overlap

It's a funny thing, time. After a couple of decades hoping, I finally got to see the Augeri version of Journey in 2006, as documented here and elsewhere. In 2007, times and places worked out ok for me to get to two gigs with JSS, who I'd failed to find especially great with Soul SirkUS. In two shows he won me over, and not just with the impromptu Brad Delp tribute. So a third different singer in not much over two years had me putting off making a decision. As the second act this week to keep me waiting for news of who their support band would be until inside a week, I wondered if this was a bad omen, or just poor planning. The gamble on the album was cheaper than the gamble on the ticket ($75US) and since I like John Parr anyway and the new album was decent enough after a couple of listens, I took a late flyer on the ticket. I have a number of John Parr singles, but he's a long way off my radar these days. Now, I'm sure it's nobody's fault but mine, but somehow I think of him as a singer and not a guitar player. I guess I assumed the stars and stripes guitar in the Rock N Roll Mercenaries video was more a visual prop, but not a bit of it, as JP came on and hit us with two minutes of widdly guitar screech before being joined onstage by the rest of his band, and a drum solo. Well, it's one way to start a set. Naughty Naughty, something else, “The Best That I Can Get” (as seen on a certain razor commercial) led us to Under A Raging Moon, but I think my living with Daltrey's version for twenty something years now meant it didn't quite compare. “The Natural Thing”, then a double extended ramble through Oh Well wasted time that could have been much better spent doing Two Hearts, to name but one example, and then we had the Rick Hansen story that I'd never heard before as the intro to and explanation of St Elmo's Fire. Forty five minutes that was pretty good, but would have been better without Oh Well. Twenty minutes later we're racing into Never Walk Away to start an almost identical set to that played at Hammersmith (see Dave Ling's website if you want the list). NWA sounds like the middle ground between the Raised On Radio and Frontiers albums to me, and it's a good example of how the newer material makes it easier to get on with Arnel, just because it isn't begging for comparison. There's a bigger/smaller plus to Arnel now that Neal Schon is not the shortest person on the stage, and he bounces around like a puppy who's just been let out into the garden. It's virtually impossible to dislike Pineda, his enthusiasm and smile ensure that, but the years of stagecraft that see JSS prowling the stage like it's his own front room are not so much in evidence. And that's partly a good thing too, he's a long way short of learning all the set piece choreography to be in KISS, but I can't help thinking he just seems a tiny bit out of place at times. Maybe I'd get more used to it if I saw another show, that's perfectly possible. Jonathan Cain spends a lot of time playing rhythm guitar, and if there's someone who looks more comfortable behind a keyboard than handling six or twelve strings, it's Bryan Adams' squarer brother. Neal's effortlessly fluid guitar lines are as blissful as ever, Ross Valory looks equal parts polished pro and like a kid messing around, and it's notable tonight that everybody does look like they are having a ball on stage. As for the older stuff, well if a new singer does something different they'll be criticised for not sticking to the familiar, and if they just imitate then that won't be right either, so doing the right thing is always going to be hard. At the end of Stone In Love, there's a little bit of vocal improvisation that makes me wonder where we are going, but it mostly sounds fine. And then Deen drives us through Keep On Running in about two minutes flat, with a combination of drumming and lead vocal that can't help but take a little something away from Arnel's performance. Then again, Arnel absolutely nails Lights and Wheel In The Sky, and Ask The Lonely sounds incredible with five sets of vocals. The new one After All These Years works very well too. Now, I find Melisma Carey's butchery of Open Arms absolutely destroys it for me, so I was particularly interested to hear what would happen there. And sure, I'm being critical and I reckon that it's only natural at this point in the Journey story – the re-recorded stuff has a bit of Oper Narms and Who Scrying Now sliding consonants that bugs me on the CD, but it's much less noticeable live. Edge Of The Blade seems more suited to the Pineda voice, but only after Deen has stormed his way through Mother, Father and we run through to the end of an hour forty five with Faithfully, Don't Stop Believing, Escape and Any Way You Want It. Having gone without a great degree of hope in a change for the better, I have to say Arnel is a thoroughly engaging frontman and with another hundred shows he should be flying. Best of luck to him, although with Deen singing in the background even I would sound half-decent and I can't sing for nuts. With a stage full of people having fun, the true proof of this line-up will come in seeing where the next set of new material takes them, and I think they have a more than decent vocal replacement for Steve Perry. I'm just not absolutely convinced it isn't the one behind the drums. More pictures already on flickr, but here's a relative height scale! Jon, Ross, Deen, Arnel, Neal (L-R) * Who's Crying Now is a fine Journey song, that might possibly be rejigged given the high recent turnover of lead singers

Labels: gigs, John Parr, Journey