Popping Live in Manila in for a second try...

[Ehwmatt]

Definitely didn't kill me the first time around for a variety of reasons (A/V quality, Arnel's performance etc), but I also haven't really watched it since I watched it a couple of times when it released. Time to give this sucker another try almost a year later. Kinda wanna learn some of those extended Neal solos. Will report later with findings.

[Saint John]

Definitely didn't kill me the first time around for a variety of reasons (A/V quality, Arnel's performance etc), but I also haven't really watched it since I watched it a couple of times when it released. Time to give this sucker another try almost a year later. Kinda wanna learn some of those extended Neal solos. Will report later with findings.

I just watched the end of it on Palladia the other night and it's hard, at times, to get over the poor sound. There are some smoking songs on there, too, though.

[steveo777]

I had better luck just listening to it in stereo mode instead of surround.

[Red13JoePa]

I had better luck just listening to it in stereo mode instead of surround.

Definitely go w/ that mix over the 5.1. Louder.

[stevew2]

At first look i thought the title for this thread was "Pooping in Manila "

[Saint John]

At first look i thought the title for this thread was "Pooping in Manila "

So did I!!! And my first thought was that AR sent him a video of Asian girls dishing out some soft serve to each other.

[brywool]

It's a great show. The sound quality could be so much better though.

[lights1961]

Definitely didn't kill me the first time around for a variety of reasons (A/V quality, Arnel's performance etc), but I also haven't really watched it since I watched it a couple of times when it released. Time to give this sucker another try almost a year later. Kinda wanna learn some of those extended Neal solos. Will report later with findings.

I just watched the end of it on Palladia the other night and it's hard, at times, to get over the poor sound. There are some smoking songs on there, too, though.

when it first aired in MAY I watched it and was very impressed with Deans singing WOW... Arnel jumping all over the place got old after 90 minitues... but yes, the songs done in the show, was an excellent set list... to me, some extended solos worked... others really dragged on... Seperate Ways extened is the best... otherwise, the other songs I dont think were as good being extended...



Rick

[Ehwmatt]

Open Arms is listenable with the extended solo. Just can't warm to this show much at all. Arnel is too hokey and all over the place on certain songs (e.g., DSB). Great setlist. Horrible production. Just not worthwhile.

[Don]

Once the songs go into these extended outros beyond their original length, that's where the trouble starts and Pineda's roots as a cover singer really start to show. Anything beyond the original recording where he has to adlib is just terrible. He starts howling off key and in the wrong places, nothing is in sync and it's almost like someone is in his ear monitor telling him to sing something and he jumps into it without waiting for the right moment, making you wonder if he is getting the same live feed as the rest of the band. I've seen this in the other shows like Download, Graspop, etc. The guy is decent through the song as long as it remains like the record, as soon as it goes outside that box, dude becomes moon cat. Simply unacceptable.

I'd take the Chile Performance over this any day of the week.

[kgdjpubs]

Once the songs go into these extended outros beyond their original length, that's where the trouble starts and Pineda's roots as a cover singer really start to show. Anything beyond the original recording where he has to adlib is just terrible. He starts howling off key and in the wrong places, nothing is in sync and it's almost like someone is in his ear monitor telling him to sing something and he jumps into it without waiting for the right moment, making you wonder if he is getting the same live feed as the rest of the band. I've seen this in the other shows like Download, Graspop, etc. The guy is decent through the song as long as it remains like the record, as soon as it goes outside that box, dude becomes moon cat. Simply unacceptable.

want to give a specific example of that? I'll be the first to admit that he does a bunch of adlibs.....but so did Perry to a much greater extent. Neither of them are the type of singer who will sing the same thing the exact same way twice. The off-key part, I haven't heard though.

