August 2, 2005: Rocky Mountain Rockin'

Denver, CO
Universal Lending Pavilion

Hello from the Rocky Mountains!

Just back from tonight's show and, wow... better than Sunday indeed. My day started off playing tourist in Denver with my girlfriend from high school who has recently moved to the area. When we got through our museum run, it was over to Brooklyn's to meet up with the Back Talkers due to arrive. The planned time was 3:00, but I didn't expect to get there until close to 4. As we were nearing the restaurant, I look up and merging into traffic right in front of us -- a big silver tour bus! The only person I could see through the window though was Aaron... waving hi. When we got to the restaurant, we discovered we were the first ones there! zoinks! Since we didn't know how many people were coming and the ONLY person I knew on sight was Frank, we grabbed a couple of seats at the bar and waited on the rest of the gang. Dave and his wife [I'm sorry, I forgot her name], and Cubby arrived shortly afterwards and were soon followed by Wavid [a pleasure] and Sherri and her sister [thanks for taking my extra tix off my hands!] I got a little worried when Frank didn't arrive right away, but he eventually made it and we all had a nice visit before the show. 

We all headed over to the venue about six and wound up waiting in line for half an hour to get in... siiiiggggh... Much to my surprise, there were volunteers handing out Generations -- I guess the Mullen HS people had their own volunteers. After the cursory check of the bike (and entering the raffle of course) Ana and I just headed to our seats to kick back until the show started.I was kind of bummed when I got to Journeyville as the video wasn't running. But, woo hoo, they actually played it on the big screens the guys are using on stage. I had great fun narrating all the JPP stuff that's in there and pointing out many familiar faces. [Excellent job Emerson!] While we were watching the video, I saw Deen standing off to the side of the stage. He disappeared for a few seconds then came back with two sets of drumsticks that he handed to a couple of young kids sitting near the stage. The looks on their faces was priceless. Way to go Deen!

The scheduled start time was 7:30, but that meant the folks running the fundraiser came out to say a few words... including that it was the largest concert ever performed at the Universal Landing Pavilion.

(Yeah guys!) The show finally kicked off at 8:00 and, much to my surprise, the crowd stayed on its feet through the whole of "Kohoutek"!! Wow! That's the first time I saw that! Alas, they sat back down for "Of a Lifetime" and generally stayed that way until Jon encouraged folks to get up during "Patiently."

The band's video screens were having problems throughout the first set, but the venue screens were working great. The camera guys got some AMAZING shots of Deen singing...I was quite impressed. They did have some interesting viewpoints throughout the show, often showing other band members during a solo by Neal!

The first set was over in about 50 minutes, which really surprised me -- it's usually closer to an hour. Beats the heck outta me where the 10 minutes went.
 

I think I gotta learn "Nickel & Dime" and "Mystery Mountain" better...

The second set kicked off about 9:15 and went through the general set list they've been playing the last few weeks. Thankfully, they put "Out of Harms Way" back in the set, now if only we can get "The Place in Your Heart" back and I'll be a happy camper!

The crowd was excellent tonight -- extremely LOUD! The volume during the "Star Spangled Banner" was amazing, and towards the end of the show they were roaring over the band at a few points! I'm still having pangs of "oh my god, I'm getting old" when the Frontiers & Beyond footage is played during "Every Generation"... how has time flown by that quickly??! After that song ended, I noticed that Jon has a new roadie with him ... his daughter Madison brought out his stool for "Who's Crying Now" and pulled it back out later. I kept seeing her head pop up over the riser during the last half of the second set.

There are always a few fun moments watching the band perform for me. Tonight, it was seeing the smile on Jon's face as the crowd roared over the opening notes of "Don't Stop Believin'"... that's just got to feel really cool. I'm still not used to seeing Steve with a guitar, but it's getting more familiar. But watching him playing during the first set and then again on "Every Generation" had me flashing back in time to 1998 and the first time I saw Journey play -- wow, how far we've come! We got a surprise at the encore when Steve came out and said "We have a special request tonight" and they kicked in to "Ask the Lonely" (so much for my knowing the last 3 songs of the night!)

On the way home I asked Ana what she thought about the show and she told me she really enjoyed the first set! Ana is a very casual Journey fan (she uses concerts to bribe me to visit her!) and that she enjoyed some totally obscure music was just great to hear. (Okay, I did send her a tutorial CD after the first show so she'd have some clue what she'd be hearing.) Her comment to me was "they seemed to really enjoy playing songs that were more for themselves than the fans." I'm so proud!

My dear friend Ana Gloria and me before the show

And on to the set list:

People & Places intro
Kohoutek
Of a Liftime (Jon)
I'm Gonna Leave You (Jon)
Nickel & Dime
Mystery Mountain (Jon)
Patiently (Deen)
Where Were You (Deen)
Feeling That Way (Jon/Steve)
Anytime (Jon/Steve)
Any Way You Want It

-- Intermission --

DVD intro
Be Good to Yourself
Only the Young
Faith in the Heartland
Star Spangled Banner
Stone in Love
Higher Place
Wheel in the Sky
Voodoo Chile/Gypsy Queen (Neal)
Lights
Walks Like a Lady (Ross)
Every Generation (Jon)
Who's Crying Now
-- Jon solo --
Open Arms
Escape
Out of Harms Way
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Separate Ways

Encore:
Ask the Lonely
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'