crumb your way.
Here is one of the few remaining traces of evidence still available on the web.

During a UK concert there were eye witness accounts of people mentioning Augeri's microphone cutting out midway during "Faithfully" in Manchester.
UK fans actually cited this incident as irrefutable proof that tapes couldn't possibly have been used.

However, when the clip was finally posted online it became laughably obvious.
It wasn't the mic that cut out, it was the tape that did.
Leaving a vocally-crippled Augeri to fend for himself.

With any luck, this link should still work.
The tape (an isolated vocal from the 2001 Vegas dvd) cuts short at 1:06.
Listen carefully for Deen pulling double duty and saving Steve's ass by singing the high parts at the end.

http://www.2dorks.com/junk/journey/faithfully.mp3

[stevew2]

Steve, u seem like a nice guy so I am going to toss another crumb your way.
Here is one of the few remaining traces of evidence still available on the web.

During a UK concert there were eye witness accounts of people mentioning Augeri's microphone cutting out midway during "Faithfully" in Manchester.
UK fans actually cited this incident as irrefutable proof that tapes couldn't possibly have been used.

However, when the clip was finally posted online it became laughably obvious.
It wasn't the mic that cut out, it was the tape that did.
Leaving a vocally-crippled Augeri to fend for himself.

With any luck, this link should still work.
The tape (an isolated vocal from the 2001 Vegas dvd) cuts short at 1:06.
Listen carefully for Deen pulling double duty and saving Steve's ass by singing the high parts at the end.

http://www.2dorks.com/junk/journey/faithfully.mp3

Thanks for the complement, I try to be nice, but i am an ass at times The clip that you are sending me,Ive heard, and i did hear Dean doubling up on the vocals when i heard the dvd on the 10 th time,I heard it.I will listen it again ,and thanks for sending it to me.I really dont have a problem with Deen doubling up with Steve. i do have a problem with injectiing the tapes where Steve should be singing. It really sucks and I I dont know how i am going the explain this to my daughter. I have always her told to be honest in everythig you do. From what i have seen{downloaded} this has not been the case at all. I cant really tell ya how bad i feel about it. You all have already been through this,I havent, bear with me ???

[fredinator]

Just don't tell your daughter--why rock her world, too? It's not a catastrophe, and it definitely isn't the end of Journey... Jeremy's right--they blundered, but, really, so what? It's done, Jeff's here, and it should be okay... Time will heal everything eventually...

[stevew2]

Just don't tell your daughter--why rock her world, too? It's not a catastrophe, and it definitely isn't the end of Journey... Jeremy's right--they blundered, but, really, so what? It's done, Jeff's here, and it should be okay... Time will heal everything eventually...

I have to tell her, she will accept it.I cant and wont lie to her. She can deal with it ,as i have to. She is a smart girl,we will get through it.we both have to learn that things are not perfect or as they may seem. It might help her on her next boyfreind.I am watching them guys to .Its not the end of the world either. It does really suck though,thanks

[stevew2]

[ Hi Jeremey, thanks so much for giving me the info and the files.I didnt mean to open up a can of worms but i need to know and I am ready to accept it.I lurked hear shortly when this was going down, then was told the clips were doctored to make Steve look bad,so I chose to stayed away and chose not beleive any of it,and go to concerts to see for myself. it sounded live to me,by what your are saying it was live at times.I will check out the files you sent,but If you say it happened,I tend to beleive it did. You are true to the sound of Journey and are trully a tribute to Mr Perry.You are a true fan and have every right to call youself and your band a tribute to Journey I am so dissapointed, I cant put into words how i feel.Ill get over it, I do have a life. It didnt have to happen this way,although I want to rant and rave and blame{beleive me} Ill try not to , Im sure If i do, Ill get cussed up down agian,thats okay.Ive seen some of the past posts,it was pretty bad. I dont want to get that started again. It wouldnt be fair to the people here.As far as Journey im not sure weither i want to stay the obessed crazed fan that I have been in the last 5 years.We will see. I am glad there is a band like yours that I can go see and hear live.You guys sound just like Journey in the eighties and nineties{Trial By Fire}, One can pretend cant they? I will check what you sent, but i pretty much take your word for it. Thanks for taking the time and trouble, Ill see ya Sat.If you drink ill buy you a beer, take care stevew2