[Don]

Once the songs go into these extended outros beyond their original length, that's where the trouble starts and Pineda's roots as a cover singer really start to show. Anything beyond the original recording where he has to adlib is just terrible. He starts howling off key and in the wrong places, nothing is in sync and it's almost like someone is in his ear monitor telling him to sing something and he jumps into it without waiting for the right moment, making you wonder if he is getting the same live feed as the rest of the band. I've seen this in the other shows like Download, Graspop, etc. The guy is decent through the song as long as it remains like the record, as soon as it goes outside that box, dude becomes moon cat. Simply unacceptable.

want to give a specific example of that? I'll be the first to admit that he does a bunch of adlibs.....but so did Perry to a much greater extent. Neither of them are the type of singer who will sing the same thing the exact same way twice. The off-key part, I haven't heard though.

AWYWI is the worse. I understand they are going to to adlib on occasion and Perry, (even JSS) always let it fit seamlessly into the performance. Arnel on the other hand, seems to just start and stop at the wrong times and it makes me wonder if he hears as well as he should. As I said on the outros he seems to come in at the wrong time and I have to think is he trying to be different or is he lost audio wise at that point as the song is no longer fitting the script from the recorded version. At certain points he seems to be yelling out, not even singing, like he feels he should do something at that point of the song winding down but he just doesn't know what exactly he is supposed to do, maybe a "What would Steve Perry do?" moment.

Watch a boot of the Chile show and you will hear, despite his diction issues and some other quirks, he is in his comfort zone as the songs are pretty much played note for note like the originals.

I'm nitpicking for sure but that's my mini-review and I'm sure other people will enjoy it regardless. I didn't even mention the audio issues as we already have heard about them. Even The company that did the 4HD or what ever it is called said the Wal-Mart release is nothing like what they recorded audio/video wise.

I can live with a guy not hitting the high notes or his voice cracking. I've got DVDs with Glenn Shorrock, Steven Tyler, Justin Hayward, etc. and I understand that they are not going to sound like they used to. That's not the issue I have here.

[Eric]

The extended stuff is what made the tour cool for me...I love all the extended solos and Arnel did fine in my opinion. The Chile show is just a jukebox on stage...the download fest, for example, is a great live show. Different, etc....

[Don]

The extended stuff is what made the tour cool for me...I love all the extended solos and Arnel did fine in my opinion. The Chile show is just a jukebox on stage...the download fest, for example, is a great live show. Different, etc....

I can agree with what you said about the Chile show. As far as the extended versions of songs, for me it works on some songs (JukeBox Hero with Foreigner where they drop "Whole Lotta Love" into the middle of it) but I'm not keen on Journey doing it with anything beyond WITS or LTS.
The big drum beatdowns added to the end of songs (a lot of bands tend to do this) with Neal shredding to the point where it's annoying, not for me either but to each his own.

[Starrider]

A few comments:
1. I found myself skipping around to the songs with Deen on lead vocals.
2. The audio production does suck hard.
3. When I watch Open Arms, I just watch the extended solo part.

[Eric]

The extended stuff is what made the tour cool for me...I love all the extended solos and Arnel did fine in my opinion. The Chile show is just a jukebox on stage...the download fest, for example, is a great live show. Different, etc....

I can agree with what you said about the Chile show. As far as the extended versions of songs, for me it works on some songs (JukeBox Hero with Foreigner where they drop "Whole Lotta Love" into the middle of it) but I'm not keen on Journey doing it with anything beyond WITS or LTS.
The big drum beatdowns added to the end of songs (a lot of bands tend to do this) with Neal shredding to the point where it's annoying, not for me either but to each his own.

I guess the only thing tolerable about seeing these songs played now is what they do to change it up...for me that is.

[Don]

I think the Revelation songs sounded fine, with the exception of TDTWT which was the most anticipated performance by a lot of Journey fans. Unfortunately, it didn't come off very well in the live setting. Oh Well.

NWA should be the only song from Revelation carried forward to their next tour. They can replace BGTYS with it, it's the same song anyway.

[Tomulator]

I found myself skipping all the way to the end so I wouldn't have to listen to any more of this "bastardization" of a legendary band's music.

Just sayin...

