I was there, too. Sorry for the long post.
Before the show: Soundcheck, M&G, Crazy Storm
We did the VIP thangy, cause Jones Beach is a dry venue (alcohol wise) unless you have access to the VIP area. Also, since it always rains, the VIP area has tents that you can see the stage from.
Anyway, we were there for soundcheck, they played La Do Da first without Arnel, then with him. He sounded great, so we were hoping they would play it later, and sure enough... It was awesome. They also did Feeling That Way/Anytime, two of my faves. So that was a treat, but Arnel has a long way to go on those, so they probably won't play them anytime soon.
Jonathan, Deen and Ross showed up at the party. I didn't have anything for them to sign so i stole a candle from a table, all three thought it was funny. I thought Jon was gonna tell on me, but he ended up being pretty cool. The free stuff was actually good this time, a Journey beach bag and a huge red Journey beach towel. We also got a drum head signed by all of Journey, and later Rick Nielson added his signature.
Shortly after the guys left the party, we all got kicked out of the VIP tent, we were pissed. No more beer. It turned out it was for our safety. They made us go under the overhang under the seats and then all hell broke loose. Rain, huge hail, thunder, lightening, Crazy wind; Debris starting coming our way so we ran into an enclosed area, the debris followed us through the doors so staffers shut the doors, some people tried to open them back up so we could see the storm, but the wind was too strong. Eventually the wind let up and we could go back out under the overhang. It was still raining with plenty of lightening, but to my surprise, there were a ton of people lined up at the front gate. Talk about fans! Around 8pm, they started letting people in, we got back into our tent, which was soaked inside, downed a few free beers, then around 8:30, Cheap Trick took the stage.
We went to find our seats, Front row center!!!
The Show
Robin Zander sounded amazing. What a performer, and he had on a really cool suit. All the musicians in Cheap Trick are top notch. Too bad about the shortened set, I was really, really, really enjoying their performance.
I love the way Heart doesn't stick to the original versions of some of their songs. Their live version of Alone is so much better than the studio version. Of course, Ann's vocals were mesmerizing, but she seemed kind of pissed off. And their lighting was awful.
Most of you have seen Journey, so I'm not going to get into it. A few things: La Do Da was great, Arnel was fantastic. The harp and mandolin segway into Wheel In The Sky was super cool. And Jonathon finally changed up his piano solo into Open Arms. About time!!! Oh and Escape rocked!!! Being in the front row, I can't comment on the crowd reception, but talking with people after the show, they seemed really enthusiastic about Journey and Arnel. We took the train, so after the show we had to get a bus from the venue to the train station and missed the train by 5 minutes. Due to the late hour we had to wait an hour for the 1:43am train along with all the other city dwellers. It was fun. I got to talk to a lot of people about the show and Journey in general. one guy had a setlist, so I took a picture.
My feelings on Arnel:
I haven't been around here since Jeff was let go. I was extremely disappointed in the way it went down, but as a journey fan since 1976, we've been down this road before. My priority with music is the music. Charting, business practices, personnel, etc. all take a back seat to the music and the performance. Though, it can be conflicting, sometimes you gotta take the bad with the good. IMO, Journey is one of the greatest bands ever; whatever the lineup. Arnel is on par with the quality of this band. Perry, in his prime, will always be my no. 1, but right now, Arnel is the man. He's improved tremendously since the Chile show and the passion and soul that I felt was lacking then and even on the Vegas DVD, seems to be surfacing. It struck me at the show, but I noticed it more when looking at the photos I took.
Journey setlist:
Majestic Intro
Never Walk Away
Only The Young
Stone In Love
Change For The Better
Ask The Lonely
After All These Years
Harp and Mandolin segway
Wheel In the Sky
Lights
Faithfully
Piano solo
Open Arms
Don't Stop Believing
Separate Ways
La Do Da
Dead Or Alive
Any Way You Want It
Encore:
Escape
Be Good To Yourself
Pics:
Journey:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606750516794/show/
Cheap Trick:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606761236214/show/
Heart:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soundfreakphoto/sets/72157606765930975/show/
and us sitting in our cars to see if the show was going to go on...after two hours (8pm), they let us in. 
! That girl can sing!! Geat covers of 'Reign 'oer Me' and 'Going to California'. I wish they would have done the long version of " Dreamboat Annie", because that is MY song! But they didn't play it. 
! For any who were concerned about his "accent", well don't be, 'cause it wasn't there. Either singing, or talking, he sounds as "American" as most of us do! 
and, what a voice it is! I was real close to the stage and he can really project those vocals..great pipes, and a wonderful stage presence! Neal was stellar as usual, Ross made his silly faces 
)