Hey Steve,

Sorry to bring you down - Let me put it this way....What I've said all along is that people should not take what happened or elements of what happened and have them change their true feelings about the music of Journey and the legacy of the band. I originally got involved in this earlier this year because I saw a lot of people were tearing each other apart based on speculation of what may have happened. I posted the material originally to try to allow people to move on from the contraversy and move forward. In some cases that didn't happen, unfortunately. What I found was that there were a lot of people who had a tremendous emotional investment in one particular person in the band, and it may have tended to cloud their judgement about the issue.

The plain fact is that nothing and no one can change what this music means to you, and the impact it's had on your life. We all share that common experience here at this board, and it's important that you not allow yourself to get down on the band or the music. The situation with Steve Augeri was a professional blunder and certainly a crisis for the band, but we'll always get strength and inspiration from those magical songs.

See you Saturday!!!

Thanks
for your reply,and all the info{clips}and your input .I know the truth now. That is what I really wanted. anyway Thanks to everyone else even the ones that cussed me out also lol, Thanks again for taking the time to helping me find the truth,I dont like bullshit.,but the truth well set you free,I am okay with the truth now ,See you Sat.

[donnaplease]

Oh my!!! I had never heard any of the clips before this one. Thanks TNC for posting it. Forget was SP once said, HE was toast!!! I can actually kinda understand why they resorted to taped vocals...

Like I said, I had never heard any actual evidence before, so I was basing my opinion on not only everything I had read here and elsewhere, but more importantly the fact that we haven't heard anything from Augeri. Now that I've heard this, there is ABSOLUTELY no doubt in my mind. I feel bad for the guy, but the band made the right decision in moving JSS in. They just shoulda done it sooner, so SA could have left the band with some dignity for the 8 years that he was a part of the band.

[duke22]

Thanks for the post. I never heard these before I did not come over here during that time. WOW. I believed before now I can say it is true.

In the SA era I only really loved the vocals if they played indoors. Outside shows were pretty bad. I never thought about what someone said earlier in this post that SA got stronger as the show went on, but the more I think about it the more I realize it was true.

One thing really sticks out for me during the SA era (I have been to 15 or more shows during that time) SA was always looking at the sound guy as if something was wrong. Did anyone else notice this?

[NoMoreTails]

Just don't tell your daughter--why rock her world, too? It's not a catastrophe, and it definitely isn't the end of Journey... Jeremy's right--they blundered, but, really, so what? It's done, Jeff's here, and it should be okay... Time will heal everything eventually...

I have to tell her, she will accept it.I cant and wont lie to her. She can deal with it ,as i have to. She is a smart girl,we will get through it.we both have to learn that things are not perfect or as they may seem. It might help her on her next boyfreind.I am watching them guys to .Its not the end of the world either. It does really suck though,thanks

I would suggest telling her that sometimes good people make mistakes too and unfortunately sometimes one person get the blame and suffers for something all were equally guilty of...

[dcvader]

SA was always looking at the sound guy as if something was wrong. Did anyone else notice this?

Yes, I noticed it. Maybe he was signaling to turn up the tape?

[80s man]

i missed the "Message of love" mp3 when it was posted does anyone have it, id love to have that one... and is there one of "Faith In The Heartland"? thanks in advance i hope some once can help.
-PP10

You will never find a "Faith in the Heartland from Jeff....never.

Good cos it is crap.

[Carlitto H@kk]

i missed the "Message of love" mp3 when it was posted does anyone have it, id love to have that one... and is there one of "Faith In The Heartland"? thanks in advance i hope some once can help.
-PP10

You will never find a "Faith in the Heartland from Jeff....never.

Good cos it is crap.

Better than 90% of EVERYTHING on ROR and TBF combined...

