overlap

With a poorly timed release of the new album at the start of a week with a bank holiday monday with the gig on the sunday, I didn't get to listen to the new album till the wednesday evening and I can't say I'd had long enough with it to know it particularly well. Nevertheless I hit the motorway at exactly the right time to hit the traffic hold-ups at the end of the weekend, and naturally hit my own late arrival tension threshold.

In the venue car park at five minutes past stage time, it took another fifteen minutes to get from the car park to somewhere near my seat, including the enjoyable experience of hearing muffled songs from the stage making it through the venue walls and then walking right out of earshot to get to the front door. Man, I so love industrial concert venues like this.

All the same, I was singing (quietly, to myself) along with Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) halfway round the car park, and Blue Collar Man which I caught the latter half of with my own eyes. The other couple of times I've seen Styx in recent years, I've been hugely impressed, and it's nice to see my favourite little and large combination since Fletcher and Defoe in the respective forms of JY and Tommy Shaw giving it their all. Miss America rocks hard, and for Come Sail Away the distinctive silhouette of Chuck Pannozzo appears before the lights come up, though I can't possibly go anywhere near Some Sail Away without hearing Cartman's version too. There's a brief pretend departure then an 'encore' of Renegade and while mildly disappointed to have missed part of their set, I'm still pleased to be there at all, and watch them do nothing released any later than 1978!

With a fifteen minute turnaround between bands, there's a brief stroll to see what the venue's actually like - a monster cinema foyer leading towards the arena pretty much sums it up - then it's back to find my right seat, or more or less. I couldn't say I'm a huge fan of Foreigner, and yes, that's partly because opportunities to see them over the years have been limited at best. Of course I've got a copy of 4, there's the vinyl LP of Foreigner Records (the early greatest hits) and that might be it, the fact I'm not even sure tells its own tale. I'm aware that Lou Gramm's health took him out of the picture some time ago, and with his voice being such a major part of the Foreigner sound (and his fantastic Midnight Blue single, something I do know I have), there's another replacement singer in the mix.

I needn't have worried - looking for all the world like Joey AORamone, Kelly Hansen hits all the notes smoothly while giving the full range of method frontman mike stand twirling, posing and even briefly disappearing into the crowd though thankfully without Bono-at-Live-Aid type embarrassments! Again the set is something of a vintage hits job - but then who could argue with this hour?

Double Vision
Head Games
Cold As Ice
Waiting For A Girl Like You
Feels Like The First Time
Urgent
I Want To Know What Love Is
Hot Blooded
Juke Box Hero

So often the gig and my experience of it is based on my relationship with the band, and some of those relationships, like any other, go through rocky patches. On the one hand, there's a part of me that would love to see them in any guise and line-up just to hear Neal Schon's guitar, and there's a part of me that feels somewhat troubled by the recent revolving lead vocalist slot. Equally I've now had the luxury of seeing Schon on guitar seven times, in three different bands and in five different line-ups and I'm pretty confident in what I can expect to see; a few pulled faces at moments of string-bending tension and little in the way of excitement, but then I love the solos in Faithfully to listen to, not because I want to see someone doing star jumps on a tightrope.

As a show, it's AORena rock by numbers and it does seem like just another gig. Four new tracks in 18 is about the right mix, Arnel's song City Of Hope suddenly makes a lot more sense with a background slideshow of his home city where I was on that day two years previously and where even with that passing familiarity I have no doubts how troubled that city is. It's one of the highlights for me in fact, to start to see Arnel in his own right - getting a new haircut helps too - instead of just the latest contestant in the ongoing Perry-oke role.

Deen sings Mother/Father and I'd love to see him sing more. There's a mighty confetti cannon either side of the stage for Any Way You Want It - I'm revisited by Homer Simpson singing along during that one - and the final encore track Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' sees us running out into acres of car park to take our chances in the queue for the long drive home.

As an experience, I was mildly surprised to see so few eight year olds from the post-Glee generation in attendance though the x chromosome quote of the audience was a bit higher than some gigs I've been to, and yes there was a tiny bit of handbag envy going on. In summary, pretty much as expected but definitely still showing signs of life.

Separate Ways
Only The Young
Edge Of A Moment
Ask The Lonely
Send Her My Love
Resonate
Stone In Love
City Of Hope
Lights
Mother/Father - Deen vocal
Open Arms
Chain Of Love
Wheel In The Sky
Be Good To Yourself
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Any Way You Want It
------
Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'

Labels: Foreigner, gigs, Journey, Styx

Further after the event, I'm stunned to find that Arnel Pineda is older than me, and that he is less than two years younger than JSS. So now I'm also impressed with how young he appears, and wondering precisely what the verdict on the summer US tour with Heart is going to be. But I love the comment from the guy in the Manchester Evening News who made the comparison with a certain lager maker's adverts, and the idea that if they don't make karaoke bars but if they did... That setlist in full, I think in the right order but if not then it's pretty close. Never Walk Away Separate Ways Only The Young Stone In Love Ask The Lonely Keep On Running (Deen) Whos Crying Now Lights After All These Years Mother Father (Deen) Open Arms Wheel In The Sky Edge Of The Blade Faithfully Dont Stop Believing Escape Any Way You Want It

Labels: gigs, Journey

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

The subject of Journey has come up before, more than once, and this week it's been brought to my attention that I could be in a box office queue for tickets to see them making another trip to the UK this summer. I emphasise could. A cynic might suggest that the sole attraction of touring the UK at a time when one unit of local currency gets two US$ rather than the 1.2 or 1.3 it might have done some years back is pretty self-evident. With any band that's in its fourth decade, some change of personnel is more or less inevitable, people change and it's pretty normal for nobody to stay in any job for that length of time so that's no big deal. However, when a band's creative identity is based around certain members in particular, it is also inevitable that things may change when one of those leaves. Marillion with Fish and with Hogarth are two entirely different bands, and both have plenty of merit. But if they'd tried to replace Fish with a Fish impressionist, I reckon it's a safe bet they wouldn't still be the creative force they are today. Since Steve Perry stopped being the singer in Journey, Journey have had a problem in the lead singer department. If you count Gregg Rolie's very early work, they have had six lead singers and even in the context of thirty-something years that doesn't sound too horrific. But somehow the prospect of seeing a Journey band with its third different lead singer inside just over twenty four months doesn't have me racing towards the box office at top speed just yet.

