August 26, 2006: Journey Hits the City by the Bay, Night 2

Mountain View, CA
Shoreline Amphitheater

WARNING!! Author is EXTREMELY TIRED. Typos likely.* Incoherence possible.

So for starters it sure as hell looked like Shoreline was SOLD OUT.... I swear I've only seen crowds that big for MAJOR shows... Better yet, much like last night's crowd, everyone was on their feet for nearly the entire nite! Woo hoo!

Jon and Ross joined the opener again tonite as did Phil Collen (who proved he DOES own a shirt) which makes the 15 minutes of sitting through an opening act that doesn't really have the right vibe for this particular tour worth it.

Stoll Vaughn hit the stage around 7:15 -- 15 minutes before the stated start time, so the crowd was a little late getting to their seats for Journey's set, but most people had arrived by the end of "Ask the Lonely" three songs in. I think overall, last night's show was better than tonight's for both acts. I generally prefer shows at Shoreline over Concord due to the differences in each amphitheater, but something was missing from tonight that was there yesterday.

Got a shock of the night when, during "Keep on Running," I looked across the bowl and saw a HUGE sign being held up by three or four people that said "WHERE'S STEVE PERRY?!" I was absolutely flabbergasted -- I haven't seen anything like that since 98/99! One of my partners in crime didn't notice the sign but did notice Neal's one finger salute...

Deen did another amazing job on "Who's Crying Now," "Open Arms," and "Faithfully." He always looks so sincere when he's singing those that I have to smile...

By the time the band got to "Chain Reaction," we noticed that the bass and drums were just rattling our bones. Earlier in the month Darla experienced the same thing at the Sammy Hagar show, so we think something has been done to the sound system at Shoreline because it's never been like that before. It was actually painful.

A few other bits and bobs -- someone threw a light stick on the stage during Jon's solo. It bounced and wound up between Deen's bass drums. Thank goodness no one was in the line of fire, but I gotta ask -- they allow those glow sticks but take the tops off the water bottles.. WTF?! During LTS, Kelly K. handed JSS a bouquet of roses caused him to say "I think these are for you Jon" instead of singing the last bit of one line.

Still not sure how I feel about JSS. He's definitely more rocking and a magnetic front man -- you can't help watching where he goes and what he does -- and with the more rocked up set list he is well suited for it. Vocally, he's not doing it for me when he's on the more mid-tempo songs. I'm not sure if it's because I'm really tired, but I had a hard time getting into the concert tonight. I know I've been this tired at shows before, and usually by the time the music kicks in, so does the adrenaline and I've got the energy to rock out. Not so much tonight.

Def Leppard's set was also more low-key tonight compared to last night -- they still put on a great show, but it was lacking in comparison to last night. They switched out "Promises" for "Rock Rock Til You Drop" tonight, but otherwise their set was the same as last night. Sav's bass solo did nearly kill me from the body rattling vibrations. I do think I need to listen to my DL CDs some more before Reno so I can get the lyrics down when I'm singing along -- I hate mumbling to my self...

Perhaps the highlight of the evening came at the end of the show as we were leaving -- in among the rows of now empty seats, there was a guy with his arms crossed, passed out in his seat. Unlike most people who pass out he wasn't completely slumped over, just had his arms crossed on his chest with his head down.

Finally, my sister-in-law and her sister and a friend were at the show with me tonight. They were having a GREAT ole time, but oddly enough I actually missed my brother who had originally said he was coming when the show was announced. Now, my brother and I have very different personalities and we NEVER do the same things for entertainment -- at least not together. But back in the day it was the fight over the stereo -- my Journey records versus his Def Leppard records, and it would have been a fun thing to have him at the show with me.

Until next weekend...

Set List:

Star Spangled Banner
Stone in Love
Ask the Lonely
Wheel in the Sky
Keep on Runnin'
Edge of the Blade
Who's Crying Now
Chain Reaction
Lights
-- Jon solo --
Open Arms
Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'
Escape
Dead or Alive
Jon mini-solo
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Any Way You Want It

Encore:
Separate Ways

*One of the benefits of posting 8 year old stories, is you can correct all the typos, and boy were there a LOT of typos in this one!