Novato, CA
Stafford Lake Park
Stafford Lake Park
Yes, believe it or not, two reports in one day. This is what happens when Journey plays a gig at 5 p.m. 50 miles from my house!
So, let's start at the beginning. Back in August I got a tip about a Journey benefit show in Novato for the Novato school district. Of course, a few days later it was posted on the official site, so so much for my inside scoop! For those of you who don't know California, Novato is in Marin County, about 30 miles north of San Francisco. Marin County is the most expensive place to live in the Bay Area and as of a few years ago was the wealthiest county in the entire United States. That the Novato School district has to have a major fundraiser for their schools speaks volumes for the lack of sufficient funding for our schools. At least Novato can afford to throw a big fundraiser like this -- other school districts make due with rummage sales and car washes. A million years ago when I was in public school, California schools were among the tops in the country. Now they're near the bottom. It's disgraceful and infuriates me to no end. A well rounded education is the single most important thing we can do to ensure a better and more prosperous future, but it always seems like the schools are the ones getting the short end of the stick. Siiiiggh... okay, rant off, on to the show...
Well, perhaps a bit about Marin County first... It's an interesting place where you find Deadheads and million dollar homes, San Quentin and Skywalker Ranch. It's the home of most of the celebrities in the Bay Area (including a few guys we know and love.) It's a pretty county with lots of hills and trees. The concert today was held at a county park by Stafford Lake. I'd never been there before, but it looks like a very nice place for a hike and picnic. Hard to know for sure though, since when I arrived (via school bus from the free parking lot down the street) the place was crawling with people of all ages, booths for food, raffles, rides, two stages for music. There was a jam band playing on the main stage when I found Darryl, Jenny, and Hope who had arrived when the park opened at 10 and had successfully snagged a pretty good sized spot in front of the stage for everyone they knew was coming. After sitting through the jam band (obviously I've forgotten the name) we were treated to the "Unofficial Rolling Stones." A fairly decent cover band with a lead singer who looked more like Steven Tyler than Mick Jagger, but he had the strut and swagger down so they were entertaining. And as part of a $35 ticket a much better deal than the ACTUAL Rolling Stones.
Journey finally took the stage about 5:00 and the crowd, which had been relaxing and lounging on the lawn all day, surged up and packed in. I am DEFINITELY getting too old for the insanity of general admission. Actually, I suspect if the crowd had been mostly the "typical" age of Journey fans it wouldn't have been quite so nuts. The number of kids, however, made for an interesting experience down by the barricade. The younger ones, for the most part, were pretty well behaved. I kept worrying they'd get crushed in the crowd though -- definitely not the place you'd want your 8 year old to be! The teenagers, on the other hand -- well, they were teenagers. We had kids climbing on the shoulders of their friends (and then falling down on top of the people around them.) At one point there was even a girl body surfing the crowd! When was the last time you saw THAT at a Journey concert??!!! And the beach balls -- oh man the beach balls. There were dozens of them being tossed around in the crowd. Only problem -- the wind was blowing right to the stage so EVERY beach ball wound up flying to the front and most of them wound up on stage, many more than once. I know Steve had to dodge one that was flying at his head at one point. And I'm still not sure who was throwing bras on stage. It was kind of nuts.
While the day was cool and breezy, down in front with the crowd, the heat was fairly intense. I was grateful early on when Ross soaked me with the squirty baby. (THANKS ROSS!!!) Alas, I only got the full brunt of the squirt once -- could have used a few more!
We all knew going in that it was going to be a short set, thus the famous "dirty dozen" and a few friends. I was pleased that we got a couple of Generations tunes though -- "Faith in the Heartland" and "Every Generation." Those were the only two songs that the crowd of about 5,000 people were NOT singing along to. It was crowded, hot, and generally uncomfortable, but the crowd REALLY got into the show, so not all bad.
The highlight, however, came at the end of the show when the band came out for their usual encore of "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'." While the band was off stage, Deen's tech Jim brought out this small white drum kit from the side of the stage. When the band came back on stage they had two new members with them. Neal's son Miles on guitar and Jon's son Westin on drums. First off let me say Miles can PLAY. Wow, he was up there on that stage and acted like he owned it. Pretty impressive when you think of how many people there know just how well his dad can play. Westin did a damn fine job keeping the beat. Deen and Jon were watching him the whole time with big smiles on their faces (as was Jim from behind the stage.) And, as we've seen before, the "Na-na Girls" popped out at the appropriate time -- Jon's two daughters and some friends. A fitting way to end the show for the local kids.
Two down, one to go. (God, I need sleep...)
Set list:
Intro
Be Good to Yourself
Ask the Lonely
Only the Young
Faith in the Heartland
Star Spangled Banner
Stone in Love
Wheel in the Sky
Chain Reaction
Lights
Just the Same Way
Every Generation
-- Jon solo --
Open Arms
Escape
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Separate Ways
Any Way You Want It
Encore:
Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' (with Miles Schon and Westin Cain)
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