October 4, 2003: Arrowfest

Irvine, CA
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

Some birthdays are just better than others. Five years ago, I celebrated my 30th birthday by going insane and hopping a red-eye to Detroit and seeing Journey live for the very first time. Five years and 40-something road trips later, I was spending my birthday tooling down I-5 from the Bay Area to Irvine to catch the last show of the year for Journey. Not a bad way to celebrate.

Arrowfest was a day long concert put on by one of the LA area classic rock stations and featured a line up of Eddie Money, Cheap Trick, "Foreigner" (Lou Gramm and his band is more accurate), Yes, and Journey. Originally, I thought that the main acts started at 2:00 -- it wasn't until I got to So. Cal that I learned that Eddie Money wasn't scheduled to hit the stage until 4:00. Well, heck, that gave me a bit of extra time and I could watch the baseball playoffs. (Woulda been better if the concert had started earlier so I wouldn't have had to witness the complete and utter failure of my beloved Giants, but I digress...)

Cheryl, Rose, Tracey and I headed out to lunch before the show and then went and did battle with the parking lot at the amphitheater. Two words -- never again. The nimrods "directing" traffic kept directing us to places that were already FULL. So, after driving around in circles for 15 minutes, we parked about 10 days from the entrance and hiked up to the venue. Thus, we missed the first part of Eddie Money's set. It was enjoyable and he covered most of my favorite hits, so that was covered. Eddie was followed by Cheap Trick -- a band I am relatively unfamiliar with so I sat through their set watching the antics and puzzling over the on-stage chemistry. I was not overwhelmed by their set and Rick Nielsen's (sp?) changing guitars between every song was rather distracting.

"Foreigner" was up next, and as I mentioned above was really Lou Gramm and his band rather than Foreigner proper. But they did play mostly the hits. Lou sounded better than he did back in '99 when Forgeiner toured with Journey, but he looked much worse. Hopefully his health is good, because he didn't look it. I wound up missing the last part of their set due to a looooooooooooooooooooooooong line for the ladies room.

Yes hit the stage about 8:00 and I sat in my seat trying to figure out why they were on the bill with the other acts -- they just didn't fit. I had thought that when the bill was announced and their show solidified that opinion. Their musicianship was incredible (though they did have some problems with the low end sounds being a bit fuzzy, as had all the previous bands) but again this was a band I was only passingly familiar with and I just couldn't get into the set. (I actually began dozing off in my seat!) I caught Steve Augeri watching their set from the side of the stage -- very obviously enjoying what he was seeing. The most exciting part of their set was when security walked in to my row and started talking to some people about half way down the aisle. All of the sudden I look over and one of the security guys is falling back over the row in front of me. I jumped out of my seat (mercifully on the aisle) and into Rose's seat behind me and just in the nick of time -- the FIVE security guys were carrying out a woman who was kicking and punching and throwing an absolute fit. It took a while to subdue her and she was finally cuffed and carried out.

Once Yes ended it was time for yet another run out to find friends and fellow fans and to make a pit stop in the ladies room and grab something cold to drink. I paid for my drink and suddenly heard cheers coming from the amphitheater -- ACK the guys were taking the stage and I was on the complete OPPOSITE side from where my seat was. I made a mad dash back inside and got to my 2nd row orchestra seat in front of Jonathan just as the first verse of "Separate Ways" was starting. This is when the birthday started getting good -- Jonathan was in black leather pants.

The crowd for Journey was fantastic -- on their feet from the first note until the last as far as the eye could see. They were the only band to get this reaction. The guys were on fire. The sound problems that all the other bands had endured did NOT happen for our boys, and I was pleased. After another amazing rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" by Neal, I got my next "present" -- the guys launched in to my favorite song from Arrival and current personal theme song "To Be Alive Again." WOO HOO!!! I had more or less expected that due to this being a multiple-band show that Journey would be playing the same kind of set they had for the Main Event featuring the Greatest Hits and no Arrival.

Two songs later, WHAM, another "present" -- Steve introduces Deen to sing and it's "Mother, Father," my all-time favorite. Since Deen's mic had cut out when he performed this at Konocti, it was the first time I got to hear him sing it in its entirety. Once again, my knees got weak and I was crying. That song will always get me every time, and Deen did an amazing job. I do need to remind them to post warning signs when this song is in the line-up so that I can be prepared with Kleenex.

The set went on and was just flawless. Jonathan dedicated "Feeling That Way" to his daughter Madison who was celebrating her 10th birthday. Madison and Liza and a whole crew of girls (including Liz Cain) came out on stage to do the "Na na"s in "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" -- that's some kind of birthday party!

After the show ended a group of us made our way back to the Doubletree Hotel (some of us getting more lost than the others -- "near the Spectrum Center" is not specific enough direction!) for one last drink and farewell until next year. Everyone was very sad that this was it for a while, but as I was making the six-hour drive back up I-5 today I was reminded just what a great blessing we've had. It's been another amazing summer, and we're looking forward to another one next year. That's pretty great. We've had 5 years of this band back on the road doing what they love to do and allowing the fans to enjoy incredible music. We've gotten to meet fellow fans from around the globe and we can throw the biggest and best parties. So instead of being sad about what's ended, be happy about what we've gotten to enjoy.

Until next time... we will meet again.

Set List:
(thanks to Jay since I forgot my pen and paper this time!)

Red 13 Intro
Separate Ways
Stone in Love
Wheel in the Sky
Star Spangled Banner (Neal's solo)
To Be Alive Again
Dixie Highway
Mother, Father
Lights
-- Jonathan's solo --
Open Arms
Precious Time
Feeling That Way
Anytime
Chain Reaction
Ask the Lonely
Don't Stop Believin'
Escape
Be Good to Yourself
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'

Encore:
Any Way You Want It
Faithfully

Oh.. P.S. -- on an amusing note, the chick from Journey's "Blind Date" episode was sitting in the row behind me (thanks again to Jay for identifying who she was, all I noticed was that she looked familiar!) Ladies and gentlemen, she is even scarier in person than she was on that gawdawful show. EEK!