[Eric]

A few comments:
1. I found myself skipping around to the songs with Deen on lead vocals.
2. The audio production does suck hard.
3. When I watch Open Arms, I just watch the extended solo part.

I agree with you across the board!

[Eric]

I think the Revelation songs sounded fine, with the exception of TDTWT which was the most anticipated performance by a lot of Journey fans. Unfortunately, it didn't come off very well in the live setting. Oh Well.

NWA should be the only song from Revelation carried forward to their next tour. They can replace BGTYS with it, it's the same song anyway.

I like Change for the Better and Wildest Dreams a ton. I also like What I needed a ton, but we have enough ballads already. With this band though, they have a hard enough time playing new songs, so I'd drop everything except the hits, songs from the new album and whatever rarities they choose to plug in (which could be Revelation tracks occasionally I spose). No matter how successful something new they do is, they have way too many hits to move forward - with or without Perry.

[Don]

I think the Revelation songs sounded fine, with the exception of TDTWT which was the most anticipated performance by a lot of Journey fans. Unfortunately, it didn't come off very well in the live setting. Oh Well.

NWA should be the only song from Revelation carried forward to their next tour. They can replace BGTYS with it, it's the same song anyway.

I like Change for the Better and Wildest Dreams a ton. I also like What I needed a ton, but we have enough ballads already. With this band though, they have a hard enough time playing new songs, so I'd drop everything except the hits, songs from the new album and whatever rarities they choose to plug in (which could be Revelation tracks occasionally I spose). No matter how successful something new they do is, they have way too many hits to move forward - with or without Perry.

Majestic into NWA seems to be the starter number but I could see them swapping it out with Separate Ways every other night to open the shows up with.

[Jeremey]

Over the past couple of years we performed Never Walk Away sporadically, as it kind of was a speed bump in an otherwise drum-tight set...Now that we don't play it, there's always a couple of people who request it, so we're basically reworking BGTY into a BGTY/NWA medley at the end of the night, going into the first verse and chorus of NWA after the drum break in the middle 8 of BGTY. Hopefully that will satisfy those that want to hear it. Hope to have the whole new set finished and up onstage by the end of the month.

I think Journey would be well served to do the same kind of re-working/medley with a <i>couple</i> of their greatest hits & deep cuts for their tour next year.

[portland]

I found myself skipping all the way to the end so I wouldn't have to listen to any more of this "bastardization" of a legendary band's music.

Just sayin...

Well put!

[Since 78]

I found myself skipping all the way to the end so I wouldn't have to listen to any more of this "bastardization" of a legendary band's music.

Just sayin...

Well put!

Typical, do you people err and felines have anything original to say?

[portland]

I found myself skipping all the way to the end so I wouldn't have to listen to any more of this "bastardization" of a legendary band's music.

Just sayin...

Well put!

Typical, do you people err and felines have anything original to say?

Do you????

[kgdjpubs]

I found myself skipping all the way to the end so I wouldn't have to listen to any more of this "bastardization" of a legendary band's music.

Just sayin...

Well put!

[insert typical question]
is it the arrangement changes that bother you (ie not an exact duplication of the studio recordings--which this band has NEVER done), or the people performing the arrangement changes? This isn't much different at all to the extended I'll Be Alright Without You with Cupid-medley that Perry is so fond of. Personally, I like both, but then again, I don't want a perfect replication of a cd when I go to a live show--I have the cd for that! I go for the "magic moments" and the thought that no other night of the tour gets what you are seeing, but opinions obviously vary.
[/insert]

[kgdjpubs]

Majestic into NWA seems to be the starter number but I could see them swapping it out with Separate Ways every other night to open the shows up with.

It seems to be popular at the moment. One advantage of SW is that it is a knockout punch on the audience that works really well and really jacks them up for the rest of the show....whereas Never Walk Away, being slightly more unknown, leaves the audience a bit confused.

