HOLY FUCK! - Blatant Hero Worship Post Right Here... JSS?

[brywool]

I just heard the excerpts from the Manchester show...

Jeff Scott Soto-
When I first heard those 4 early boots months ago, I was so NOT into you fronting this band. Hearing those boots, I was like 'What is Journey thinking?'. You were hoarse, flat and approaching the songs from a VERY different place (vocally), a place that sounded so NOT Journey.

I'd heard a few other cuts after those early boots that were... better, but still not that great to me. It sounded "okay" but you could hear the strain...

NOW I've heard these Manchester tunes:



After The Fall
Remember Me
La Do Da
Line of Fire
Faith in the Heartland
Opened The Door

HOLY FUCKIN' MOTHER OF GOD...

I owe you a MAJOR apology. You have WAY risen to the challenge of singing in this band.

Mr. Soto, I take back every doubt I ever had about you fronting this band. I have NOT SEEN you in the band yet (I wasn't going to based on what I heard in the beginning), but I am now hearing with my own ears how GREAT you sound on these tunes. The stuff I heard when you joined does not compare to this. This Manchester stuff is fucking flat out AMAZING.

A M A Z I N G

WHAT IN THE HELL DID YOU CHANGE IN YOUR VOCAL APPROACH??? Seriously, I'm VERY curious. Before, you were, well, see the adjectives above... and now you're nearly FLAWLESS and have the range these songs require. I am so bowled over by what I'm hearing. Everything sounds SO good.

Is that you or Castronovo doing the end high note in "after the fall"? It's a bit shakey at first but then it gets hit and then some. It's a friggin' HIGH note. It sounds like Deen, but I can't tell with the way the rest of the stuff sounds. I only heard Perry do that note once. The high note on Faith in the Heartland also sounds like Deen. Is that him or you?

If I didn't know better, I'd say this stuff was on tape and done in a studio because the change is SO suspiciously good.

Seriously, I will never doubt you fronting this band again.

To the doubters out there- download these tracks. They will blow your fucking head off. (You can tell I'm excited, I never say Fuck!)

Also, thank you to you and the rest of the band for dedicating "Remember Me" to Steve Augeri. I am still very dissapointed by what went down with him because I loved his voice (you others that are going to flame me- I could give a shit- the guy was a great singer for a long time- deserves props for that and please don't hijack this post to rant about what went down). I thought it was a VERY classy move on your part.

Forgive my negative adjectives at the beginning of this post, but they're to illustrate the change I'm hearing now.

I haven't had chills on hearing an old Journey song done for the billionth time live... until I heard "Opened the Door".


Jeff- you GO man. I just can't believe this is the same band I heard 6 months ago.

Awesome...

[Clasicrockldy]

Dear brywool........

You need to PM me. I have some Journey/JSS stuff you may be interested in.

[AR]

No hero worship necessary. It's just Jeff.

Seriously, the guy comes on here and interacts with everyone. He's just a dude - that happens to be really fucking talented as a singer.

Understand the sentiment of the post, just busting some balls about the "hero" line.

[ohsherrie]

Gee Bry, you need to be careful, people might think you're excited or something.

[brywool]

I TOTALLY am excited about it...
for many reasons, half of which have to do with my own voice and just the possibility that a voice can go from where Jeff was to where he now IS. I'm completely a voice fanatic and that stuff interests me in a big way. But if you read my voice about the chills- Seriously, it's been a LONG time since I heard live Journey that gave me goose bumps. I got goose bumps when I first heard Higher Place but live when I'd hear the same old dirty dozen (or whatever they call it) it was "yeah, I've heard it". With those Manchester recordings some of those just blew me away. I don't understand how it can change... in such a major way. The change is incredible. Night and Day.