[NealIsGod]

i missed the "Message of love" mp3 when it was posted does anyone have it, id love to have that one... and is there one of "Faith In The Heartland"? thanks in advance i hope some once can help.
-PP10

You will never find a "Faith in the Heartland from Jeff....never.

Good cos it is crap.

Better than 90% of EVERYTHING on ROR and TBF combined...

It can't be, Carlitto. Perry isn't singing it.

[Matthew]

i missed the "Message of love" mp3 when it was posted does anyone have it, id love to have that one... and is there one of "Faith In The Heartland"? thanks in advance i hope some once can help.
-PP10

You will never find a "Faith in the Heartland from Jeff....never.

Good cos it is crap.

Better than 90% of EVERYTHING on ROR and TBF combined...

A surprisingly insane comment from a reasonable man. Is Utah getting you down today, CH?

[Carlitto H@kk]

i missed the "Message of love" mp3 when it was posted does anyone have it, id love to have that one... and is there one of "Faith In The Heartland"? thanks in advance i hope some once can help.
-PP10

You will never find a "Faith in the Heartland from Jeff....never.

Good cos it is crap.

Better than 90% of EVERYTHING on ROR and TBF combined...

It can't be, Carlitto. Perry isn't singing it.

I know

I will say that 'vocally', as in Perry vs Augeri...
No-Fucking-Brainer obviously, ROR and TBF kill Arrival.
I think Perry would sound good singing with a dozen
Krispy Kremes shoved in his mouth.

I'm talking 'over-all' song structures, melodies, arrangements, catchy hooks...
Arrival and a few cuts from Generations remain true to the classic
Escape/Frontiers era vibe and THAT's why I think that stuff blows away ROR and TBF...

[Matthew]

i missed the "Message of love" mp3 when it was posted does anyone have it, id love to have that one... and is there one of "Faith In The Heartland"? thanks in advance i hope some once can help.
-PP10

You will never find a "Faith in the Heartland from Jeff....never.

Good cos it is crap.

Better than 90% of EVERYTHING on ROR and TBF combined...

It can't be, Carlitto. Perry isn't singing it.

That's obviously the main reason why it's crap, NIG - but the other reason is that Journey's decision in 2005 to rip off U2 circa 1984 showed a depressing lack of creativity and orginality.

[Carlitto H@kk]

i missed the "Message of love" mp3 when it was posted does anyone have it, id love to have that one... and is there one of "Faith In The Heartland"? thanks in advance i hope some once can help.
-PP10

You will never find a "Faith in the Heartland from Jeff....never.

Good cos it is crap.

Better than 90% of EVERYTHING on ROR and TBF combined...

A surprisingly insane comment from a reasonable man. Is Utah getting you down today, CH?

I will have you know, Sir, that Utah is DEFINITELY getting to me
My opinion isn't based on Perry's ROR and TBF performances...
he will always be the Greatest of All...
I'm talking "The Whole Enchilada"...
See my above response to NIG's comment...

[conversationpc]

Deano claims Augeri was lipping the Indianapolis show but I was there, sitting in the lawn section where you can hear all the audio very clearly without being too close to all the noise onstage and Augeri sounded pretty bad there, too. There was no lipping that show.

I was at Indianapolis too and I distinctly remember him sounding terrible through the first few songs of the second set and then I remember saying how much better he sounded by the middle to end of the show. I don't think he just got better by himself in the middle of the set. Not that much better. I remember the second set opener, Be Good To Yourself, being particularly bad.[/quote]

You're right and I should have clarified my statement and I think I've posted similarly here before. That was the worst rendition of "Be Good to Yourself" that I've ever heard. Perhaps the last few songs were lipped. I do remember "Faith in the Heartland" sounding pretty good, so who knows.

[conversationpc]

Arrival blows donkey ass compared to TBF. TBF is a mature album.....Arrival is so fluffy it is sickening.

"Arrival" is "fluffy" compared to "Trial by Fire"? You are kidding, right?

Dude, TBF has harder rockers than Arrival does. Look at the CD's.

