October 10-11, 1998: An Amazing Weekend!

Detroit and Grand Rapids, MI
Palace at Auburn Hills and Van Andel Arena

Well all, I made it back from Michigan in one piece and definitely in a super terrific mood. I had such an unbelievable weekend. This is likely to get pretty long, so you’ve been warned!

Some quick background (for those of you who’ve heard my sob story, skip to the next section!) -- This was my first Journey concert experience. Having overprotective parents, I couldn’t go to concerts until I was 17, which meant the only tour I had a shot at seeing was Raised on Radio. When Raised on Radio came out I was in a short-lived “I’ve out-grown Journey” phase (hanging head in shame) so when my cousin invited me to the opening show at Mountain Aire in Calavaras County in August, 1986, I turned her down because I just didn’t feel like going “all that way” to see ‘em play. (It’s about a 3 hour drive from home.) A few weeks later, I actually bought Raised on Radio (after much nagging from my cousin) and went “oh-yeah—I love this band!” So December ‘86 rolls around, and Journey is coming home to play at the Cow Palace. Terrific! I can go with my cousin for her birthday. One problem—she’s going to Guam for Christmas and leaves the day before the show! Since there is no way my parents would let me go to the Cow Palace alone (much less drive me there since I couldn’t drive at the time) and none of my friends are fans, I don’t go. So, Christmas break ends and I go back to school and I run into one of my friends who tells me that another friend of ours had won tickets and the two of them went to see Journey. I literally slammed my books down at her feet and yelled at her “You’re kidding me!”. Spent a good five minutes cussing my friend who had won the tickets up and down. So, later in the day, I’m relaying this story to another (casual) friend, and she says to me “Oh my boyfriend and I went—and we had an extra ticket”. BANG BANG BANG. So, the years roll by and I finish college, get a job, move out and grow up (more or less) when one day I’m scanning Forbes magazine for my boss, and see that Journey has a new album coming out. I about flipped my lid, a new album! and after 10 years another chance to see ‘em on tour! Well, we all know how that went. So when I got a chance earlier this year to see Neal perform with a reggae band one night, and Jon perform a benefit for his church the next night, I figured that was as close as I was gonna get to ever seeing Journey live and in person. Then an amazing thing happens—there’s a new singer, and rumors of shows. But my lousy luck continues—Journey does a free show an hour away from my house and I can’t go because I’m taking my first vacation in 4 years and will be in Paris that night! All this drove me completely over the edge, and led me to doing something that if anyone had said I’d do I’d have told them they had lost their minds—getting on a plane and flying across the country to see my first Journey concert.

I won’t bore you with all the details of getting myself to Detroit, but I will say that when I sat down at the gate to wait for my flight I put on my Walkman and tuned in KSAN only to find them playing “Wheel in the Sky”. Oh yeah, this was gonna be a good trip!

So I made it to Auburn Hills in one piece, and after catching a nap and getting my bearings, I went over to the Holiday Inn to meet up with the other fans. Gotta say good job to Dan who organized it. It was great to meet all sorts of fellow Journey fans (Big Hi to everyone!) and I’m glad to report that no one was a psychopath, which was a huge concern of my mother’s when I told her about this trip! (I’m 30 years old and she’s STILL overprotective! LOL!)

After dinner, everyone goes their separate ways (no pun intended) to go to the Palace for the show. I get to show, and find my seat...2 rows up from the floor, one section away from the stage on Neal’s side. Not bad. Then I look over and see Moni, Dan Stacy, Steve and his son—sitting on the floor right in front of me! Wow. I swap seats with Steve’s son so he can see better in my more elevated seat. While we’re chatting, we see Ross come out to say hi to some family he had in the audience.

