July 2014: As the 2004 touring season kicked off, I wrote the following article for JourneyDigest.com. The thoughts still hold true today despite the changes in the intervening 10 years.
Every band has a contingent of fans that seem to live and breathe with the life of the band. These are the fans who can tell you the tiniest bit of trivia relating to their favorite band. They know all the words to all the songs – even the alternate "B" side single released only in Mauritania. These are the ones who pull out all the stops to make sure they get to a concert for "just one more show." These fans are often referred to as The Die-Hards. They will only give up on their band when the band gives up on themselves (and often, not even then.)
Why is it then, that these same fans seem to be the harshest critics of the band they are so dedicated to? Why do the Die-Hards nit pick every little thing until there is nothing left but a yawning void? Last summer, we got to enjoy a triple bill of REO Speedwagon, Styx, and Journey, and since I am a fan of all three bands, I started checking out the mailing lists and message boards for REO and Styx to find out what people were saying about the tour. While I’ve long joked that Journey and Styx were the same band with different names due to the similar conflicted history of the bands (particularly their recent history), I was surprised to find that the fans were also the same people with different names. There was a post on one forum about the Kansas City stop on the Main Event tour, and the fan was saying how “off” Styx was that night – not up to their usual standard. I was at that concert and didn’t notice a thing wrong with the Styx set; to my ears it was perfect. I’ve also seen similar comments regarding REO Speedwagon – most specifically how Kevin Cronin’s voice isn’t what it used to be. To my ears, he sounded like he did on the songs I remember from the radio. So what gives?
This got me thinking about how I respond to a Journey show. Since 1998, I’ve seen the band over 40 times, and naturally there are some performances that were better than others, but do I respond with disappointment when the show doesn’t live up to what I expect it too? I can honestly say I’ve never walked away from a show disappointed – I enjoy the chance to see my favorite band too much to be disappointed – but I know I have left shows thinking it could have been better.
A casual fan isn’t likely to notice the subtle differences, primarily due to the fact that the casual fan isn’t likely to see more than one show a year or follow the tour via the Internet. They’re at the show to hear the music, period. They will go home either happy after a night out seeing a band they loved in their youth, or they will go home unhappy because the band didn’t live up to their memories of a different time. The Die-Hard, however, will notice that the transition from Song A to Song B wasn’t smooth, and the bass player seemed a bit “off,” and why oh why haven’t they changed the set list in 4 weeks?
What is it that makes the experience of the Die-Hard so different from the casual fan? My theory is that the Die-Hard is looking for a level of perfection that will never be reached. They are searching for the one true show – the one that plays ALL the songs they hold near and dear to their heart, the one where the band is performing on a separate plane of existence, where the venue, the vibe, the sun and the moon, and everything between heaven and earth converge for that one perfect moment in time. What the Die-Hard forgets is that these shows are rare, if they exist at all. What is forgotten is that compromises are a part of life, so for every fan that wants to hear “Edge of the Blade” there are 1000 that want to hear “Open Arms” so they can slow dance with their partner and flick their Bic.
It is often hard for the Die-Hard to recognize that in a crowd of 10,000 people there are perhaps 100 people who share the same deep passion so common among the Die-Hards. That’s 1% of the audience. If that number seems low, consider that as of March 30, 2004, there were 735 email addresses subscribed to the Journey Digest and 7992 user names subscribed at Back Talk. That’s a worldwide membership. Even if there were no duplication or double subscription, that number wouldn’t fill our 10,000-seat concert hall. When you scatter those people across the globe (with the overwhelming majority being concentrated in the United States) it’s not hard to imagine that 99% of the audience at a given show does not fall in to the Die-Hard category.
As we look ahead to the 2004 touring season, the Die-Hard fans can hope for some changes in the set list – new songs perhaps, or classics not played in a while – but we should not expect any radical changes. There will still be a set list made up of mostly tried and true songs that are familiar to the majority of fans. There will still be shows where we come away wanting more or thinking that a previous performance was better. Hopefully, however, we Die-Hards can learn something from the casual fans – that a night out seeing our favorite band is a treat in and of itself. It’s something that we’ve begun to take for granted since Journey went back on the road in 1998. We too often forget there was a twelve-year break when we couldn’t see this band perform, couldn’t hear “Open Arms” for the millionth time. At the end of every tour, I can’t help but wonder if maybe this year was the last year. One of these years I know it will be, and I don’t want to spend that time thinking “well, that wasn’t up to par” – I want to enjoy a night out listening to live music from a band that has been a part of my life for over 25 years. And perhaps in letting go of the hyper-criticism we will actually find we get the one true show of our dreams.
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