You're right but I like the "Arrival" rock tunes better and the album better overall. As far as it being "fluffy"...Yeah, it probably is in spots. I'll grant you that.

[stevew2]

Steve, u seem like a nice guy so I am going to toss another crumb your way.
Here is one of the few remaining traces of evidence still available on the web.

During a UK concert there were eye witness accounts of people mentioning Augeri's microphone cutting out midway during "Faithfully" in Manchester.
UK fans actually cited this incident as irrefutable proof that tapes couldn't possibly have been used.

However, when the clip was finally posted online it became laughably obvious.
It wasn't the mic that cut out, it was the tape that did.
Leaving a vocally-crippled Augeri to fend for himself.

With any luck, this link should still work.
The tape (an isolated vocal from the 2001 Vegas dvd) cuts short at 1:06.
Listen carefully for Deen pulling double duty and saving Steve's ass by singing the high parts at the end.

http://www.2dorks.com/junk/journey/faithfully.mp3

Thats a different clip then I thought, Yea you can tell when the tape cut out, thats aweful, I would have not wanted to be Steve at that show. Thanks for clip you were correct about the lipping. singing along with the tape even ruined his voice even more, what a shame

[pdsidd]

Hey Steve!

Sorry you're having a hard time here, man. This whole topic brought out a lot of emotions on all sides. I'm not going to open a big can of worms here, but I will say that I was asked to analyze several bootlegs and come up with some sort of conclusion. The best conclusion I could make was that the bootlegs did include the identical vocal track, they were the isolated vocal tracks from the Vegas recordings, and since the band plays with a click track, they were synched up, performance-wise, to the music being played on the stage. Steve's vocal mic was live and in the mix. However, Kevin Elson had the stripped vocal tracks in the mix, and throughout the shows would bring Augeri's live mic down in the front of house mix, and blend it with the prerecorded vocal tracks. This technically was not lip synching, but to put it mildly, most people felt this was a bit too much "technical assistance." Unfortunately, it's become clear over the course of the past year that the band's continued reliance on this assistance eventually pushed Augeri to a level he couldn't maintain, performance-wise, and it most likely did permanent damage to his voice.

I still have several of the source files on my server, I'll link to them here....

This is the Escape audio from the Vegas 2001 DVD:
www.journeytributeband.com/escapevegassolo.wma

This is the Escape audio from the Manchester show in early 2006. Listen for the inflections in the vocal track. They are identical to the Vegas audio:
www.journeytributeband.com/escapemanchestersolo.wma

Now here are both tracks synched together, one in the left ear and one in the right. With headphones on, there is a perfect stereo (identical) vocal mix:
www.journeytributeband.com/splitescapefull.wma

Here is the same treatment done to a recording of Separate Ways from Canada in 2004 (?), in one ear, and Separate Ways from Vegas 2001 in the other:
www.journeytributeband.com/sepwayssynch.mp3

One thing I found surprising was that Augeri did some very specific vocal inflections and melody changeups, and they were identically repeated night after night.

As far as the times people heard Augeri on tour and he sounded bad, thus there couldn't have been audio tampering - You did indeed hear Augeri singing, roughly, flat in places, and struggling to hit notes, I have no doubt. It makes it all the more sad because those were times where he probably told Elson he was going to give it a go those nights, and his voice just wasn't clicking. By the time the Def Leppard tour began, they really had no choices left.

As another note. Some people on other message boards have called me a hypocrite and other names, to put it mildly, because I posted these findings, claiming I have no business calling myself a fan of Journey (and in some cases, no business even existing), and have no business running a tribute to Journey. I hope people realize how ridiculous those statements are, and I hope in some way the events of the past 5 months have in some small way vindicated those of us who count ourselves as die hard fans, but saw the writing on the wall...

So there you go, please let's not start any wars or anything. If you haven't heard the tracks before I'll say now what I did then - Listen and make up your own minds....

Peace!
Jeremey

Wouldn't Deen have to play with headphones if they were playing to a click? Can't remember him wearing them when I saw them????