Then the show started. I’m sure by now other folks have posted the set list and comments (I haven’t had time to read my digests yet), so I’ll just say it was terrific! I think I liked the Trial by Fire songs better than the rest, but probably only because there are no other live performances to compare them to and they aren’t quite as embedded in my heart and soul as the earlier material. “Castles Burning,” a song I couldn’t stand on CD, was fantastic live. A couple of songs didn’t work for me (“Faithfully” and “Ask the Lonely” come to mind) but the song I thought would be the hardest to hear (“Lights”) which I didn’t like on the copy I have of the Marin show brought tears to my eyes and didn’t totally break my heart. That song is home to me and getting to hear it live, was truly special. I loved Jon on “Anytime” and “Just the Same Way”, and unfortunately just as “Open Arms” began, there was a bit of a ruckus a few seat in front of me that distracted me and ruined that moment. My ears were ringing by the end of show, and there seemed to be some audio problems during the encores (Augeri voice wore out? mike go out? my ears totally shot?) so last bit was rather muffled, which may have contributed to “Faithfully” and “Ask the Lonely” not feeling right.

Thanks Moni!

The next day I had a very nice drive to Grand Rapids (Michigan looks very pretty in the autumn!). I get to my hotel, check in, get my bearings, and grab some lunch and a nap. I met up with Moni and Dan Stacy, Mary and Dave, and couple from San Jose who’s names I’ve forgotten (oops! -- sorry guys!) Moni (my hero) has after show passes and invites me along (thank you thank you thank you). I think this was the better show overall, though I wished they hadn’t cut out the two Rolie songs that Jon sang. I had a slightly better seat (about as far back, but more towards the center). It was a bit odd though with people sitting down during some of the rockers (great view for me since I’m all of 5’ 2” and have to peer between heads a lot of the time, but how they could be sitting???). Everyone around me sat down around the time they did the two instrumentals and (if my brain isn’t totally short circuiting) “Remember Me” (plus for some of the TBF songs). “Lights” brought tears to my eyes again, which really is high praise for Augeri from me. This time when they played “Open Arms” the bozos behind me start a REALLY loud conversation which was annoying! This time everything sounds a lot clearer towards the end of the show since I’d picked up some ear plugs on my way to Grand Rapids. (Anyone going to up coming shows—get ‘em. I never thought I would use ear plugs, but god did it help!)

Me and Deen. This picture always cracks me up.

After show, I hook up with Moni, et. al. again (lucky bums had front row seats!) and go off to meet the band. It was terrific! I got to talk to everyone except Jon who ducked out early because he wasn’t feeling well (not too disappointing since I've met him twice this year already, but would have liked to get a photo this time and add his signature to my shirt!). I got pictures with everyone else (I think—I can’t remember if I got one with Augeri or not and for some reason I didn’t get him to sign my t-shirt—I think I was in a little bit of shock. It was fantastic getting to talk to all of them for however brief a time it was.

Me and Ross.

When I got back to my hotel room, I sat there in a daze for a while. Could not believe the weekend I had just experienced. Completely unforgettable. I couldn’t get to sleep for the longest time because every time I started to drift off my eyes would pop open and I’d say “Oh my god, I’ve finally seen Journey and I met the whole band!” I don’t have my pictures yet due to traveling, but I’ve got a couple errands to run for work in a bit and will be stopping at the one hour photo shop in the process!

Me and Neal.

It took forever to get home due to bad weather in Detroit, but the delays allowed me some time to think. I’ve loved Journey for 18 years—since I was 12 years old (okay, with one notable lapse in judgement) -- but 15 years ago I was no where near as fanatical about them as I am now. 15 years ago, this was “just” a band that shone a little light in a dark time of my life. 15 years ago, it was “just” the music that kept me focused. I had other concerns in my life to deal with than to obsess over “some band.”

I think my complete renewed devotion to this band over the last two or so years comes around to a tired cliche—you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

Journey’s music is something that has always been a part of my life, and it always will be and I’m not going to be taking it for granted any more. I really missed having this band around for 10 years, and I’m so glad they haven’t gone away again. Some people will say “yeah, but it’s not the same anymore” but when is anything in life ever the same? To paraphrase another timeless classic—you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.