christopher-singh
09/01/2014
Attended the Journey concert at the Minnesota State Fair on Labor Day 2014. It was supposed to rain that night, but the weather gods must also be Journey fans as it was a perfect evening for a concert. It is funny that a group with members in their 60s and the youngest member being Arnel Pineda at 46 had far more energy than the warm-up band with most members being in their 20s or 30s. I have been a Journey fan for a good 7 years now, and I discovered them by accident while browsing through records at a bookstore. As such, Journey to me means Steve Perry and the first time I saw them in concert last year was with Arnel Pineda and hearing him sing the songs that Perry largely wrote and performed was disorienting. I really enjoy the new album Eclipse, and it wasn’t hard for me to enjoy Pineda as these are his songs to sing and his voice is incredible. This year, I was more accustomed to Pineda and was determined to enjoy myself, and did I ever! The band has a great amount of energy and the crowd responded in kind, singing along to the songs and cheering like crazy. You’ll hear the classics for sure (Don’t Stop Believin’ was really special as the crowd really got loud when singing along to that) and that was really fun to hear, but there were some unexpected surprises as well. Firstly, it was nice to hear some of their new songs like ""Ritual"" from Eclipse and ""Faith in the Heartland"" from Generations, all the more so as the economy is not very good and many times the Midwest is considered flyover country by the coastal states. As good as Journey's classics are, I appreciated that they played their new songs too. Let's pray that ""City of Hope"" and ""Tantra"" will get stage time next year. In an age where most “artists” can’t sing a lick without the aid of Autotune, every one of the band members can sing in addition to playing instruments. The drummer, Dean Castronovo (a newcomer to the band in 2001) sang the lead vocals for “Mother, Father” while playing drums at the same time. This song is very difficult as the key is very high and requires a great amount of power and range to express the powerful lyrics. He nailed it! I was not expecting the drummer to sing, but it was an unexpected surprise. Jonathan Cain is a very talented man, as he is not only a great piano player, but can play the guitar and provide vocals as well. He was very impressive singing “Anytime” and his piano portions in “Faithfully” were stunning as always. Ross Valory is the bass man, but can sing backing vocals as well. Neil Schon is also amazing as his guitar work is legendary. From his “here comes the train” sequence in “Don’t Stop Belevin’” to his more intimate moments in “Who’s Crying Now” or “Open Arms”, he can also sing quite well and you are also treated to his rendition of the national anthem as well as a psychedelic guitar piece that has a bit of Indian sitar mixed in. It was really a trip, and shame on the people who were talking during these moments as they were great to listen to. Arnel Pineda is made for Journey. I must admit that I would love to hear Perry sing these songs, but that’s not going to happen and Pineda is the only other person I can think of that can fill Perry’s shoes. He has a tremendous amount of energy, range, and is very kind and humble and still looks amazed that he is leading a band like Journey. He was homeless for many years in his youth and spent a lifetime covering Journey songs and is now leading them. He appreciated how much the crowd got into the songs and promised to return to the Twin Cities. I’ll be there!"