Personally, I kinda enjoyed Message of Love opening the Arrival tour, even though it was a bit more unknown. Can't speak for other nights, but it went over very well when I saw them with a very wild Journey-loving crowd (which you don't get every night).

[Since 78]

I found myself skipping all the way to the end so I wouldn't have to listen to any more of this "bastardization" of a legendary band's music.

Just sayin...

Well put!

Typical, do you people err and felines have anything original to say?

Do you????

Nice comeback portland, we can start up this conversation again if you like. Just don't be a quitter when the going gets tough, like a certain singer we all know and love.

[kgdjpubs]

Once the songs go into these extended outros beyond their original length, that's where the trouble starts and Pineda's roots as a cover singer really start to show. Anything beyond the original recording where he has to adlib is just terrible. He starts howling off key and in the wrong places, nothing is in sync and it's almost like someone is in his ear monitor telling him to sing something and he jumps into it without waiting for the right moment, making you wonder if he is getting the same live feed as the rest of the band. I've seen this in the other shows like Download, Graspop, etc. The guy is decent through the song as long as it remains like the record, as soon as it goes outside that box, dude becomes moon cat. Simply unacceptable.

want to give a specific example of that? I'll be the first to admit that he does a bunch of adlibs.....but so did Perry to a much greater extent. Neither of them are the type of singer who will sing the same thing the exact same way twice. The off-key part, I haven't heard though.

AWYWI is the worse. I understand they are going to to adlib on occasion and Perry, (even JSS) always let it fit seamlessly into the performance. Arnel on the other hand, seems to just start and stop at the wrong times and it makes me wonder if he hears as well as he should. As I said on the outros he seems to come in at the wrong time and I have to think is he trying to be different or is he lost audio wise at that point as the song is no longer fitting the script from the recorded version. At certain points he seems to be yelling out, not even singing, like he feels he should do something at that point of the song winding down but he just doesn't know what exactly he is supposed to do, maybe a "What would Steve Perry do?" moment.

I see where you are coming from, but I think it's getting better. He tends to be somewhat spontaneous live, and general theory is that most people who do adlibs tend to get better the more they do them. Honestly, I don't think he's done much of that before joining Journey, and it does show sometimes. In the meantime, some of them work, some of them don't.

I'm nitpicking for sure but that's my mini-review and I'm sure other people will enjoy it regardless. I didn't even mention the audio issues as we already have heard about them. Even The company that did the 4HD or what ever it is called said the Wal-Mart release is nothing like what they recorded audio/video wise.

I'm somewhat upset at this also. The downconverting to standard SD wasn't done all that well. I haven't seen hardly any RED-filmed things other than this, so it may be the technology. Maybe the full RED version will eventually be released, or at least a downconverted Blu-Ray. In the meantime, it's odd to spend all that money on filming it, and then release a very cheaply-produced dvd. I guess you get what you pay for.

I can live with a guy not hitting the high notes or his voice cracking. I've got DVDs with Glenn Shorrock, Steven Tyler, Justin Hayward, etc. and I understand that they are not going to sound like they used to. That's not the issue I have here.

oh, that's not an issue at all. It's live--what do you expect?!? When everything sounds absolutely perfect, I start wondering how much has been done in post to fix things. There aren't many singers out there that will hit every note perfectly over the course of a two hour show.

[Eric]

Majestic into NWA seems to be the starter number but I could see them swapping it out with Separate Ways every other night to open the shows up with.

It seems to be popular at the moment. One advantage of SW is that it is a knockout punch on the audience that works really well and really jacks them up for the rest of the show....whereas Never Walk Away, being slightly more unknown, leaves the audience a bit confused.

Personally, I kinda enjoyed Message of Love opening the Arrival tour, even though it was a bit more unknown. Can't speak for other nights, but it went over very well when I saw them with a very wild Journey-loving crowd (which you don't get every night).

There is no bigger supporter of playing new music at a show than me (for any band), however, an opener should be an upbeat recognizable number. SW works, and AWYWI works. Message of Love was absolutely the biggest clunker I've ever seen.