Labels: gigs, Journey, sell-out

Possibly not entirely unexpected, but all the same I'm rather
surprised to find Jeff Scott Soto has been fired from Journey.

I wasn't impressed by him or the Soul SirkUS show at all, but over two
nights fronting Journey I was more than convinced of what a great job
he was doing, and how his arrival looked like a shot in the arm for
the band.

I was absolutely thrilled when I got to see Neal Schon playing with
Hardline in the early 90s, and double thrilled to see the Augeri
version of Journey on British soil at last, but JSS had me convinced
that he was the man to take the job on properly. I love Schon's guitar
playing, but I've a feeling this is a step too far even for my loving
the band faithfully.

One of the joys of the modern internet age is the scope for
speculation and rumour to spread like wildfire, and other than the
remarkably limp official announcement I have no stone cold facts to go
on, but it seems to me that to whatever degree each has been
individually involved in the decision and communication of that
decision, it looks from here like JSS has been treated rather badly by
Schon, Cain, Valory and Castronovo and their representatives and
advisers.

Possibly the most telling moment for me that JSS is one of the good
guys is when he came out to join Danny Vaughn and Tony Marshall for a
quick charge through Boston's "Rock N Roll Band" the night after Brad
Delp died, and for no other reason than because he could, and thought
it was worth doing. And I agree it was.

Cheers Jeff, and good luck!

Labels: Jeff Scott Soto, Journey

This was the moment it finally started to seem real - the picture above shows a flightcase with the bright yellow tape marked JOURNEY FOH (front of house) - that I was finally going to get to see Journey. I have clear recollections of listening to them in the days when I was cycling to gigs, long before the thought of driving (or even flying) to gigs occurred. It's a long time ago. Some time just over a year ago I was updating my records, and looking at the numbers I realised there was a chance that I could get a couple of round numbers to coincide. For no good reason whatsoever, except it seemed like an amusing stunt if I could possibly pull it off. And so it came to pass that I spent yesterday celebrating the big occasion of my 500th gig; once it was possible that the grail-like appearance of Journey (doing their first shows in the UK since 1980) might fit, I've done my best to engineer things towards that result. I could gush for hours about why Journey, and may yet do so, but what amounts to my life's work in facts and figures comes down to the following. It's an utterly rocktastic 666 different bands doing 1,166 sets in 177 venues in 60 towns and cities, in 7 countries. Fitting that in in just under twenty years means I've averaged a gig every fourteen and a half days over that period, which puts it into context why I often fail to appreciate the 'night out' aspect that gigs can have for some people. And while there's the odd one that does feel a bit like hard work (yes I mean you, RW!) for the majority of the time I'm having a ball. It's true that there are places and indeed countries I've only visited for gigs, and I've been unfashionable in several different languages and a multitude of musical genres - ultimately that's what I do. I'm very lucky that I don't have the sort of commitments that stop me from spending this proportion of time and money in the pursuit of live music, and I'm well aware that that may not be forever. Which is one of the reasons for celebrating yesterday - I've now seen almost every band I could wish to, from old school Brit metal titans like Diamond Head, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden to 90s indie heroes Carter USM, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Pop Will Eat Itself, from classic credible rockers like Young, Springsteen and Dylan to long gone performance superstars like Wolfsbane, The Grip and Chrome Molly who you're unlikely ever to have heard of. From true pioneers like Tom Paxton, Duane Eddy and Sonny Curtis to lo-fi diy acts like [bis], Helen Love and Disco, from popular 'legends' Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (all rubbish!) to the novelty-tinged genius of Frank Sidebottom, John Otway and Half Man Half Biscuit, from ... well, the list goes on. Deen Castronovo + Neal Schon + Steve Augeri + Ross Valory + Jonathan Cain = Journey Above: Steve and Neal - Open Arms! Below: Neal and Steve Lay It Down

Labels: gigs, Journey, rock

On saturday morning I got up earlier than I do for work, and I've just got home from a cracking day of music. I now have a small amount of sunburn, and a real need to rock up the stairs to bed, but I've got just one more thing to say*, and that's Don't Stop Believing.

* I'll have something more sensible to say and some pictures later...

Labels: gigs, Journey, rock

Well, let's not get carried away just yet. But barring mishaps, friday and saturday nights will see me doing one thing that it never occurred to me would happen, and more importantly something I always hoped for but never dreamed I'd get to do. Saturday should see me back in a great big field I last visited fifteen years ago, watching a band I have previously (and in all seriousness) threatened to cross the atlantic to see, so likely was the chance of getting to see them here. I've seen the guitarist play in two different side project bands, one great and one less so, but this is the real thing and it feels like all my birthdays and christmases come at once to think the day is finally approaching.

Labels: gigs, Journey, rock