January 5, 2007: ARF (Arf.. Arf...)

Walnut Creek, CA
Dean Lesher Center for the Arts
Benefit for the Animal Rescue Foundation

November 2014: I attended this benefit show for the Animal Rescue Foundation that was to feature "Neal Schon and Friends" as part of a multi act bill a few weeks after the formal announcement that Steve Augeri would no longer be the lead singer for Journey and he would be replaced by Jeff Scott Soto who had "filled in" during the 2006 tour. As with all things lead-singer-related in Journeyland, there was lots of hubbub and arguments, debates, and general uproar among the Journey fans, especially after a lot of the rumors, innuendo and general upheaval surrounding the 2006 tour. Personally, I was not thrilled with the choice and that influenced some of the comments that follow. Jeff was to be one of the "friends" at this show, so I went with some trepidation.

Well here we are with the first Rockin' Road Report for 2007 and I'm finding it difficult to put into words exactly what to say about last night's show. I mean, there's the general detail about the show, but there's also all the other stuff swirling around it. What should I say? What shouldn't I say? How does it all fit? I've been keeping fairly quiet these past few weeks, other than a few posts on the Journey Digest, I've not said much publicly about all that's transpired.

As with anything, it's probably best to look at the whole picture, so we'll start with recognizing that I've been a bit burnt out on Journey since even before this summer and all the drama and this past year only made things toastier. So, when I heard about this show in late November/early December I wasn't entirely sure I really wanted to go, but when I factored in the friends that were coming to see the show I figured that, at worst, I'd have a pleasant evening spent in the company of people I truly like and had missed seeing in 2006. What the hell, get me a ticket. Leslie made the trip over to Walnut Creek and scored 8 second row seats -- all right not bad at all.

And then The News, and here we go again. Now, I'm even less enthusiastic about going to the show than I was before and really don't know how I am going to respond to the show. But after having a wide variety of imaginary scenarios of how I could publicly express my disappointment in everything, I again focused on just going and having a good time with my friends.

So, last night I ducked out of work early and drove out to Walnut Creek to meet up with everyone for dinner before the show. Surprisingly while a lot of the conversation was about everyone's take on the current state of Journey and how we all feel about it, it was not ALL we talked about. That, more than anything, reassured me that I had made the right decision to come to the show.

Over to the show at the Dean Lescher Center, a small local theater. I'd been there once before when Jon performed solo at a previous ARF benefit, and I expected last night's show to be similar to the one I had seen then -- several acts before intermission and then Neal, Jon and Jeff in whatever combination they were going to do. That was mostly the case as the evening started off with the "All Star Band" headed up by Marc Russo and featuring Stef Burns on the guitar. They played a variety of tunes including a good cover of the Beatles "I Want You" and an odd cover of Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" which had me commenting to Cheryl "Well, at least we'll hear this played right next weekend at Gregg's show!"

They were followed by a comedian named Dennis Blair who started doing a bit on old rock bands that had all of us laughing, but when he went off on a riff about bands that are changing members and touring with out key members (e.g. the Doors) well, we all looked at each other and laughed about 10 times as hard. I mean, it was just too easy to start applying the jokes to what we'd all been talking about at dinner.

He was followed by Marty Casey and the Lovehammers. Since I do not watch any reality television if I can possibly avoid it, I didn't know until we got to the show that Marty Casey was the runner up for Rock Star: INXS. He and his band came out on stage and suddenly the area between the front row and stage is filled with little girls -- if any of them were over 16 I'd be shocked -- jumping up and down and dancing and just having the time of their lives. I stayed sitting in my 2nd row seat and enjoyed their enthusiasm, and when Marty pulled one little girl up on stage to dance with him well, I thought how cool that had to be for her and flashed on what I would have thought at that age to get pulled up on stage. The Lovehammers were pretty good despite not being a style I generally listen to. It did take me about half of the song to recognize their cover of "I Walk the Line," but only took about a verse of "Paint It Black" for me to recognize that cover.

