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It's official, there's nothing weirder than...

A Journey concert.

Apologies to any of their fans here, but this band is just odd.

So, last night my wife and I got roped into seeing Tower of Power, Steve Miller and Journey at The Hollywood Bowl with three other couples from our neighborhood. This is LA and the Bowl is both everything right and everything wrong about this place. It's a fantastic venue for a show, but the last two miles to the parking lot took us 40 minutes.

Hence, we missed Tower of Power, but caught the last 7 or 8 songs by the Steve Miller Band. I thought that four of them - The Joker, Keep On Rocking You, Jet Airliner, and Swingtown were good ol' rock n roll fun. The encore - Fly Like an Eagle - was a bit of a mess, but overall this was a good show. Then Journey came out.

In my view, never has so much talent had so much success in the service of so little. Everyone of these guys can play the sh*t out of his instrument (including vocals) and everyone gets a solo or 3 to show that off. Well, everyone except for the guy who played an inaudible (to my ear) 12 string on half the songs. He may not have even been plugged in.)

Other than the obligatory 5 songs in the middle from their new record - which no one wanted to hear and made for an excellent bathroom break - every song was a familiar hit. But...

Every moment felt, hollow, empty, and scripted to the last detail. Even when they rocked 'em up, these songs just get louder, not more exciting.

Neal Schon is a highly skilled player, but he broke the guitar players' first commandment: Thou shalt never solo to the Star Spangled Banner, unless thoust first name is spelled Jimi. His isn't.

I vaguely remembered that Journey had replaced Steve Perry with a Filipino singer they found on you tube. I didn't realize that it was a miniature Filipino half the size of the next smallest band member. There is IMO nothing weirder than hearing familiar, empty pop hits unsuccessfully rocked up by an expert band led by (effectively) a Filippino midget.

And that's what I saw last night. Highly recommended for those who enjoy the surreal.
martykl
tostadosunidos's avatar
tostadosunidos
1,197 posts
 
Sorry for your experience, but it made for a good post and it may save others from a similar fate. Thanks for sharing.

PS--I know what you mean about the Star-Spangled Banner. I feel the same way. Also I wish everyone would stop playing Little Wing and All Along the Watchtower (actually a Dylan tune but even Dylan acknowledges the power of the Hendrix cover).
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,303 posts
 
Journey has always been somewhat commercially over-the top and meh for me. Wasn't the Uncle Jessie character on full house based on Steve Perry? :^)

I've seen John Stamos with The Beach Boys live recently. Our "Full House" loving family got a kick out of that. At least it was fun.

Still I would expect a good Journey concert in a decent venue to be good entertainment, but with show business, you just never know.

GOing to see Justin Hayward (lead singer/guitarist/songwriter of The MOody BLues) solo in a wonderful local small club venue this Thursday. I'm very hyped in that I am seldom dissapointed by acts I have seen there over the years, and I am a huge long time Moody Blues and Hayward fan. Have seen Moodies six times over the years now all in somewhat larger venues, but our table will likely be a few yards in front of Justin here and sound and setup in this venue is always spot on! Can't wait.
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,992 posts
 
I saw Journey, 2 or 3 summers ago with REO Speedwagon or The Doobie Brothers or Styx, (can't remember) and they were indeed less than anticipated.

The weird thing for me was how much that new lead singer resembled Steve Perry! I actually thought it was him for the first few minutes.
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,312 posts
 
Marty - that was an excellent review. I enjoyed reading it. Hope you get to go to more bad concerts so you can report on 'em :-) !
chayro
2,996 posts
 
Your understanding of what is wrong with Journey shows a much
higher level of insight into music. Journey is, and always
was, nothing but a product. Yes, all commercial music is a
product and someone has to make some money, but bands like
Journey just put all the bad things together in one place. As
to the singer - for some reason, we can't accept an Asian
frontman in a rock band. It is well-known that Freddie
Mercury, Indian by birth, passed for white his entire life, as
nobody would accept a non-European in that role. Sad but
true.
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