Time for intermission and next up "Neal Schon and Friends" (as it was billed in the program.) Most of the crew I was sitting with (Cheryl, Leslie and her husband Todd, Darryl and Jenny, Barb, Jenn, Matt, and Kim) headed out to the lobby to get drinks and such, but I decided to stay in the theater. I'm glad I did as I ran into more of the local Journey crowd that I forgot (or didn't realize) would also be at the show and got to visit with them all a bit. Yes, this is what Journey and related events has really come to be about -- the many many friends I've made over the past 8 years. That's too valuable to give up for anything.

Intermission ended and we all made sure we were up at the stage to watch the show up close. After showing highlights from the 2006 World Series up on the screen, Tony LaRussa came out to make a small award presentation and then announce Neal and Friends. Out walk Neal, Jon, Marco Mendoza and a drummer I don't recognize. Hmmm... interesting. I'd seen Ross in the balcony earlier and the production schedule I happened to grab to write my notes on clearly said "9:40 pm Journey." I could see Jeff standing on the side of the stage, so we'll see what happens.

The guys kick off with an instrumental tune that I recognized as one of Neal's solo tunes but for the life of me couldn't identify. Thankfully, Neal back-announced it so I can report it was "Boulevard of Dreams" from Beyond the Thunder. Jeff came out after being introduced as "our new lead singer" and the guys launched into a string of cover tunes. It was amusing watching Jeff fiddle with his laptop that was sitting at his feet as he was using it as a TelePrompter for the lyrics to "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and a handful of tunes by Sly & the Family Stone for the medley they did of those songs. I had to laugh at just how technology has changed things as Jeff used his cordless mouse to scroll down the lines.

Since the guys were doing covers, I was really able to relax and enjoy the show. The sound wasn't that great, as it was a really low budget production (it is a fundraiser after all) but I enjoyed hearing the tunes. It reminded me of the Soul SirkUs gig a couple of years ago and how I enjoyed that. When "Purple Rain" morphed into the end of "Faithfully" though, I had to forcibly focus on the show and not my feeling that Jeff's the wrong fit. It did at least allow me to finally connect a comment I remember Jon making in some interview about Prince telling him "oh man I totally ripped you off" (or something like that) about a song of his. I could never figure out what song he was referring to -- either the Journey tune or the Prince tune -- and hearing the transition was such a "d'oh" moment that I'm shocked I didn't realize ages ago.

After closing the covers out with a tribute to James Brown with "I Feel Good", Jeff introduced the drummer as David something from his solo band and welcomed Ross to the stage. Marco headed off stage and 4/5ths of what is now Journey launched into "Don't Stop Believin'," and then things went seriously down hill. Ironically, I'm not saying this out of any displeasure, but out of actual disaster. Jeff couldn't hear and kept pointing off stage to turn on/up his monitors. Jon's rig went haywire about halfway through. From where I was standing (in front of Jon) it sounded like Jon's mic went goofy as his backing vocal was far too loud and didn't even sound right. There was all kinds of flurry as Jim and a couple of other techs tried to fix things. When the guys launched into "Separate Ways" the keyboards were completely out and Banana Alan came down from his seat in the balcony to try to help. That resulted in a loud pop that had me jumping back and Jon putting his hands on his ears. All in all, not so good. They struggled through it and then took their final bow.

After the show, it was more time to visit with friends and discuss all that went on. That was when more of the Journey talk that I had anticipated at dinner took place, but even then it eventually morphed into other subjects.

After all is said and done, while the music may not be connecting to me as it once did, the personal connections I've made are still there and will hopefully remain for a long time. Over the years, Journey's music has given me a lot, but the friends that it has given me trumps it all.

Shew... this is longer than I had expected and took me longer to write than I would have thought, but there's been a lot in my head of late and trying to express it properly is complex. Hope I didn't bore you too much.

Happy New Year!

Set List:

Boulevard of Dreams
Papa Was a Rolling Stone
Sly Stone medley ("I Want to take You Higher," "Dance to the Music," and one other I can't remember)
Purple Rain
I Feel Good
Don't Stop Believin'
Separate Ways